Speaking of Mass.....

Speaking of Mass.....I was slow and running late this morning, so by the time I got out the door, there wasn't time to go anyplace fun, so I ended up back at St. Stephen's, the neighborhood parish a couple of blocks away.

I was just at St. Stephen's for their noon Mass last Friday. It was the Feast of St. Blaise, the patron saint of throats, and after Mass they did blessings of throats. It's a fun little optional Catholic ceremony. Two beeswax candles are tied together with a red ribbon into a V-shape, and the priest holds the candles to ones throat with one hand and puts his other hand on ones forehead for the blessing. It's a nice way to let God through the grace of His sacraments preserve my singing voice.

At the Friday Mass, I had to hold back my laughter from time to time. They had this little geriatric lady with blazingly dyed bright auburn hair (catch the pun on St. Blaise?) who was just banging the Hell out of the piano, playing accompaniment for the hymns, as well as a very "gospel hymn" sounding prelude. It was good to hear hymn accompaniment in this church, though (continuing my weekly rant during "Broken Organ Time"), and to further my point, I noticed that the very small congregation at this noon service sang much more confidently and loudly than the huge congregation with unaccompanied hymns did this morning.

This morning I walked in as the organist was playing a very nice prelude on the piano. He later would play an excellent improvisation on the offertory hymn after the hymn. He accompanied the communion marching hymn and played some improv filler between it and the ablutions motet. He did not, however, play accompaniments for any of the Mass setting or the major congregational hymns. Alas. Seems like attendance is down at this service, too.....right reverend monsignor pastor ought to take note.

Hymns today were "Your hands, O Lord in days of old" (Forest Green) for the procession (if they're gonna sing four-part unaccompanied harmony, the choir really needs to keep together on those eighth notes!), "The voice of God goes out through all the world" (National Hymn) for the offertory, and the standard Rendez à Dieu for the recessional. Mass setting was New Plainsong Mass for the antiphonal Gloria, Mass for the City for the Sanctus and Memorial Acclamations, and the old Gregorian chant Agnus Dei. The choir sang a nice motet during the post-communion ablutions, "Praise the Lord who reigns above" by Theodore Marier.

Otherwise, this has been a slow church week. I'd wanted to go to Candlemas on Thursday evening at St. Paul's K Street (they were bringing in two English bishops to serve as celebrant and preacher), but I went to that world premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra instead. The rest of February should be quiet—Lent is late this year.