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Maundy Thursday THE HOLY EUCHARIST April 1, 2021, 6:00 PM The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in the City of New York Maundy Thursday 2021 We welcome you to the services of Holy Week and Easter Day. Today is Maundy Thursday. This year, we will again celebrate the Holy Eucharist at 6:00 PM in the church. The space is large enough to accommodate about fifty people while maintaining safe-distancing. We rejoice that some members of our community can join us here tonight. We continue to rejoice that our wider community will be joining us this evening on our livestream as the Paschal Triduum begins. We believe that all of us, near and far, continue to be a community of prayer at this difficult time in our city, our nation, and our world. On Maundy Thursday, our normal practice has been to welcome all members of the congregation to participate in the Washing of Feet. Normally, one would sit to have one’s feet washed and then kneel to wash the feet of the next person. On Good Friday, in normal times, two people kneel or stand to venerate the cross and then hold the cross for the next two persons. These have become important rites for our community. However, this year, for the second time, we will need to forego them for reasons of safety. Tonight, after the address that begins the Washing of Feet, one of the four bowls, one of the four pitchers, and one of the chairs normally used during the ritual will be placed for us all to see. Water will be poured. Then, the Choir will sing the anthem Ubi caritas to a new setting by Dr. David Hurd. This year, the Sacrament for Communion on Good Friday will be reposed in the Mercy Chapel, though the ritual will be simplified as will the Washing of the Altar and the Stripping of the Sanctuary. Finally, the Reverend Thomas McKee Brown (1841–1898), the founder and first rector of this parish, was keen that Saint Mary’s would be a parish, in a new neighborhood, that had been founded “not only with the intention of preaching the comfortable Gospel of Christ, and of ministering the Holy Sacraments to His people, but also, of restoring to its proper place and importance the Worship of God—the rendering Adoration to Him as a Congregational and ceremonial act—, (made beautiful, majestic and impressive by all the outward adornments, which are called the Beauty of Holiness, springing from the heart-love, within); but, which in later times have been forgotten” (Newbury Frost Read, The Story of St. Mary’s [1931], 17). Since December 8, 1870, when the doors of the parish opened, the Eucharist has been celebrated daily, almost without exception. We are blessed to be able to continue this ministry at this time. - 2 - About the Choral Music The setting of the Mass this evening is by Stefano Bernardi (c. 1577–1637). Stefano, musician and priest, was maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Verona, the city of his birth, from 1611 to 1622. In 1624, he became director of court music for Paris von Lodron, Prince-Bishop of Salzburg, where he remained for the next ten years and was active in the musical life of Salzburg Cathedral. Notably, Bernardi composed a Te Deum for twelve choirs, unfortunately now lost, for the Cathedral’s consecration in 1628. During his Salzburg years Bernardi was ordained to the priesthood, and also received a doctorate in canon and civil law. Bernardi was one of the significant Italian composers standing at the juncture of late Renaissance polyphonic and early Baroque concertato styles. His Missa Praeparate corda vestra takes its inspiration from a responsory which, translated, begins “Prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve Him only” (1 Samuel 7:3). The Mass is compact in its construction and is scored for four voices. Each movement begins with a recognizable common melodic phrase derived from the source motet. The portion of Psalm 78 sung as the Gradual this evening is set to an Anglican chant by Charles Fisk (1925–1983). Fisk was born in Washington, DC, and was trained as a physicist at Harvard and Stanford Universities. He composed the Anglican chant sung tonight while a graduate student and as his interests were turning increasingly to music. In 1961, he founded C. B. Fisk Inc. in Gloucester, MA, and effectively inspired the mid-twentieth-century revival of mechanical action organ building in American. The Fisk firm remains today a premier organ building firm with landmark instruments in churches, concert halls, and schools of music. It is not known what psalm or canticle Fisk had in mind for his chant, but it complements tonight’s psalter selection. Ubi caritas et amor is one of several antiphons traditionally associated with the Maundy Thursday liturgy. The text, attributed to Paulinus of Aquileia, dates from the late eighth century, as does its traditional chant melody. Since the antiphon comprises three metrically consistent stanzas separated by a refrain, it is sometimes classified as a hymn and used as such. It has inspired many choral settings, some of which quote the ancient chant melody as does the much beloved setting from 1960 by Maurice Duruflé from his Quatre Motets sur des Thèmes Grégoriens. The setting sung tonight is newly composed by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. In this setting, each line of each stanza is sung by a different combination of three voices. All four voices join in singing the refrain. The historic chant melody is present throughout the setting in one of the top three voices. The composer’s point of departure for this setting was his own accompaniment for Ubi caritas at #606 in The Hymnal 1982. - 3 - The motet Ave verum Corpus by William Byrd (c. 1540–1623) is a setting of the fourteenth-century Eucharistic hymn attributed to Pope Innocent VI (d. 1362). As a meditation on the presence of Christ in the sacrament and the relationship between suffering and redemption, this text has been sung consistently for centuries in various Eucharistic contexts and set to music by many leading composers of sacred music. Byrd, like the slightly older Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585), enjoyed the favor of Queen Elizabeth I and composed effectively for both the English and Latin rites of his time. His setting of Ave verum corpus presents the fourteenth-century Latin text expressively with simplicity. The French composer and organist Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986) was steeped in liturgical chant from his childhood as a chorister at the Rouen Cathedral choir school. He first entered the Paris Conservatory in 1920, becoming Professor of Harmony in 1943, a position he retained for nearly thirty years. He is remembered for his lifelong association with the stunningly beautiful church of St. Étienne-du- Mont, Paris, where he was named titular organist in 1929. The fourth of his Quatre Motets sur des Thèmes Grégoriens (1960) is his setting of Tantum ergo, the final two stanzas of the Eucharistic Hymn Pange lingua, the text of which is attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274). In his setting, Duruflé quotes the familiar Pange lingua chant melody in the soprano voice and provides elegant harmonic support from three other voices in identical music for both stanzas. The Offering Tonight, the Church’s money offering is entirely for the poor and those in need. It will be used in support of Neighbors in Need, our outreach to those without shelter and those living in congregate housing in the Times Square neighborhood and to support the work of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which serves New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS. We invite you to be generous. We are grateful to all those who continue to support Saint Mary’s and its mission to its people, its neighborhood, the Diocese of New York, and the wider church and community. If you cannot be with us this evening, but would like to support these outreach efforts, you may make an online donation at the Giving section of our website or you may send a check to the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, 145 West Forty-sixth Street, New York, New York 10036. Please put “Maundy Thursday Offering” in the check’s memo line. If you are making a donation using Paypal, you will have the opportunity to specify your donation as a “Maundy Thursday Offering” as well. We thank you for your generosity. THE LIVESTREAM AT SAINT MARY’S Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, License 718785-A. All rights reserved. All music sung at this service is in the public domain. - 4 - THE HOLY EUCHARIST THE WORD OF GOD The Entrance & Opening Acclamation All stand as the bell signals the entrance of the ministers of the assembly. The Choir sings the appointed Introit. Nos autem gloriari oportet, Let our glory be in cruce Domini nostri Iesu Christi: in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; in quo est salus, in whom we have our salvation, vita, et resurrectio nostra: our life and our resurrection; per quem salvati, et liberati sumus. through him we are rescued and set free. Deus misereatur nostri, May God have mercy on us et benedicat nobis: and bless us. illuminet vultum suum super nos, May he let his face shine upon us, et misereatur nostri. and have mercy on us. The Celebrant goes to the Altar, and says Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. People And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever.