Mary’s Song
by Luci Shaw

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
Keep warm this small hot naked star
Fallen to my arms. (Rest…
You who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
Whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
Whose eyelids have not closed before.
His breath (so slight it seems
No breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
To sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices,
The whisper of straw, he dreams,
Hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes,
He is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
All years. Older than eternity, now he is new.
Now native to earth as I am, nailed to my poor planet, caught
That I might be free, blind in my womb
To know my darkness ended,
Brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
And for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

— from Accompanied by Angels
 Poems of the Incarnation
Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK:
Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing, Co., 2006

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

We pray for those who are sick and for those in any need or trouble. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those living with drought, storm, flood, fire, and earthquake; and we pray especially for Henry, Mecca, Mavis, Marilyn, Ava Grace, Bruce, Ginny, Roger, Catherine, Tony, Clark, David, Pat, Eloise, Penny, Steven, Gloria, Samantha, Larry, Lourdes, Luis, Liduvina, Nora, Joyce, Mary Hope, Marjorie, José, Linette, Gigi, Julie, Carol, Helga, Gina, Maria, Charlotte, Greg, Eric, Carlos, Christopher, Shalim, Greta, Quincy, Laverne, Gypsy, Robert, Nicholas, and Victor and Rick, priests.

CHRISTMAS AT SAINT MARY’S

Saturday, December 24
Christmas Eve
Last Mass of Advent 9:00 AM
Musical Prelude 9:30 PM
Procession and Solemn Mass 10:00 PM

Sunday, December 25
Christmas Day
Solemn Mass & Procession to the Crèche 11:00 AM

Monday, December 26, Saint Stephen, Deacon & Martyr, Said Mass 12:10 PM. The church opens at 7:00 AM and closes at 7:00 PM. The parish offices are closed. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are not said in the church.

Tuesday, December 27, Saint John the Evangelist, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM.

Wednesday, December 28, The Holy Innocents, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Holy Hour 11:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM.

Thursday, December 29, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1170, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass & Healing Service 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The parish office is closed.

Friday, December 30, Christmas Weekday, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The parish office is closed.

Saturday, December 31, John Wyclif, Priest, 1384, Mass 10:00 AM. The church closes at 11:00 AM.

Sunday, January 1, The Holy Name of Jesus, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The church opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 2:00 PM.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED, SAINT MARY’S OUTREACH MINISTRY
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!

WE NEED 4 OR 5 VOLUNTEERS ON MONDAY, JANUARY 23

If you would like to ask questions about volunteering for any of our Neighbors in Need activities or if you would like to volunteer, please send us a message at neighbors@stmvnyc.org.

ABOUT THE MUSIC ON CHRISTMAS EVE, DECEMBER 24

A Selection of Choral & Congregational Carols at 9:30 PM

Arnold Bax (1883–1953) was a British composer, poet, and author, who was born into a prosperous London family which encouraged his musical development. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Music and eventually, in 1942, he was appointed Master of the King’s Music. Bax is remembered for his songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is probably best regarded for his orchestral music which has grown in favor in recent decades. Bax’s I sing of a maiden, a setting of a fifteenth-century text, was composed in 1926 and was dedicated to John B. McEwen who later became the director of the Royal Academy of Music. Bax’s choral setting is for five voices and is full of the vivid harmonic color which is characteristic of much of his music. A note about the text indicates that makeless means “matchless” and ches means “chose.”

McNeil Robinson (1943–2015) was an internationally celebrated organist, composer, improvisateur, and teacher. He headed the organ department at the Manhattan School of Music for many years while also serving religious institutions. In 1965, while still a student at The Juilliard School, he began long and well-remembered associations both with the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin and with Park Avenue Synagogue. While he remained organist at Park Avenue Synagogue until retiring in 2012, he left Saint Mary’s in 1982 and subsequently served at Park Avenue Christian Church and at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church until failing health necessitated his retirement. Robinson’s remarkable reputation as organist, improviser, and composer became established during his years at Saint Mary’s. Robinson was a consultant to the Standing Commission on Church Music during the compilation of The Hymnal 1982 and his setting of While shepherds watched their flocks by night is included at hymn 95. The text, a paraphrase of Luke 2:8–15 credited to Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, was published in A Supplement to the New Version of Psalms (London, 1700) and is one of the twenty-seven hymns bound with the American Prayer Book of 1786. As such, it is one of the oldest hymns continuously sung in Episcopal churches. It is usually sung to the tune known since the 1820s as Winchester Old. Robinson’s “new” tune for this text was composed in 1984 for a service of Lessons and Carols. It has the joyful lilting character of a French Noël and is named in honor of revered New York composer and Church musician, Calvin Hampton (1938–1984), who strongly championed the composition of new music for old and established hymn texts.

