Pink Sunday

This is Laetarie Sunday, one of two days in the church's liturgical year when the priests wear pink clothes. Laurent and I went to St. Stephen's this morning, Laurent in a pink Polo and me in a pink tie. The good monsignor was in a pink chasuble with gold orpheries, but the chasuble must have been child-sized, since it was a good foot or more too short for him.

We learned in his homily that monsignor eats an egg sandwich every morning for breakfast.

Hymns today were Restoration (Come, you sinners, poor and needy) for the processional, Duke Street (Take up your cross) for the offertory, "You satisfy the hungry heart" for communion and Wer nur den lieben Gott (If thou but trust in God) for the recessional. The organist had a great deal of fun with the processional and recessional hymns, improvising a lot between verses, and it was wonderfully dark and mysterious. He really is quite skilled at improvisation.

For the Mass setting, they did Howard Hughes' Mass of the Divine Word during the consecration, with Gregorian chant for the Kyrie extended with Palestrina's Missa Aeterna Christi Munera and the choir sang alone for the Agnus Dei from the 16th century John Taverner's Short Mass for Three Voices.

During post-communion ablutions, the choir sang Bach's O Jesu Christ, mein's Lebens Licht.