669 West Avenue
Norwalk
NORWALK—St. Mary’s Church and the St. Cecilia Society are pleased to present their annual service of Advent Lessons & Carols at 4 pm on Sunday, December 15, 2019 at St. Mary’s Church, 669 West Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut.
The beloved worship service of Lessons & Carols was first devised as a Christmas devotion in England in the late nineteenth century, but its alternation of scriptural readings with related music has deep roots in the ancient Divine Office of the Catholic Church. St. Mary’s version of the service focuses on Advent, the quasi-penitential season leading up to Christmas, with seven Scripture readings from the prophecies of the coming of Christ. The service will also include Gregorian chants from the traditional Vespers service (the beautiful “O” Antiphons from the last seven days of Advent), and will conclude with a ceremony of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Four choirs will join forces to sing chants, carols, and hymns from England, Spain, France, Germany, and Colombia. The music will include an excerpt from J. S. Bach’s cantata “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”; villancicos from the 16th-century Cancionero de Upsala; and English carols both old and new. The St. Mary’s Festival Choir, the children’s Carol Choir, the Coro Hispano de Santa María, and the St. Mary’s Schola Cantorum will all participate.
This worship service will take place in St. Mary’s Church at 4 pm. It is free and open to the public.
(For further information, please visit the St. Mary’s Church website at www.stmarynorwalk.net.)