A TRIO OF CHRISTMAS POEMS

Each poem seems to ask,
“What happens when you walk into a stable and find the Word made Flesh?”

A Shepherd’s Song at Christmas from “Three Christmas Poems”
by Langston Hughes (1901–1967)

Remembering that It Happened Once
by Wendell Berry (b. 1934)

 BC:AD from “Christmas Poems”
by U.A. Fanthorpe (1929–2009)

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war, division, violence, and injustice, especially in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, Ukraine, Russia, Myanmar, Sudan, and Darfur.

We pray for an end to gun violence in our city and in our nation.

We pray for the people and clergy of our sister parish, the Church of All Saints, Margaret Street, London, UK.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, for Lexi, Grace, Steve, Jane, Martin, Murray, Claudia, Beverly, Martha, Tim, Henry, Kaci, Molly, Gary, Renee, Ruth Ann, Michele, Vicki, Georgia, Janet, Zoë, Desarae, David, Jacques, Suzanne, Rolf, Adair, Susanna, Dorian, James, Margaret, Leroy, Josh, Maddie, Tony, Hattie, Paul, Nettie, Maureen, Chrissy, Tessa, Robert, Duncan, Justin, Audy, Jan, Pat, Marjorie, Sharon, Quincy, June, Barbara, Carlos, José, Sarah, Gene, Dennis, Hardy, Gypsy, Bob, and Liduvina; James, Laura Katharine, Barbara-Jean and Eleanor-Francis, religious; and Jay, Jean, Julie, Robby, and Stephen, priests.

We pray also for Andrew, Tilly, and Dax, who are to be baptized on January 12.

We pray for the repose of the souls of all those who died this week in places of violence, warfare, and natural disaster, particularly this week for those who died in the school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin; and we pray also for the repose of the souls of those whose anniversary of death is on December 22: Emma Baley (1909; Florence Gertrude Wilson (1912); Elizabeth McDowell (1918); Mary Ann Meadows (1920); Mary C. Parsons France (1932); Lillian Emily Dellegar Spence (1934); Elizabeth Hahn (1938); Marion Newcombe and Fannie Murray (1960); Elizabeth St. John Day (1962); Anne Starry (1984).

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

On Friday, November 22, Brother Laurence Harms, OHC, died at the Hudson Valley Rehabilitation & Extended Care Center in Highland, NY. He was the oldest member of the Order. He was ninety-six years old at the time of his death. Br. Robert James Magliula, OHC, superior of the Order, was with Laurence as he died. Brother Laurence was born in Rock Island, IL in 1929. He was a high school teacher of math and science which he left to join the Holy Cross community in Bolahun, Liberia, where he taught in the Order’s school as a lay companion. He applied to join the Order as a professed brother and made his life profession in 1966. Brother Laurence was an amateur astronomer and photographer.  He was a friend to many, especially in the Liberian diaspora and in the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit where he gave regular talks in the planetarium. He had a ministry of kind and joyful presence in his nursing home. He was much beloved by the staff there; many of whom came to pay their respects as Laurence was slipping away. His faith and trust in God were an inspiration. May choirs of angels sing him to his rest! Brother Laurence’s funeral took place in the monastery chapel on Tuesday, December 10. His ashes were interred in the columbarium located in Saint Michael’s Chapel in the crypt. Please keep Laurence, his brothers, and all who mourn in your prayers. 

Holy Hour on Wednesdays before the Blessed Sacrament
Wednesday Mornings at 11:00 AM in the Lady Chapel

Healing Mass on Thursdays
At Mass on Thursdays at 12:10 PM, we offer a service of anointing and prayers for healing.

Friday Abstinence
The ordinary Fridays of the year are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial
in commemoration of the crucifixion of Our Lord.
Friday abstinence is suspended during Christmastide.

Confessions on Saturdays
The priest on duty will be in a confessional near the 46th Street entrance at 11:00 AM.
Confessions are heard by appointment only during Christmastide.

UPCOMING AT SAINT MARY’S

Sunday, December 22
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
Mass 9:00 AM & Solemn Mass 11:00 AM
Evening Prayer 4:00 PM
Adult Formation will not meet on December 22. Class resumes on January 5, 2025.

Tuesday, December 24, Christmas Eve
The Last Mass of Advent 9:00 AM
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 4:00 PM
Music for Choir and Congregation 9:30 PM
Procession and Solemn Mass 10:00 PM

Wednesday, December 25, Christmas Day
Solemn Mass and Procession to the Crèche 11:00 AM

Thursday, December 26, Saint Stephen, Deacon & Martyr
Mass 10:00 AM

Friday, December 27, Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist
Mass 12:10 PM

Saturday, December 28, The Holy Innocents
Mass 12:10 PM
Confessions are heard by appointment only during Christmastide.