Richard Wilbur (1921–2017) was a distinguished and Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet. His 1961 collection Advice to a Prophet, and Other Poems included “A Christmas Hymn,” which has become well known in recent years. The musical setting of Wilbur’s “A Christmas Hymn” (A stable lamp is lighted) is by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. It was composed in 1983 for, and first appeared in, The Hymnal 1982 as hymn 104. It has since been arranged, published, and recorded widely. It is a ballad-like art song and is dedicated to Lily Andújar Rogers (1915–2005) under whose direction Dr. Hurd sang as a child in the Choir of Boys and Men of Saint Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, Hollis, Queens. For the first time at Saint Mary’s, the congregation is invited to sing the unison melody provided in the Hymnal while the choir sings the choral anthem overlay for this relatively recent addition to the Christmas hymn repertoire.

To conclude the preludial music, the choir will sing the fourteenth-century German Carol In dulci jubilo as famously arranged in 1837 by Robert Lucas Pearsall (1795–1856) and more recently adapted by Reginald Jacques (1894–1969) for the first volume of Oxford’s Carols for Choirs. The original macaronic text, alternating phrases of Medieval German and Latin, is attributed to the mystic Heinrich Seuse (c. 1328) who, according to folklore, heard angels sing these words and joined them in a dance of worship. John Mason Neale (1818–1866), translator of a great number of hymns in contemporary use, rendered his well-known English version Good Christian men, rejoice in 1853, which is the basis for the version in The Hymnal 1982, hymn 107. Pearsall’s 1837 version, however, preserved the macaronic aspect, alternating phrases of Latin and English. His setting is in four stanzas which utilize quartets, trios and up to eight separate voice parts.

Music at the Mass at 10:00 PM

The setting of the Mass on Christmas Eve is Missa O magnum mysterium by Tomás Luís de Victoria (1548–1611). Victoria, considered the most important Spanish composer of Renaissance polyphony, was born in Ávila, the seventh of eleven children. He began his musical education as a choirboy at Ávila Cathedral, and his classical education at San Gil, a Jesuit school for boys founded in 1554. By 1565, Victoria had entered the Jesuit Collegio Germanico in Rome, where he was later engaged to teach music and eventually named maestro di cappella. Victoria knew and may have been instructed by Palestrina (1525–1594) who was maestro di cappella of the nearby Seminario Romano at that time. During his years in Rome, Victoria held several positions as singer, organist, and choral master, and he published many of his compositions. He was ordained priest in 1575 after a three-day diaconate. There are twenty authenticated Mass settings of Victoria. The Missa O magnum mysterium, dated 1592, is one of fifteen of Victoria in the style of Missa parodia. In this case, Victoria parodies his own motet of the same title which had been composed twenty years earlier in 1572. Victoria’s manner of parody normally resists the usual practice of beginning each Mass movement with clear melodic references to the earlier composition being parodied. Rather, he skillfully selects his borrowed themes and applies them where they best serve their new texts. Missa O magnum mysterium is in four voices until the Agnus Dei in which an additional soprano voice is included to sing in canon with the original part. During the administration of Communion, the motet upon which the Mass setting was based, Victoria’s own motet O magnum mysterium, will be sung. The motet text, with its reference to animals beholding the new-born Lord lying in a manger (Isaiah 1:3, Luke 2:7) and its blessing of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:42–43) is a responsory for Matins of Christmas and has been set by many composers over the centuries. Victoria’s four-voice setting of this text is a Renaissance masterwork of reflective expressiveness.

ABOUT THE MUSIC ON CHRISTMAS DAY, DECEMBER 25

The organ prelude on Christmas Day is from the miscellaneous chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). In dulci jubilo, BWV 729, is based upon the traditional Christmas carol known to English-speaking carolers as Good Christian men rejoice. In this short piece, Bach separates phrases of the carol melody stated in block harmony with free fantasia passages, which sound very much like they might have been improvised. It is likely that this chorale prelude models a common performance practice of that time for organists to lead chorales for congregational singing. The organ postlude on Christmas Day will be improvised.

