A one-of-a-kind prayer service is coming up on Friday, December 6, at 6 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Patrick’s Seminary (320 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025). It promises to be an enriching way to observe the feast of St. Nicholas during the first week of Advent in a beautiful setting—and perhaps to escape for a few hours from the hectic secular round of shopping and celebrating Christmas before its time.
More details and how to register for this free event are here.
The Dec. 6 service will include all of the O Antiphons interspersed with readings and reflections by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and followed by a hymn to Saint Nicholas.
What’s an O Antiphon?
An antiphon is a short line that precedes a liturgical hymn. The O antiphons get their names from the somewhat prosaic reason that they each begin with an O. Each night between Dec. 17 and 23, wherever Latin Vespers or the vernacular Evening Prayer are prayed, one of seven O antiphons is sung or recited before and after the Magnificat. In the post-Vatican II form of the Mass, each of the O antiphons is also included as the Gospel Acclamation during the Mass during those days.
Each O Antiphon invokes Christ under different a different title. Each day has its own particular antiphon:
- O Sapientia (O Wisdom) 12/17
- O Adonai (O Lord) 12/18
- O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse) 12/19
- O Clavis David (O Key of David) 12/20
- O Oriens (O Dayspring) 12/21
- O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations) 12/22
- O Emmanuel (O With Us is God) 12/23
The Dec. 6 service will include all of the O Antiphons, which are usually sung individually with the Magnificat at Vespers during the last days of Advent, from November 17 to 23. But it will not be Vespers.Each O antiphon will be sung first in Gregorian chant and will be followed (with one exception) by a setting of the same antiphon by various composers. A setting of the Magnificat for eight voices by Palestrina will also be sung.
Conductor Richard Sparks explained the plan for the music:
"Since we are doing this in one Advent service (with all seven of the O Antiphons) we will do only one setting of the Magnificat, a wonderful 8-voice setting by Palestrina.
"As we go through the Antiphons, we will always sing the Gregorian Chant for that Antiphon, followed in all but one case by a setting of that antiphon by various composers, most contemporary, since composers in recent years have been fascinated by these beautiful texts.
"Some examples: O Adonai will be sung in a setting by Arvo Pärt the Estonian Orthodox composer (who set all seven of the Antiphons in German), for men’s voices alone. It’s a slow, mystical setting, and utilizes the wonderful low basses in Benedict 16. The setting of O Radix Jesse is by Rihards Dubra, a Latvian composer born in 1964, who was raised as Catholic by his grandparents, and whose music is almost entirely sacred. And O Oriens is set in English by one of today’s preeminent Catholic composers, the Scottish James MacMillan as O Radiant Dawn."When I asked for more details about the service, Maggie Gallagher, Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, which sponsored this event, wrote me:
"We think of it as a form of 'lessons and carols' but with sacred polyphony. It's a bit pioneering. But between the Archbishop's spiritual and liturgical sense and Richard Sparks spiritual and musical brilliance, it's going to be great. The music will be extraordinary, the food and fellowship be fun."The Benedict XVI Institute has sponsored several well-received events designed (in Gallagher’s words) “to open the door of Beauty to God through beautiful liturgy and energizing a Catholic culture of the arts.”
The most spectacular recent example is the Mass of the Americas, a new musical Mass setting by Frank LaRocca, composer in residence for the institute. The Mass of the Americas was adapted for the extraordinary form for a Pontifical Mass celebrated by Archbishop Cordileone at the National Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on November 16, 2019. The D.C. event attracted a standing room only crowd to the 3,500-seat basilica, many of whom had never attended an extraordinary form Mass before.
These two articles about the Mass of the Americas provide more information:
- Archbishop Cordileone Discusses ‘The Mass of the Americas’
- “Mass of the Americas” and the Flourishing of Religious Culture
Because the singing will alternate with prayers and reflections led by Archbishop Cordileone, its format resembles Anglican Lessons and Carols services. But it’s not an Anglican Lessons and Carols service either.Gallagher forwarded my question about the event's genesis and the intention behind it to Archbishop Cordileone, who founded the institute: "What inspired you to create this seemingly unique service?"
Archbishop Cordileone replied that the original idea for the service was based on a “St. Nicholas Day concert,” formerly held at the seminary on the first Friday in December. Then the lessons and carols format suggested itself after the Benedict XVI Institute held a well-received Festival of Marian Hymns in May. When renowned choral conductor Richard Sparks became the Benedict XVI Institute's principal conductor, Archbishop Cordileone planned this event with him as a way to bring a service back to St. Patrick’s Seminary on the first Friday of December.
"The focus is on Advent, and thus the O Antiphons, but, happily, this year that Friday coincides with the feast day of St. Nicholas, so we will also pay him homage in the service through prayer and song.
The St. Nicholas Day prayer service also reflects the Benedict XVI Institute’s deep commitment to offer sacred music in the context for which it was written: as prayer, not performance, for the praise and glory of God.”
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