Sunday, December 29, The First Sunday after Christmas Day
Mass 9:00 AM & Solemn Mass 11:00 AM
Evening Prayer 4:00 PM

LIFE AT SAINT MARY’S

On Sunday, December 15, the Third Sunday of Advent, Joachim Seelos, was received into the Episcopal Church by Bishop Mary Glasspool at the Church of the Transfiguration on behalf of Saint Mary’s. Please introduce yourself and welcome our newest parishioner when you see him next . . . At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on Monday, December 16, members of the board thanked Steven Heffner, member of the Board and parish treasurer, for his service to the parish as he rotated off the Board at the end of his current term. Grace Mudd was then elected to the Board. The members of the Board also elected Grace to replace Steven as parish treasurer. Grace now joins Charles Morgan (re-elected vice-president), Mary Robison (re-elected secretary), and Father Sammy Wood as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. Steven Heffner has generously volunteered to serve as assistant treasurer. Thank you, Steven, and thank you, Grace, for your commitment to Saint Mary’s . . . Father Peter Powell celebrated the forty-eighth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on Wednesday, December 18. Congratulations, Father! And thank you for your ministry . . . On Wednesday, December 18, Father Richard Simeone celebrated the fifty-sixth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Father Simeone is a longtime supporter of Saint Mary’s.

We invite you to help us prepare the church for Christmas . . . Volunteers are needed to ready the church for Christmas! Work on the crèche and the many floral arrangements that will be placed throughout the church is ongoing daily through December 24. After Coffee Hour on Sunday, December 22, there will be a brief origami workshop to make peace cranes and we will be hanging greens in the church! Anyone interested in arranging the crèche, creating flower arrangements, preparing vestments, candles, and the like, or even carrying buckets and pushing a broom is most welcome every day, December 20–24. Please contact Grace Mudd if you are able to help or have any questions.

Sunday, December 22, 12:45 PM: “The Paradise Tree” . . . You’re invited to join us to decorate our Paradise Tree as a parish family after the 11:00 AM Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Advent! Trees have long stood for fertility and rebirth in the popular imagination, symbolizing eternal life in cultures from Egypt and Israel to China. Sometime in the Middle Ages, the first Christmas trees appeared in western Europe—traditionally the modern Christmas tree originated in Germany, perhaps in line with the legend that Martin Luther was walking home on a dark December night when he was moved by the beauty of starlight through the branches of a fir tree (or perhaps not). But before there were Christmas trees, there were trees like the one we will decorate on Sunday, December 22 in Saint Joseph’s Hall. Called “Paradise Trees,” they developed as props for medieval “mystery plays” performed around Christmastime. For a largely illiterate populace, mystery plays taught biblical stories and Christian doctrine, while also providing entertainment. One such play recounted the story of Adam and Eve and humankind’s fall from innocence. The play was often enacted on Christmas Eve, which also happened to be the medieval Feast of Saints Adam and Eve (no longer celebrated as a feast day in the Western church).

This folk drama told the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden, and it ended with the promise of a savior who would come to redeem sinful humanity and reconcile creation with Creator. The central props for the Paradise Play were two Paradise Trees representing the most important trees in Eden: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. Apples hung on the former to symbolize the Fall, and by the fifteenth century the latter held white communion wafers hung to symbolize the promise of reconciliation with God made possible through Jesus. Over time a single tree came to bear both apples and eucharistic hosts, and it stood in a circle of lit candles outside the local church during the performance. Church authorities banned mystery plays later in the fifteenth century, but not before the Paradise Tree migrated to Germany where it was renamed a Christbaum, or “Christ tree,” and the apples and hosts replaced with pastry dough ornaments shaped like angels, stars, bells, and animals. Today in Bavaria, trees decorated with apples and Christmas lights are still called Paradeis.

At Saint Mary’s this Sunday, we are recreating a medieval Paradise Tree in our parish hall. Apples to symbolize the Fall are added to (unconsecrated!) hosts to symbolize our great salvation, and we’re throwing in Christmas cookies and lights as well. — SW

Adult Formation . . . The Sunday morning Adult Formation class is on a brief Christmas break for the next two weeks. Class resumes on Sunday, January 5, 2025, in Saint Joseph’s Hall at 9:45 AM, when Dr. Lauren Whitnah, Dean of Nashotah House, will teach about formation in the Middle Ages. She holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies and Master of Medieval Studies, both from the University of Notre Dame; a Master of Studies in History from the University of Oxford; and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Gordon College. Her academic focus centers on devotion to saints and understandings of sacred place in the High Middle Ages, particularly in northern England and southern Scotland.

