Christmas Vigil and Midnight Mass (2009)

Introit	O Emmanuel (chant)
Opening Hymn	O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Reading	Isaiah 11:1-10 (A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse)
Choir	O Magnum Mysterium (Morten Lauridsen)
Hymn	While shepherds watched their flocks
Reading	Luke 1:26-38 (The Annunciation)
Choir	In the bleak midwinter (Harold Darke)
Hymn	Once in Royal David’s City
Reading	John 1: 1-18 (In the Beginning was the Word)
Bishop’s entrance and procession to the crib	Adeste Fideles
Gloria	Gloria de Noël (Thomas Niel)
Reading	Isaiah 9:2-7 (The people that walked in darkness)
Psalm	Christmas Psalm (Farrell)
Reading	Titus 2:11-14 (God’s grace has been revealed)
Gospel Acclamation	Celtic Alleluia (Fintan O’Carroll)
Reading	Luke 2:1-14 (The Nativity)
Preparation of the gifts	A maiden most gentle (trad. arr. Andrew Carter) – choir
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas
Communion	Verbum caro factum est (mcb) & Gloria III (Jacques Berthier) Silent night
Postcommunion	O little town of Bethlehem
Recessional	Hark the herald angels sing

Our celebration was structured along the lines of para. 110 of the Directory on Popular Piety, with a vigil forming an extended Liturgy of the Word, as at Easter, but with the principal celebrant joining us after the first three readings. (Fr Tony presided up to this point.) Celebration Brass were with us, and a very full congregation joined in heartily with familiar music.

Thomas Niel’s setting of the Gloria takes the traditional Christmas carol refrain and adds choral sections in between setting the Latin text of the prayer. There seem to be a few settings like this to choose from.

Verbum caro factum is a canon written to go with the well-known Taizé setting of the song of the angels. We began with mine and gradually morphed - via an 8-part canon combining the two settings - into a unison proclamation of the words Gloria in excelsis Deo. It was probably too complicated to expect the assembly to join in, but hopefully the lilting 6/8 meant it was a suitably serene accompaniment to the Communion procession.