FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE Volume 67 Number 11
DECEMBER 2017
The Episcopal Church of Saint Michael and All Angels Pacific View Drive at Marguerite
Corona del Mar
California 92625
“O that you would tear open the heavens, and come down!” – Isaiah 64:1
By Dr. Ray Urwin, Director of Music
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stmikescdm.ladiocese.org
“What Sweeter Music than a carol…”
FROM THE INTERIM RECTOR
always look forward to the season of Advent. It’s a season full of special, unique joys in the Church, like the beautiful, haunting Advent hymns, tinged with both hope and sadness, and the flickering candles of the Advent wreath. But one of the most lovely and moving aspects of the season for me is the great prominence of readings from the Bible’s book of Isaiah in the Sunday liturgies and in the Daily Office of Morning Prayer. Isaiah Chapters 40-55 show very clearly that Isaiah was not only a prophet, he was a poet as well. Under the inspiration of the Spirit his literary gifts blossomed, giving us an extraordinary testimony to Isaiah’s powerful desire for God. Isaiah’s dazzling poetry reminds me that the desire for God to come and to save us, to deliver us, to work in our lives, is the key to the spirituality of the season of Advent. The very word “advent” comes from the Latin root that means “a coming, an arrival.” Advent is for us a season of longing, of desire, of yearning for God to come and save us, from our sins, from our emptiness, from our relentless, exhausting pursuit of things and false pleasures and vain goals that mean nothing and bring us only spiritual death. So what are our desires? What do we really want, in our lives, in our relationships, in our experience at Saint Michael’s? The season of Advent invites us to “keep a spiritual eye on ourselves for a while,” to really check out what we desire and whether we’re
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CHRISTMAS WORSHIP 2017 Sunday, December 17 4 pm Children’s Pageant & Eucharist Christmas Party follows Sunday, December 24, Christmas Eve 4 Advent There will be no 8 am service today 10 am – The Holy Eucharist 5 pm – The Holy Eucharist with Carols (Nursery care) 8:00 pm – Music and Carols for the Season with St. Michael’s Choir and Strings 8:30 pm - Festival Eucharist with St. Michael’s Choir and Strings Monday, December 25, Christmas Day 10 am – The Holy Eucharist with Music Wednesday, December 27 Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist No noon service today Sunday, December 31 1 Christmas 8 am – The Holy Eucharist 10 am – The Holy Eucharist
* * * “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” --1 John 5:11
e will be doing a service of Advent Lessons and Carols on Sunday morning, December 10, at the 10am service. Much of our favorite congregational Christmas music consists of carols. Our previous hymnal, The Hymnal 1940, grouped all the carols together as a separate sub-section of the Christmas hymns section, and its Companion (commentary) described this section as “more truly congregational” than any other group of hymns in the book. The word may have been derived from the Greek “Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy), through later German and other languages “kyrieleison,” “kyrielle,” “arielle,” “Kariole,” “karole,” to “carol,” according to the Companion. But it is more likely derived from the Greek “chorales:” “choros” (choir) plus “aulein,” to play a reed instrument. Carols came into common use in Europe in the 14th century, as a result of the breakup of the Medieval church, the beginning of the Renaissance and the rise of nationalism, and the development of the vernacular languages. Some carols had texts that were “macaronic” - a mixture of two languages. “In dulci jubilo” ("Good Christian friends, rejoice," Hymn 107), originally in German, but with sporadic phrases in Latin, is the most famous of these, and this practice still survives today in a carol such as “Angels we have heard on high,” (96), with stanzas in English (originally French), but the refrain in the original Latin. Continued on page 6
BUILDING OUR F AITH: L OVING CHRIST AND SER VING OUR COMMUNITY FAITH: LO SERVING