All Hallows' Day

Oh my God, I was standing in church tonight singing the first hymn, and I just about had an orgasm!

We were singing a Ralph Vaughn-Williams hymn called Sine Nomine (For all the saints), which those of you from liturgical denominations will recognize as a fun, festive hymn with eight verses: four in unison, then two in four-part harmony (sometimes harmonized if there's a good choir, but usually sung in unison by the congregation), then the final two in unison. The organist was being festive with lots of fanfares and descants and what have you (he's still having fun playing with the new tuba mirabilis) as we happily soared through the first four verses; then, we got to verse five and the whole congregation started singing in parts! I was just so ecstatic I almost wet my pants.

Today is All Saints' Day or, as it's known in England All Hallows' Day, and this is the reason we have All Hallows' Eve, or as it's known in the U.S. Hallowe'en. A lot of Fundamentalists don't like Hallowe'en, claiming it's a pagan celebration of Samhain (yet they don't mind Christmas, which was placed in late December to compete with Mithra's birthday and with the pagan celebration of the Saturnalia), but All Saints' is really a Christian holiday dating back to the Fourth Century, A.D., with a lot of fabulous Christian imagery and symbolism; it's the fourth most important Christian holy day (behind Easter, Christmas, and Ascension Day). Up until the 20th century, the church pretty actively believed in the existence of demons, spirits, goblins—from ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! (words from an actual Scottish prayer). People portrayed the dark side of Creation on All Hallows' Eve so that symbolically Christ could break the bonds of evil and triumphantly prevail on All Hallows' Day with a grand and glorious celebration.

And that's exactly what we had tonight at St. Paul's K Street, where a packed church celebrated the Church Triumphant in a grand and glorious way.

The mass setting tonight was Messe à deux Chours et deux Orgues, Op. 36 by Charles-Marie Widor, which was at times wonderfully lyrical and at other times bombastic and spine-tingling. The prelude was a thrilling performance of Louis Vierne's Symphonie II Op. 20—II. Choral. The postlude was Marcel Dupré's Placare Christe servulis, Op. 38, No. 16, but the service started at 6:30 and the postlude started at 8:15, so I was more interested in getting out the door than listening to Dupré. Organists are so abused and under appreciated.

Tonight's Solemn Mass began with a formal Procession. After an introit antiphon, Sine Nomine started things off, then after a collect at the font in the narthex, the procession continued with the hymn Lasst uns erfreuen (Ye watchers and ye holy ones). Other hymns were Zeuch mich, zeuch mich for the sequence, San Rocco during post-communion ablutions, and an old 1940 Hymnal song, All Hallows, for the recessional. The psalm setting was Anglican chant by Thomas W. Hanforth. The offertory anthem tonight was "What are these that glow from afar," an interesting work by Alan Gray with words by Christina Rossetti that I'd never sung.

I might also mention that this is a parish which routinely chants most things which can be chanted (including the Epistle and the Gospel) and the congregation sings both the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed. They always use three sacred ministers for celebrations of the Eucharist, and they firmly believe in my incense rubric that "If you can see the Altar, there's not enough smoke" (and they like my second rubric, too: "There is no such thing as a pipe organ that is too loud.").

Don't know where I'll go for All Souls' Day Mass tomorrow (La Dia de los Muertos). Might go to Ascension and St. Agnes......I'm thinking it's the church I visited on All Saints or All Souls when I was here in D.C. doing my internship years and years ago, and what I remember most about that service is they had a long, long Mass, and then only the priests received communion and they didn't communicate any of the congregation!