The setting of the Mass on Christmas Day is the same as that on Christmas Eve, Victoria’s Missa O magnum mysterium. The Communion motet on Christmas Day is by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. Every December since 1983, he has sent out the score of a newly composed piece of music as a Christmas greeting. His 2014 Christmas card composition was a setting of a portion of the prologue of the Gospel according to Saint John. The beginning of the fourth Gospel is often read or quoted during the Christmas season, and the Prayer Book lectionary prescribes it as the Gospel proclamation for the third Mass of Christmas as well as the first Sunday after Christmas. The motet sung on Christmas Day begins quietly with all voices on a unison middle-C and proceeds into a four-voice texture. In a gradually gathering crescendo and upward thrust, the motet moves from its initial gentle unison middle-C to a strong seven-voice conclusion in the key of E. — David Hurd

ADULT EDUCATION 2023

The Eucharist: the Gifts of God for the People of God
Sunday, January 15, 22, 29; February 5, 12, 19; April 23, 30; and May 7, 14, at 9:30–10:30 AM
in Saint Benedict’s Study in the Parish House, 145 West 46th Street

After the Christmas break, we will continue our year-long series on the Eucharist. In the fall, we considered the sacrament as a kind of multi-faceted jewel, as meal, sacrifice, memory, prayer, and presence. On January 15, we resume this series with a set of three classes, led by Father Sammy Wood, on the fundamental link between Sacrament  & Mission.

On the Sundays in February, Father Jay Smith will teach a series of three classes in which he will continue last fall’s conversation about Eucharist as Presence, contrasting Catholic and Protestant conceptions of the Eucharist, discussing theology and doctrine, as well as poetry and hymn.

After Easter, Father Matthew Jacobson will bring us back to the Holy Eucharist as he discusses the Mystagogical Catecheses of Ambrose of Milan and Cyril of Jerusalem, who wrote during a golden age of patristic thought and writing in the fourth century.

The Deutero-Pauline Epistles
Sunday, February 26; March 5, 12, 19, 26; April 2, at 9:30–10:30 AM, also in Saint Benedict’s Study

On the Sundays in Lent, Father Peter Powell will continue his study of these rich and fascinating letters in the Pauline tradition.

To find Saint Benedict’s Study, please enter Saint Joseph’s Hall via the entrance at 145 West 46th Street, bear right and head down the long hallway which takes you past the rest rooms, the windows, and then head toward the Sacristy. The classroom is located on your left, just short of the doors to the Smoke Room, the Control Room, and the Sacristy.

RELIGIOUS LIFE SUNDAY: THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, JANUARY 22, 2023

Saint Mary’s has had close relationships with the religious orders of women and men in the Episcopal Church from the parish’s earliest years. The Brothers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, the Sisters of the Holy Nativity, the Brothers of the Society of Saint Francis, and the Sisters of the Community of Saint John Baptist have all lived and ministered here at the parish. Others have as well.

We were, therefore, pleased to learn that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church recently approved resolution 2022-B004, “Foundation of Religious Life Sunday,” calling for such an observance to take place each year on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany. This observance is designed in part to teach Episcopalians and Anglicans about the Communion’s religious orders and what they offer the church.

As a way of marking this first Religious Life Sunday, we have invited Brother Robert Leo Sevensky of the Order of the Holy Cross to be with us on January 22, 2023. He will preach at the Solemn Mass and then, after Coffee Hour, lead us in a discussion of the religious life in the Episcopal Church and his life as a monk of the Order of the Holy Cross.

We have also invited Brother Jim Woodrum of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist to preach for us at the Solemn Mass on the Epiphany, January 6, 2023, at 6:00 PM.

You are invited to visit https://www.religiouslifesunday.org/ for more information about this observance and our church’s religious orders of women and men.

THE SAINT MARY’S FLOWER GUILD

Many Sundays and feast days in 2023 are available to donate the altar flowers, including the Epiphany and Baptism of Our Lord, January 6 and 8 (a single donor); Sunday January 15; Candlemas, February 2; Sundays February 5, 12, and 19. Please contact Chris Howatt if you would like to make a donation for one of the available dates.

