Refreshment Weekend

Behold the handmaid of the Lord;
be it unto me according to thy word.

Saturday, March 25, we celebrated the Annunciation in grand High Church style with a procession and Solemn Mass accompanied by our artists in residence, Lionheart. They sang the Missa "Ave Maria" of Cristobal de Morales as well as his motet Missus est Gabriel, both truly sublime. Mr. Keilitz did a superb rendition of Dupre's Ave Maris stella to start us off and ended with Bach's Prelude and Fugue in c-minor. We sang four Marian hymns, two I had never heard before (the Rector is always coming up with the most obscure hymns) and two favorites, Sing of Mary, pure and lowly and Sing We of the Blessed Mother. I was blessed to be able to sit back and enjoy it from the Zabriskie pew with no distractions, after a long day of struggling with a lazy sexton, trying to get the place clean and also spending a couple of hours with the heat gun melting wax off of just about every follower we own, cleaning the Lady Shrine of wax and restoring a missing candleholder and tightening up several others, as well as gluing on an ornamental piece that had been sitting behind our Lady for several years. Lent is always a good time to focus on details. We had a lovely reception afterward with some delicious food and drink provided by St. James Marshall, so it was truly a blessed feast day.

The next day was Rose Sunday and I was very glad to be able to also sit that one out in the Zabriskie pew. The choir did a wonderful job with Gombert's Missa "Je suis desheritee" and Peter Philips' motet, Rogo te. It was so very refreshing after three Sundays of plainchant. We had the traditional simnel cakes blessed before the dismissal, made from an old English recipe by Karen Christian and Nancy Barnes this year, with the customary 12 colored marzipan balls (representing the apostles), accompanied by a wonderful ham and other goodies.

Afterward Gilberto, Vera and I went to see Inside Man, an excellent Denzel-Jodie-Clive via Spike Lee production, so it was all in all a very refreshing weekend, thanks be to God.