Advent 2

Yesterday morning we walked over to St. John's Lafayette Square to go to church with our friend Max. We didn't get to sit with him, though. As it turned out, Max (who's older than me by nearly a decade) had to be an altar boy!

We walked in towards the end of the prelude. A tenor from the choir was singing "Comfort ye" and "Every valley shall be exhalted" from Messiah. Prior to the service, the rector said a prayer and they lighted the two candles in the Advent wreath. I was pleased to see that they were using Sarum blue for the candles in the wreath, the altar frontal, and the priests' stoles. St. John's is, alas, a rather low church parish, so the celebrant doesn't wear a chasuble.

Processional hymn was Valet will ich dir geben (the tune from the popular Palm Sunday hymn), sequence was Winchester New, presentation was Aurelia (with the words Our Father by whose servants), and the recessional was Ascension. The Psalm was a cantored plainsong chant. After the communion motet, the choir sang this hymn called "O come to my heart, Lord Jesus," asking the congregation to sing the refrain, but I don't think anybody did it. For the Mass setting, they only sang the Sanctus, using the Proulx A Community Mass.

For the offertory, the choir sang "Comfort, comfort ye my people," arranged by Claude Goudimel. The communion motet was "Prepare the way, O Zion," arranged by an unattributed composer based on the 14th century Swedish melody. For a small group, the choir always sounds surprisingly good.

The rector preached about preparing for Christmas and whether or not we needed a Messiah, saying that was the message and purpose of St. John the Baptist. Nephew Ryan thought he'd had too much coffee before Mass, but that's just Fr. León; I like a minister who doesn't dawdle.

One of their priestesses served as celebrant. Her sense of dignity and reverence was appalling. She didn't genuflect (or even bow) or do the Elevations during the consecration of the bread and wine; when it was time for the Fraction, she hurriedly raised the host and popped it in twain, then flung her arms out as though she were saying "Look what I did!"

Max, of course, took us around after the service and introduced us to tons of people. Ryan hadn't been to this particular church before, so we had to give him the 5¢ tour, and he was really excited about the President's Pew and the various needlepointed kneelers commemorating all the presidents since Abraham Lincoln. Ryan even posed for a picture, kneeling and trying to look pious, in the President's Pew.

After church, Max took us to Annie's for brunch.