Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Mary, Mother of God

1 January 2011

EntranceSee amid the winter's snow
Penitential RiteSt Gabriels (mtgf)
GloriaCHristmas (Paul Gibson)
Psalm 66O God, be gracious (mtgf)
Gospel AcclamationSalisbury (Christopher Walker)
ReflectionPeace Child (Bernadette Farrell)
CommunionI saw a maiden (Pettman)
FinalUnto is born a son

As had happened on the Sunday following Christmas before the supply Priest was a no-show so at 11.05 we started a service of Word and Communion. It was an interesting confection. One appreciates the skills of those who normally preside the more perhaps for holding the liturgy together and giving it a sense of direction. From a new translation point of view it was interesting as though our presider was using the new Missal as his source I suspect he was not familiar with its layout. By the Communion Rite he had gone into the 1973 text by heart - with people responding with the new translation. O to be a participant observer.

As i was asked a couple of times beforehand. Mary, Mother of God is the octave of Christmas and as a solemnity it takes precedence over the Holy Family which normally falls on the Sunday after Christmas. When this occurs (i.e. when Christmas Day is on a Sunday) the Holy Family is celebrated on 30 December.

Peace Child was chosen to reflect that the 1 January is when the Holy Father gives is address for peace. I wrote more about the song a couple of years ago.

I am wondering how much attention one might give to the content and place of Christmas Carols — should they follow through the narrative of the season or just be used as a generic sprinkling. They are for this country genuinely popular religious music. I know some one would argue them away and want propers and the like. Would that leave them to services or invented occasions imagined by Vaughan Williams and Percy Dearmer over a cup of hot chocolate… that last statement is a little unfair as at least those two had image of the genuinely popular and not exercises in kitsch and ingenuity. So today's liturgy began and ended with carols rather than as some might have done more specific Marian hymns (both our choices acknowledged Mary - she was at least name checked. I wonder if i use the days of the CHristmas season from Nativity to Epiphany as a working through a repertoire of carols - with only some thought as to place and content. And may be that is OK.

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