The Cornerstone

How dreadful is this place: this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven: and it shall be called the house of God.

For the Feast of Dedication, which fell on a Sunday this year, February 8, we processed from the altar out the West End door and around the block to the cornerstone, accompanied by the choir and the Sarum plainchant Urbs beata Jerusalem, where we gave thanks to God and our benefactors, past and present, for this sacred place that we call our spiritual home.  It was an unusually warm  and pleasant day as we marveled at the bright and shining cornerstone and the rest of the wondrously clean stonework.

We had some wonderful English music for the Solemn Mass, Leighton's Missa Brevis, and Bairstow's Blessed City, heavenly Salem for the motet, which was quite long but glorious. I was MC so I didn't catch much of the prelude, Messiaen's Vision of the Eternal Church, but I hear it was marvelously ethereal.

 

The Monday before the Dedication was Candlemas and that was also wonderful.  One of our  ensembles in residence, Amor Artis, provided the music and did a fine job on Viadana's Missa "L'hora Passa" and Palestrina's Alma Redemptoris Mater. We had invited Bishop Taylor but had not heard whether he was able to attend until he suddenly appeared in the sacristy a half hour before the service. I'm glad I was only crucifer since we suddenly had to switch into Solemn Mass in the presence of a Bishop mode. We didn't have time to put up a throne and he insisted on sitting in the back clergy stall which is neither very comfortable for sitting nor very accessible for blessing incense and Gospel books, but we managed with a minimum of fuss. This was Bishop Taylor's last visit before he retires in May back to his home in Kingston, Jamaica, so it was a rather poignant occasion. He gave one of his long and captivating sermons and most of us were in tears by the end.

On February 12 the episode of 30 Rock that was filmed at St. Ignatius aired and it was really quite funny.  They made our statues appear rather scary and they used several of their prop statues that were pretty horrible, but the church looked great. You can view the episode here:  http://www.nbc.com/30_Rock/video/episodes/?vid=1014041

 

Ash Wednesday came much too soon and we did it without a rehearsal so things were a bit chaotic. I was subdeacon and spent most of the first part wondering where I was supposed to be. As usual the ashes weren't wet enough and they ended up flaking all over my alb. The deacon and subdeacon are down to amice and alb for Lent which will really make us feel penitent, but this too shall pass.