Antiphonary for January 1

Many commentators have mused about today’s liturgical observance. It’s the Octave (Eighth Day) of Christmas. It’s been observed as the Circumcision of the Lord, as a World Day of Peace, and now, as the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Placing Mary in relationship to Christ makes sense in the season of the Nativity. And the Lectionary readings support this.

In the Roman Antiphonary, two refrains and three texts are given as options for Entrance. In my parish, as with most in North America, there are attachments to Christmas songs and carols. I found the text of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” suggestive of the second antiphon below, so I generally have programmed it for today’s feast.

But the Bible passages given for the antiphons are quite interesting, and deserving of good settings. I’m less impressed with the first option, a biblically unreferenced (composed) refrain, “Hail, Holy Mother, who gave birth to the King who rules heaven and earth for ever,” which is directed to be used with three verses of Psalm 45: 2, 11-12. This psalm is a song for a wedding of the King to a Gentile princess. I suppose one could ponder the marriage of Christ to his Church, but that seems out-of-place on a day like today. Or maybe the Annunciation. But there’s another feast for observing that.

A superior text for the feast is the following antiphon suggested by Isaiah 9: 1, 5 and Luke 1: 33:

Today a light will shine upon us, for the Lord is born for us;
and he will be called Wondrous God,
Prince of peace, Father of future ages:
and his reign will be without end.
(Psalm 92[93]: GR, p. 44; or Isaiah 9: 1-3, 5-6: GR, Praenotanda, no. 1)

The 93rd is one of the shorter pieces in the Psalter. It starts off with a bang, in praise of God as King:

The LORD is king, robed with majesty;
the LORD is robed, girded with might.
The world will surely stand in place,
never to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
you are from everlasting.

From there, the psalmist reminds us of God’s triumph over flooding and over the sea. Verse 5 concludes with a suggestion of the Law, as well as God’s mastery of time–which may be appropriate for the first day of a new year:

Your decrees are firmly established;
holiness belongs to your house, O LORD,
for all the length of days.

If I were using this option, I would probably trim verses 3 and 4 if I didn’t need them. That’s easily done if the entrance proper is set up with the people on the longish antiphon and a psalmist or choir on the verses. If I had the resources of a choir, verses 3 and 4 rendered by the choir might make a good contrast with a smaller group or single psalmist on verses 1, 2, and 5.

And option two? What was a Lectionary for Christmas Mass in the Night is now a canticle:

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
Upon those who lived in a land of gloom
a light has shone.

You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing;
They rejoice before you as people rejoice at harvest,
as they exult when dividing the spoils.

For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
The rod of their taskmaster,
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.

(For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for fire.)

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.

His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
Upon David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
By judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!

This is a more intriguing text. I’ve included verse 4 above so you can see the Antiphonary editors determined that we don’t want the images of army boots and bloodied cloaks ringing in the new year. Maybe they’re on to something.

I like the reprise of the Christmas Night reading here. This is more a lyrical text than a prophecy in prose, and deserves a brilliant musical setting, as has been done many times in the classics. I’m not aware of any metrical paraphrase of this whole text, however. If we had one, perhaps those insisting on using the proper text could bracket singing the hymn with two presentations of that antiphon.

When it comes to Christmas, I’m something of a liturgical scrooge. I don’t care much for composing for Christmas–not sure why. I don’t feel quite up to this text either, not at this point in my life. Maybe when I reach seventy–who knows? I would love to see this antiphon and Isaiah passage set to a dialogue piece for assembly and choir. But then again, who might be prepared to prepare it after a heavy season of anticipation and the Western climax of the Nativity?

Thoughts on the text or musical settings of it?

 

Christmas Music: Lauda per la Natività del Signore

Ottorino Respighi’s cantata, Praise for the Lord’s Nativity, is a delightful piece for chorus and three soloists, accompanied by a small wind ensemble, and piano four hands.

Listen to it here.

His wife Elsa sang the role of Mary at the premiere on St Cecilia’s Day in 1930. This work presents the Nativity from the point of view of the shepherds. It contains elements familiar to other Respighi works: traditional forms–though recast with 20th century harmonizations, plainchant-inspired melodies, and even a nod to Monteverdi.

 

Using Holy Innocents

Somewhere today, some preacher is likely drawing some connection from the massacre of the young boys of Bethlehem and abortion. And Newtown. Probably not the infants who die from particular diseases, or from famine in places like Africa, or even Iraq.

The problem with going too deep into the Matthew 2:16-18 narrative and using it as a springboard into the political issues of the day is pretty basic. Politics on this level is about critique, if not revilement of the opponent. The Christian view is critique of the self. If we are going to look at ourselves, it can be helpful to consider the ways in which our jealousy, like the jealousy of Herod, gets the better of us. Envy and jealousy are my biggest trip points. And while I haven’t committed infanticide to further my life’s goals, I am obligated to look within for sin, rather than check off the list, “Nope, I haven’t assisted in the procurement of an abortion,” and move on to my neighbor.

There are two other Scriptures presented, and I believe they illustrate my point.

First, is the psalm refrain from verse 7 of the 124th:

Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler’s snare.

The psalmist is talking about God’s redemption of the soul–not the body. Verse 5 speaks of the onrush of a flood:

The torrent would have swept over us;
over us then would have swept the raging waters.

I don’t know about your experience, but in mine, the inner surge of anger is well described here. It’s not always a flame. Sometimes I just want to take my arm and brush aside what stands in my way. A firehose would be more satisfactory than a flamethrower, as the flotsam of my obstacles would be pummeled away from my footsteps. I don’t want to be swept away by the torrent, and carried to a place in which I do not recognize myself.

Saint John gives believers the core message they can take away from Holy Innocents. Watch out for self-deception:

If we say, “We have fellowship with him,”
while we continue to walk in darkness,
we lie and do not act in truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
then we have fellowship with one another,
and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
If we say, “We are without sin,”
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just
and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. (1 John 1:6-9)

And even if we have sin, even if we come to that shattering personal revelation, we also have the Lord.

My sense is that today’s feast is about self-deception, and placing a guard over ourselves, our intentions, our attitudes, and our spiritual lives. Christmas is just four days old, and we’ve already observed two red feasts. Stephen, the protomartyr. Plus the infant boys of Bethlehem. If we’re going to congratulate ourselves for personal suffering, and that we’re not the Newtown shooter or an abortion provider, perhaps we should take a closer look at what the Lord is nudging in our direction.

 

To This World’s Night

From Bede the Venerable, a reflection on the feast just begun for the Eastern Hemisphere, and soon to come for us in the West:

Christ is the morning Star,
who, when the night of this world is past,
gives to his saints the promise of the light of life,
and opens everlasting day.

The Lord Jesus cannot come soon enough to this world’s night, don’t you think?