Good Friday, It is finished!

James Tissot's "Consummatum Est!" Image courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, NYC

It is finished! Christ hath known

All the life of men wayfaring; 

Human joys and sorrows sharing.

Making human needs his own

Lord in us thy life renewing,

Lead us where thy feet have trod,

Till, the way of truth pursuing,

Human souls find rest in God.

It is finished! Christ is slain,

On the altar of creation,

Offering for a world's salvation

Sacrifice of love and pain,

Lord thy love through pain revealing,

Purge our passions, scourge our vice,

Till, upon the tree of healing,

Self is slain in sacrifice!

-Reverend Gabriel Gillett

The Rev Gabriel Gillett (1799-1871) is one of the largely forgotten vicars of the Church of England in the 19th century. Rev Gillett after receiving an MA from Oriel College, Oxford, became rector of Waltham on the Woods, was in charge of a dilapidated church, which he renovated at his expense. Today the rectory he built is a nursing home. Many people remember him for the hymn "It is finished!" which is still sung in Anglican/Episcopal churches on Good Friday. The hymn is number 380 in the Church of England Hymnal

Festival of Lessons and Carols

Merry Christmas.

One of the treasures of Anglicanism is the Christmas season service called "A Festival of Lessons and Carols", "lessons" being the very-Anglican term for bible readings. It is a service simple in concept but powerful in execution especially when attention is given to the music and the congregation joins in fully. There are usually nine bible readings, beginning with Genesis, where we are reminded of our original sin, the reason why Christ came. It continues through the Old Testament prophecies that tell of the coming of Christ and ends with the Gospel readings we are all most familiar with. (Wikipedia article here.)

From its modest beginnings in a temporary wooden cathedral in Truro, England in the late 19th Century, it has expanded throughout the globe, first to other Anglican churches and then to other denominations. Many of the Anglican Use parishes continue the tradition. My "home" AU parish in Boston, the Congregation of Saint Athanasius, has their annual Lessons and Carols service this Sunday, December 26, at 5:00 P.M. One of the most famous such services comes from King's College in Cambridge, England, which the BBC broadcasts live and then makes available on their website for online listening here. More information about the service is available from the King's College's website including an order of service and a history. One example of a Catholic version can be found here on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, though I would have chosen more traditional carols and ones that go together better. The styles seem to clash. "Ave Maria" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain" are in my mind both too dissimilar styles to go together in a single piece and not Christmas carols.

Living in the Philippines, I miss Anglican Christmas Eve services, including Lessons and Carols. They speak to my soul in a way that other services do not. I am not sure what it is exactly. It is hard to put a non-verbal experience like spirituality into words. But I do know that it has something to do with the music and the conmunal experience of singing familiar, generations-old songs together. Lessons and Carols take the Christmas music we all love, and are bombarded by for months, and creates a communal singing experience, and then intersperses the music with lessons about the meaning of Christmas, all with an Anglican sensibility and attention to detail. The carols are not just mood music to get through the boring bits but integral to the service, to the teaching involved. Without the carols, the lessons have less punch, and without the lessons, the carols are merely tunes that I heard at the mall. Together in this simple service, they remind us body and soul of the reason for the season.

Te Deum Laudamus

It is quite rare to hear the Te Deum Laudamus sung in churches in Metro Manila these days. However the singing of the Te Deum figures in the history of the Filipino nation. When the Protestant Dutch ships were defeated by the few Spanish-Filipino galleons in La Naval in Manila Bay in 1646, a solemn Te Deum was sung in the Cathedral and the churches of Intramuros. When news of the martyrdom of Lorenzo Ruiz and companions reached Manila, the Te Deum was sung in the Cathedral. If the Dutch succeeded in conquering the Philippines, there wouldn't have been a Filipino nation. The Te Deum was sung not just for the defeat but for the salvation of the Philippines. The Te Deum is sung in thanksgiving for the consecration of bishops, ordination of priests, the election of the Pontiff, saint's feast days or the consecration of a church.  In the Roman Rite's Liturgy of the Hours the Te Deum is sung at the end of the Office of Readings. But in the Roman Church, the Office is mainly recited by the clergy and the religious and has fallen out of use by the laity.  However recent Popes beginning with Paul VI have encouraged the laity to say it especially in a parish setting. In the Anglican Communion, the Divine Office remains said by the laity in parish and private devotion. This preserved the monastic character of Anglican prayers.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear the Te Deum sung at Solemn Evensong at St Andrew's Seminary Chapel in Cathedral Heights to cap St Andrew's Day. Unfortunately I got stuck in traffic on the way to Cathedral Heights and I just barely made it to the singing of the Te Deum.

The Te Deum is a Latin Hymn attributed to St Ambrose and is part of the Anglican tradition in Church music and is in the Book of Common Prayer. In the Anglican Church the hymn is sung so often at Morning Prayer or Evensong that many Anglicans know it by heart. In the 19th Century there was a ship that floundered in the Atlantic during a storm and miraculously the passengers and crew were all saved. The Anglicans broke into the singing of the Te Deum but the Roman Catholics were hard pressed to find a hymn they knew. This was unfortunate because the Te Deum is a Catholic hymn!

Part of the things Anglican that can be brought back to the Roman Church is the Te Deum. If this is sung often at Church services then Catholics will have recovered a hymn that best celebrates salvation and deliverance. The Te Deum is another beautiful Roman and Anglican patrimony as they say! The Te Deum YouTube clip in this post is an early Anglican version by Orlando Gibbons.

An Evening hymn from the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal

I found this evening hymn from our old 1940 Hymnal. It is true Roman Catholic and Anglican Patrimony! It was St Ambrose of Milan who wrote the words to

O LUX BEATA TRINITAS

"O Trinity of blessed light,
O Unity of princely might,
the fiery sun now goes his way;
shed thou within our hearts thy ray.

To thee our morning song of praise,
to thee our evening prayer we raise;
O grant us with thy saints on high
to praise thee through eternity.

All laud to God the Father be;
all praise, eternal Son, to thee;
all glory, as is ever meet,
to God the holy Paraclete."

AMEN