Advent Carol Service

13 December 2010

Gathering Chant	Long is our winter (German, 15th c.)
Opening Hymn	O come, O come Emmanuel
Reading	May the Lord confirm your hearts in holiness (1 Thessalonians 3:12–4:2)
Response	Your words are spirit (Bernadette Farrell)
Reflection	We are made to receive love (Pope Benedict outside Westminster Cathedral)
Motet	Ave maris stella (Elgar)
Reading	Grow strong so that Christ may live in your hearts (Ephesians 3:14–21)
Response	Your words are spirit (Bernadette Farrell)
Reflection	God loves us with a depth and an intensity (Pope Benedict at the Big Assembly)
Song	God has chosen me (Bernadette Farrell)
Meditation	God has created me to do him some definite service
Reflection	Be open to his voice resounding in the depths of your heart
Song	No wind at the window (Irish trad./John Bell)
Gospel Acclamation	Gospel Greeting (Bernadette Farrell)
Gospel	Jesus is born of Mary who was betrothed to Joseph, son of David (Matthew 1:18–24)
Intercessions	Your words are spirit (Bernadette Farrell)
Presentation of Cheques
Song	Freedom is coming (South African)
Concluding Prayer
Final Song	Joy to the World

Each year the Advent Carol Service tries to reflect something in the life of the College. The fixtures are that is Advent, not Christmas, it is an opportunity to present the cheques for monies raised for local and national children's charities and musical forces are brought together.

This year we took the Papal Visit as a key theme and used extracts from when Pope Benedict spoke to young people as a way of structuring the liturgy. What he said fitted in well with the themes of Advent. The Farrell response harked back to the Prayer with the Religious in the College Chapel. Otherwise the music did not reflect the visit. Mary proved, appropriately, an underlying - someone for whom God had a definite purpose.

Papal Visit - Prayer with Religious

Friday 17 September

Morning Prayer
Hymn	Word of God (Quinn/Bach)
Psalm 50	(Bévenot)
Tobit 13	(James Walsh)
Psalm 148	(Bévenot)
Reading	Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Response	Your words are spirit and life (Bernadette Farrell)
Motet	May the mind of Christ our Saviour (mtgf)
Benedictus	(Rees)
Lord's Prayer	(Rimsky Korsakov)
Instrumental	Liebster Jesu (Bach)
Papal Prayer
Entrance	Veni Sancte Spiritus (Christopher Walker
Reading	Wisdom 7:7-10. 15-16
Response	Your words are spirit and life (Bernadette Farrell)
Address
Prayer & Blessing
Final Hymn	Lord, you give the great commission (Jeffrey Rowthorn/CV Taylor)

 It is an astonishing honour to be invited to participate in a papal liturgy. Even more so if he comes to church and you are involved in the preparation of the liturgy and provision of music. This was the Prayer with the religious, the first of three events at Strawberry Hill and the first event in England.

The Holy See provides an excellent document giving guidelines for papal liturgy and so the format of the prayer was given. There was a subtitle to the prayer with religious — with a charism in education. The reading, from Wisdom, was taken from first reading for St Robert Bellarmine and gave a focus to the liturgy. It was followed by just the response of Bernadette Farrell's Your words are spirit and life which is based on the psalm chosen in response to the reading in the Lectionary. It began with a playthrough on a solo violin — though the liturgy was short there were moments of repose and prayer.

Veni Sancte Spiritus was chosen for a number of reasons: the link between wisdom and calling on the Holy Spirit; the hymn text was written by an English man — Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury; it needed to be flexible in length (there was quite a bit of pressure to keep the prayer as short as possible); it could begin before the Holy Father arrived sothat he would join us in prayer; it was a connection with the previous Papal Visit being written for the Mass on Pentecost Sunday at Coventry in 1982. In the event the Pope was delayed by about 30 mins so it had to be flexible and so was sung for about 35 minutes.

As the religious were asked to be in the chapel at least 90 mins before 10am it was thought appropriate to celebrate Morning Prayer. One aspect of it musically was to represent the contribution of English, Welsh and Scottish religious to the liturgy of the Church through psalm tones and hymn texts. The hymn tune used for the hymn tune was the basis of the instrumental at the end of the morning prayer arranged for 2 violins and organ. After the reading there was a reflection from 3 religious on the contribution of religious to education: in formal eduction, parish settings and with the marginalised. After each reflection the response was sung and so made a link with the papal prayer.