Pascal blessings

Alleluia, happy Easter!

I'm back from the nearly three hour-long Easter Vigil and solemn pontifical Mass at St. Paul's K Street. I showed up 25 minutes before the service and the nave was completely full. Fortunately, I espied Matt sitting on the back row, so I squeezed into his pew and sat with him. The service booklet is 40 pages long! It was a long service, but what a wonderful and inspirational time! The service is divided into four segments: new fire, lessons, Christian initiation, and Eucharist.

New Fire

They had a retired bishop as the guest celebrant. He kindled the new fire, and carved and lit the new paschal candle. The curate chanted the full Exultet once the candle had been processed to the chancel. Everyone in the congregation had a candle, lit from the passing paschal candle.

Lessons

Lessons and psalms were:

Genesis 1:1–2:2, The Creation
Psalm 33: 8–11, chant by Edwin G. Monk

Genesis 22:1–18, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac
Psalm 33:13–14, 20–21, chant by Edward Elgar

Exodus 14:10–15:1, Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea
Canticle Cantemus Dominus, Tone VIII with verses by Francis Burgess

Isaiah 55:1–11, Salvation offered freely to all
Psalm 42:2–3, 6–7, chant by H. Walford Davies

Ezekiel 37:1–14, Valley of dry bones
Psalm 30:1, 3, 12–13, chant by Edward John Hopkins

As we sat in the dark, it was nice to be able to concentrate on the readings and listen to the choir with nothing else to distract us. I was amused, though, that a third of the service booklet was useless, since it was too dark to follow along with the readings or the psalms. The music tonight, and especially in this section, was wonderfully tight and well-rehearsed. The Psalm 42 setting in particular was wonderful; the only word I can think of to describe it is that it was positively transcendent. At the end of this section, as the congregation's candles were being relit in preparation for the baptisms, the choir sang Palestrina's Sicut cervus.

Initiation

They had a young woman to baptize and about a dozen to confirm. They did a formal procession (down the center aisle and around the nave) to the font in the narthex as the full Litany of Saints was chanted. On the return of the procession to the chancel, the choir sang Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo to Mode VII as the bishop aspersed the congregation.

Eucharist

This section began with the Easter Greeting, then John turned on the organ and launched a raucous and festal fanfare as a number of designated bell ringers scattered throughout the congregation rang handbells. After a brief break to allow the bishop to intone the Gloria, the singing and bell ringing continued. They used the congregational participatory Willan Missa de Santa Maria Magdalena as the Mass setting. The psalm, sung by the congregation, was set to Tonus Peregrinus. After the Gospel, they sang the Easter Acclamations in a setting by Joseph Noyon and arranged by Gerre Hancock. It's a fun piece, but the tessatura is stratospherically high, and they expected us all to have high Gs! I made it through the first two repetitions, but I didn't have the G anymore for the third.

The rector had a very nice sermon about the four elements—fire, water, earth, air—and how they were all present in tonight's Mass.

The offertory anthem was Regina coeli by Robert White (ca. 1530–1574), followed by a congregational hymn, Straf mich nicht. The communion anthem was Exsultate Deo adjutori nostro by Palestrina, followed by improvisions on the upcoming hymn by John, followed by Gaudeamus pariter as a post-communion ablutions hymn.

At the end of the service, the recessional hymn was St. Albinus, and the choirmaster Giles played Langlais's Incantation en jour Saint as a postlude.

Reception

Then, Matt and I went over to the parish hall for wine and heavy hors d'oeuvres, and a chance to chat with a lot of people. I saw a lot of Catholics from St. Stephen's and from the cathedral, although not that many of them came up for the reception. Matt recognized his old choirmaster from Old St. Paul's in Baltimore, and I saw a couple of choirmaster/organists from other churches around the region. I talked for a while with one woman who had come with friends from New York City to hear the service. And, I saw about half a dozen men in clerical collars I didn't know, so I assume they are priests from other parishes.


Matt in the chapel after Mass

Lots to do for tomorrow. Laurent invited himself and his roommates over for Easter dinner, so I'm roasting a leg of lamb as soon as we get home from Mass at St. Stephen's (Laurent and Robert neither wanted to go tonight, so I'm tagging along with them in the morning......I think). I suppose I should go to bed, but I hope everyone has a blessed and holy Easter! And, we give thanks that we aren't evangelicals who have sunrise services that in the morning will be in freezing temperatures!