COMING UP: MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Friday, January 6, The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Said Mass 12:10 PM, Organ Recital 5:30 PM (Gail Archer, Barnard College), Procession and Solemn Mass 6:00 PM. Brother Jim Woodrum, SSJE, will preach at the Solemn Mass.

Sunday, January 8, The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM.

Evensong & Benediction will not be offered during the month of January, but will resume on the first Sunday of the following month, February 5, 2023, at 5:00 PM.

ADDING NAMES TO THE PRAYER LIST: SOME REQUESTS

Intercessory prayer is very important to the people of Saint Mary’s. The clergy receive several requests to add new names to the prayer list each and every week. Unlike some parishes, we do not remove names after a set number of days or weeks. Some names have been on the list for a very long time.

We would like to bring a bit more clarity to this process:

a.) When asking for names to be added to the prayer lists, try to give us an estimate of how long you’d like the name to be on the lists.

b.) If you’d like the name to remain on the list “indefinitely,” please send an e-mail to Father Smith every month, letting him know if you’d like the name to remain on the list for another month.

c.) Whenever possible, please try to avoid making requests on Sunday mornings or just before the beginning of a weekday Mass, solemn or said. If you do that, the name will have to be written into the list, and the name is then easily forgotten in subsequent weeks. This is, unfortunately, where the mundane and bureaucratic comes crashing into the spiritual and pastoral.

AT THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Confronting Hate 1937–1952: A Jewish Prayer Service in Nazi Germany
The New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
at Richard Gilder Way (77th Street)

From the Society’s website, “American radio listeners tuning into NBC at 9:30 am on Sunday, October 29, 1944, were met with something extraordinary—a 15-minute broadcast that was almost lost to history.

“NBC war correspondent James Cassidy had been in Europe since the D-Day invasion in June and was on the scene for the fall of Aachen, the first city in Germany to be captured by Allied forces. The war in Europe would grind on for almost another year with untold horrors yet to be revealed. But here, at least, was one small beginning of the end.

“Cassidy began the morning’s show saying, ‘Today, the National Broadcasting Company brings its listeners a program of historic moment, the first direct broadcast of a Jewish religious service from German soil since Adolf Hitler and his Nazis began the destruction not only of the Jewish religion but of all religions, more than a decade ago.’

“The religious service was conceived of and produced by the American Jewish Committee and its radio director Milton Krents, who had been following the Allied progress in Europe and recognized a potent symbol when he saw one. A short documentary about the service is a centerpiece of Confronting Hate 1937-1952, New-York Historical’s current exhibition about the AJC’s years-long media campaign to combat antisemitism and racism in the United States both before and after World War II.

“Visitors to the exhibition will see images captured by US Signal Corps photographers and hear the haunting audio from the prayer service, which took place in an open field near the site of a demolished synagogue, the sound of not-so-distant artillery rounds thundering in the background. Army Chaplain Sidney Lefkowitz, a Reform rabbi from Richmond, Virginia, led the service in front of some fifty Jewish soldiers and a Catholic and Protestant chaplain, who also spoke in support. A young private first class served as the cantor, singing the traditional hymns.

“In a short address, Chaplain Lefkowitz acknowledged what the service represented. ‘Even as we sadly observe the ruins amid we stand and consider the loss of lives with which this victory has been purchased, we are solaced with the thought, though the cost must be high, of the lasting memorial which consecrates the sacrifice, and upon it is written in letters that glow like burning coals.’ He continued, ‘The spirit of man cannot be conquered.’

“The broadcast was, in part, meant as a warning to Germany that, in the words of Milton Krents, ‘The Allied armies, composed of every color, faith, and nationality, will never halt until freedom takes the place of tyranny on every inch of Axis soil.’ It also immediately captured the attention of Americans across the country, and the response to it was so profound that it was later re-aired. ‘The Aachen broadcast is a vivid reminder of the spirit and resilience of American GIs as they fought to eradicate Nazism,’ says New-York Historical’s curator of Confronting Hate, Debra Schmidt Bach. ‘Milton Krents understood the symbolism and importance of the service, and we are fortunate that he left us this poignant legacy and vivid example of the power of American cooperation.’”

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.