25 December 2011

Christmas Day

 

“The first day of Christmas…”    While it is still Christmas day, let me make my return to the Ink Desk after a very long absence.  I am spending Christmas with my sister and her family in the DC area, and Christmas began here for me when I attended the midnight Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Saint Mary Mother of God Church in Washington’s Chinatown.  This lovely old church building, originally a German parish, retains its high altar and the altar rail, thus making it perfect for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.  The reredos is so tall that an altar boy must climb stairs at the back of it in order to light the six candles placed on its upper level.  The church was nearly full, and all around the nave one could see families with young children—a beautiful and inspiring sight.  Highlights of the music at Mass were the Gregorian Propers chanted by Richard Rice’s fine men’s schola and the Renaissance choral music (Victoria, Gastoldi) sung by a vocal quartet.  A lovely custom each year is the procession at the end of midnight Mass.  During Mass the infant Jesus statue has been resting above the tabernacle, but after the Ite missa est, He is taken down and carried around the entire nave in procession, while everyone sings “Silent Night”.  Jesus is finally placed in the crèche, over on the Epistle side of the church.  I exit the church into the cold night air and revel in the joy of Jesus’s birth on another cold night so long ago.  Since arriving here I have been listening almost constantly to WETA FM, which is playing non-stop Christmas music.  This evening, in fact, we got to hear the entire Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio) of J.S. Bach. 

 

 

26 December 2011

“The Feast of Stephen”

 

“The second day of Christmas…”    “Good King Wenceslaus looked out on the Feast of Stephen”… Both Wenceslaus and Stephen were martyrs, but one seldom thinks about this when singing this traditional carol.  The two turtledoves of the second day of Christmas suggest peace—the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that the martyrs found, following Christ.