The following Sunday, parishioner Allen Reddick will begin his two-part series (January 12 and 19), “The Catholic Imagination of Flannery O’Connor.” Allen received his B.A. from Sewanee: the University of the South (Allen spends part of each year in Sewanee), his M.A. from Cambridge University, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. From there, he became Assistant, then Associate Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University from 1985 until 1993. In 1993, he went to the University of Zurich in Switzerland as Full Professor of English Literature. Allen’s research interests are broad, but include book history, the distribution of republican books in England and North America, the Enlightenment encyclopedia and dictionary, and the works of Samuel Johnson. Allen will use his analytical and interpretive skills to discuss Flannery O’Connors’s short stories. On January 19, Allen will be joined by Father Sammy Wood, whose interests in O’Connor are a bit more theological. In that class, he will want to spend a few minutes talking about a connection between O’Connor and evangelism, drawing from her famous quote from Mystery & Manners:

When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.

Preparing for these classes: Allen writes, “The stories I will be discussing in the Flannery O’Connor classes are ‘Greenleaf’ and ‘Revelation.’ Both are contained in O’Connor’s short story collection, Everything that Rises Must Converge; texts of the stories can also be downloaded (“Revelation”; “Greenleaf”). Please read the stories beforehand and bring the texts to class.

The Saint Mary’s Library . . . We have started a parish library in Saint Benedict’s Study and have put together an initial wish list on Amazon to help build our collection. Please click click here to view our wish list and donate a book. Check back from time to time to see what we have added to our list. If you have books to donate from your personal collection, please be in touch with Father Sammy before bringing them to the parish as space in our small library is limited.

2025 Saint Mary’s Calendars are now available! . . . The suggested donation for each calendar is $20 in-person and $25 online (which includes shipping) and $40 for international shipping. Calendars are available in-person after Solemn Masses and Evensong & Benediction in Saint Joseph’s Hall during the month of December 2024. Click here to order your calendar online. Saint Mary’s Flower and Altar Guilds have produced the 2025 Saint Mary’s Calendar and all proceeds will help fund critical guild supplies and restore antique furnishings. Please contact Brendon Hunter with any questions about the 2025 Saint Mary's Calendar. Click here for a preview of the calendar.

Neighbors in Need . . . This month’s Drop-by took place on Friday, December 13. The January Drop-by will take place on Friday, January 17. We have an urgent need for donations of COATS in all sizes for both men and women. The temperatures are dropping, and we anticipate that there will be a great demand for coats at this month’s Drop-by. Please look in your closets and see if there are some things you are willing to part with. And we thank you for your generosity!

Bidding Father Jay Smith Farewell . . . Father Jay Smith will be retiring in early 2025. His last Mass at Saint Mary’s will be on January 12, 2025, the Baptism of Our Lord. Father Smith will be the celebrant and preacher at both Masses that day. We will be blessing an icon at Solemn Mass, painted by parishioner and iconographer-in-residence Zach Roesemann and dedicated to Father’s long service. The icon will be installed in the Lady Chapel later in the year. We are planning a festive reception following Solemn Mass to celebrate his retirement, at which time we will also present him with gifts from the parish. We will give him and José a memory box with a collection of letters, pictures, and anecdotes from their long service at Saint Mary’s—lighthearted, serious, funny, whatever is right for you. And, as is traditional for the retirement of a priest, we will send him off with a “purse,” a financial commitment to their new life. How can you help? Contributions for the memory box can be given by December 22 to MaryJane Boland or Grace Mudd (or sent via email) and questions can go to them too. Contributions for the cost of the icon and for the purse can be made by check or via online donation with a note on the memo line. — Grace Mudd and MaryJane Boland 

Seeking Help! . . . We are looking for help in support of our Hospitality Ministry. The costs associated with Coffee Hour, Feast Day Receptions and other events are high and are a constant strain on the budget. You may make a donation online or by mailing a check to the parish office. Remember to write “Hospitality” in the memo line. And, as always, we welcome donations to support the work of the Saint Mary’s Flower Guild. There are many opportunities in the New Year and before Lent to give flowers for the altar and in other parts of the church. For more information, please contact the parish office. We are grateful to all those who continue to support these ministries.

Mark Your Calendar: Parish Retreat . . . We hope that you will be able to join us on Saturday, January 11, for a Parish Retreat. The theme of the retreat is “The Benedictine Promise”—Benedictine Spirituality and Practice. The retreat, which will take place here at Saint Mary’s, will be co-hosted with our friends from uptown at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Inwood, and will be led by Sister Michelle Heyne of the Order of the Ascension. For more information, click here for the flyer, or speak to Father Wood. We will offer a Sung Mass at the high altar at 12:10 PM as part of the retreat program. Please RSVP to Father Wood by January 7, so that we can accurately plan for the lunch.

Preparing for baptism . . . We expect to have several candidates for Father Smith to baptize on January 12, his last Mass before retirement, and Father Sammy Wood is coordinating their preparation. If you are interested in receiving the sacrament of baptism, or having your child baptized, please contact Father Wood.

News from Zach Roesemann, Saint Mary’s Resident Iconographer . . . We were very excited to learn that Zach has been invited to be a Guest Artist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in January 2025. He will be doing three different events in conjunction with the Met’s current exhibition, Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350:

• January 5 at the Met Cloisters, uptown, in Fort Tryon Park, 99 Margaret Corbin Dr, New York, NY 10040: “How Did They Do That?”, a demonstration and discussion of the painting and gilding techniques used by the fourteenth-century artists—the very same ones Zachary uses to create his icons.

• January 11 at the Met Fifth Avenue, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street—“Open Studio,” a Saturday afternoon in the Medieval Hall, when Zachary will once again discuss and demonstrate medieval painting.

• January 17 at the Met Cloisters—“Met Experts Gallery Talk,” when he will talk about a specific medieval painting in the Met Cloisters collection.

The public is warmly invited to all of these events. Zach will provide more details soon! Learn more about Zach’s studio at Saint Mary’s here.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 22, 2024, THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

The organ prelude on Sunday morning is the more extended of two organ settings for Magnificat, the Song of Mary, on the first psalm-tone by Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707). This piece divides clearly into two principal sections, each with four sub-sections and a coda. While bits of the fantasia style are in evidence, most of the sub-sections are clearly in imitative counterpoint. Some researchers have taken pains to identify the first psalm tone as it lay concealed in Buxtehude’s counterpoint. It is conceivable that the sub-sections of this work were intended to be performed in alternatim with verses of Magnificat sung to chant. However, the several sections of the piece work together well when played continuously without the insertion of chant verses. As is often the case, distinguished historic music lends itself to a variety of reasonable interpretations. Performers, therefore, are challenged creatively to seek appropriate performance solutions and let the hearers delight.

The Mass setting on the Fourth Sunday of Advent will be Missa Brevis by David Hurd. This Missa Brevis was composed for and first performed at All Saints Church, Manhattan, where Dr. Hurd was Director of Music from 1985 until 1997. It is dedicated to The Reverend R. DeWitt Mallary, Jr. who was rector of the parish at that time. The musical themes of each movement of this setting are derived from the rendering of the letters of Father Mallary’s name as musical pitches. These pitches are intentionally arranged to achieve upward melodic gestures. The Kyrie is in Greek and is the most lyrical of the setting’s four movements. Its themes are stated in longer pitches by one of each of the four voices while the other three voices accompany in imitative counterpoint. The remaining mass parts are in Latin. Each part is relatively compact and rhythmically straight-forward with the liturgical text presented directly in angular melodic shapes and lean harmonic textures. The entire Mass is scored for four-voices. Solo voices complement the choral parts in the Agnus Dei.

The motet sung during the Communion on Sunday is E’en so Lord Jesus by Paul Manz. Paul Manz (1919–2009) was a distinguished American Lutheran organist, composer, and teacher. Although he is well remembered for his brilliant organ improvisations on hymns and chorales, many of which were later transcribed and published, his most beloved work may well be his Advent anthem, E’en so, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come, first published in 1954. In a relatively simply yet highly expressive four-voice texture, Manz has set an adaptation of Revelation 22, crafted by his wife, Ruth Manz (1919–2008).

The postlude at Sunday’s Solemn Mass is by the celebrated African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941). Hailstork is professor of composition at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. In his Toccata on “Veni Emmanuel” one can hear fragments of the fifteenth-century Advent hymn, O come, O come Emmanuel, based upon the Great O Antiphons, although the entire hymn melody is never stated fully. The unusual meter of five beats to the measure gives the Toccata a curious off-balanced rhythmic energy. The harmonic dissonances, particularly near the end of the piece, may well characterize a world in chaos awaiting the birth of the Prince of Peace. — DH

CONCERTS AT SAINT MARY’S

The Miller Theatre at Columbia University presents Stile Antico
The Prince of Music
Saturday, March 29, 2025, 7:30 PM

The remarkable Stile Antico marks its twentieth season by honoring the 500th anniversary of one of the greatest masters of Renaissance polyphony, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose career was inextricably intertwined with the papacy and the great churches of Rome for which he composed. The program includes some of the composer’s most beloved and timeless motets, gems by other leading composers active in Rome at that time, and a new work by British composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, written especially for this occasion.

We need your help to keep holding our services. Click below, where you can make one-time or recurring donations to support Saint Mary’s. We are very grateful to all those who make such donations and continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

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.