A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
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A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols December 2020 St. John Neumann Catholic Church 9000 Warfield Road Gaithersburg, Maryland PRELUDE: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel arr. Brian Childers PROCESSIONAL HYMN: Once in Royal David’s City IRBY Once in royal David's city And through all His wondrous childhood Stood a lowly cattle shed, He would honor and obey, Where a mother laid her Baby Love and watch the lowly maiden, In a manger for His bed: In whose gentle arms He lay: Mary was that mother mild, Christian children all should be Jesus Christ her little Child. Kind, obedient, good as He. He came down to earth from heaven, For he is our childhood's pattern; Who is God and Lord of all, Day by day, like us He grew; And His shelter was a stable, He was little, weak and helpless, And His cradle was a stall; Tears and smiles like us He knew; With the poor, and mean, and lowly, And He feels for all our sadness, Lived on earth our Savior holy. And He shares in all our gladness. And our eyes at last shall see Him, Through His own redeeming love; For that Child so dear and gentle Is our Lord in heaven above, And He leads His children on To the place where He is gone. OPENING PRAYER Priest: In the Name of the Father a and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. All: Amen. Priest: The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. All: And with your spirit. Priest: My brothers and sisters, how beautifully in this season the Church provides that we should recite the words and recall the longing of those who lived before our Lord's first coming. May we learn through their example to have a great longing for the day when he will come again. We do well to consider how much good our Lord did by his first coming, and how much more he will do for us by his second. This thought will help us to have a great love for that first coming of his and a great longing for his return. Let us pray. Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. INVITATORY HYMN: In the Bleak Mid-Winter CRANHAM In the bleak midwinter Angels and archangels Frosty wind made moan, May have gathered there, Earth stood hard as iron, Cherubim and seraphim Water like a stone; Thronged the air; Snow had fallen, But his mother only, Snow on snow, In her maiden bliss, In the bleak midwinter, Worshipped the Beloved Long ago. With a kiss. Heaven cannot hold him, What can I give him, Nor earth sustain; Poor as I am? Heaven and earth shall flee away If I were a shepherd When he comes to reign; I would bring a lamb, In the bleak midwinter If I were a wise man A stable place sufficed I would do my part, The Lord God incarnate, Yet what I can I give Him — Jesus Christ. Give my heart. FIRST READING: Genesis 3:8-15, 17-19 God tells sinful Adam that he has lost the life of Paradise and that his seed will bruise the serpent’s head. When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. The LORD God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.” Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat? The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me – she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” The LORD God then asked the woman: What is this you have done? The woman answered, “The snake tricked me, so I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the snake: Because you have done this, cursed are you among all the animals, tame or wild; On your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel. To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it, Cursed is the ground because of you! In toil you shall eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you, and you shall eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. CAROL: Adam Lay Ybounden Boris Ord Adam lay ybounden, bounden in bond; Ne had the apple taken been, the apple taken been, four thousand winters thought he not too long. ne had never our lady a been heavene Queen. And all was for an apple, an apple that he took, Blessed be the time that apple taken was, as clerkes finden written in their book. therefore we moun singen; “Deo gracias! Deo gracias! SECOND READING: Genesis 22:15-19 God promises to faithful Abraham that in his seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. A second time the angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven and said: “I swear by my very self—oracle of the LORD—that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your son, your only one, I will bless you and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants will take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing, because you obeyed my command.” CAROL: I Wonder As I Wander Appalachian Carol I wonder as I wander out under the sky, When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall, How Jesus the Savior did come for to die. With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all. For poor on'ry people like you and like I... But high from God's heaven a star's light did fall, I wonder as I wander out under the sky. And the promise of ages it then did recall. If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing, A star in the sky, or a bird on the wing, Or all of God's angels in heav'n for to sing, He surely could have it, 'cause he was the King. THIRD READING: Isaiah 9:1,5-6 The prophet foretells the coming of the Saviour. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this! CAROL: Qué niño es éste GREENSLEEVES ¿Qué niño es éste que al dormir ¿Por qué en humilde establo así, en brazos de María, el niño es hoy nacido? pastores velan, Por todo injusto pecador su amor ha florecido. angeles le cantan melodias? Traed ofrendas en su honor Él es el Cristo, el rey. el rey como el labriego, Pastores, ángeles cantan, al rey de reyes, salvador, «Venid, venid a él, al hijo de María.» un trono levantemos. FOURTH READING: Isaiah 11:1-4a,6-9 The peace that Christ will bring is foreshown. On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.