<Roto Reuters – Random Lake, WI> Parishioners on Sunday at St. Nicholas of Myra were stunned to hear and to find out that there is more than one Advent Hymn. Parishioner Karla Townsend said “The opening hymn was ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’ so I was all settled in for the normal repertoire during the rest of the Mass. Later I heard ”People look East“ and ”O Come, Divine Messiah“ and was shocked to realize that they also related to Advent. Who knew?”
Cantor Jaime Willis related “After Mass many surprised people came up to me rather upset that I introduced other Advent songs. When I mentioned that next week we would be singing ”Creator Of The Stars Of Night“, ”Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming“, and ”Rorate Caeli“ they weren’t very happy that there were even more of them. One gentleman told me that even though he never sings at Mass, introducing new Advent hymns was way to confusing. Besides he said ”If ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’ was good enough for Advent for the last forty years it was good enough for him.”
Fr. Alan Ray, pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra, also fielded questions from parishioners after Mass. “I think I am going to have to do more catechesis regarding Advent. I now realize hardly anybody understood that Advent was a distinct liturgical season and not just ‘Christmas warm-up.’”
Photo credit: Bill Ruhsam via photopin Creative Commons
5 comments
Quite the opposite here. We never ever sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. I’d love to sing it. Any random unknown song? That’s what our parish has.
Do you mean “People Look East”, instead of “People Come East”? It’s one of my favorite Advent hymns.
Will we get a reform of Sacred Music in my lifetime? It seems so obvious a need, and yet, our choirs continue to steal the show away from what is Truly happening at Mass. Such a distraction. And that is BEFORE the applause.
Applause, grrrr.
I sing in one of the parish choirs. We sing every other week.
Last week, our choir did not sing, the guitar cantor and accordion player lead the congregation in the recessional hymn of, The First Noel! Needless to say I was not singing.