This year the first intentionally heard Christmas carols were at a Christmas Vigil Mass. I actually managed to play Advent hymns up to that. Still it is hard to avoid “second hand carols” via other sources. But usually they were of the Christmassy, not the traditional carols anyway.

This was pretty hard for me to do as I so love Christmas carols, but now my joy is complete as I will be listening to them throughout Christmastide. Great thing about being Catholic is that listening to these carols dos not end of Christmas.

Now over the last decade and a half I have been building up my collection of Christmas hymns and carols. Radio playing of “Christmas Music” was too scattershot and more and more about secular Christmas and its trappings. So having access to the hymns I love every where I go is a decided bonus.

Still the quality of the recordings I own are all over the place. I like the selection on the John Rutter produced albums, but the production quality is crappy especially the clarity and volume. Paid for streaming music services are especially awesome when it comes to creating the “perfect” Christmas playlist.

I have gone from one music service to another and thus have to keep creating these playlists. This is both good and bad. Good in that I can find new gems I might not have otherwise searched for. Apple Music, like only Google Play Music which I last used, lets me combine songs I own with songs available via streaming.

Ideally I wish I could create a weighted playlist that derives sources from specified playlists. For example the majority of the time I want to hear Christmas carols both the classics and the lesser known. Every once in a while it would be okay to inject one song from another playlist containing Christmassy standards all about the trappings of Christmas and good feelings. Maybe once in 200 plays a Santa related song – possibly the Latin version of Rudolf – Rudolph rubrinasus as performed by the choir at St. Bartholomew’s in New York City.

Another weight would be for favorites that are older hymns, that are still mostly about trappings of Christmas than Christ himself. Although really that specific exemption is for the “Boar’s Head Carol” which I have so loved since as a kid I found it on one of my Mother’s Christmas albums. It stirs me every time even though it is about eating a boar’s head. Just love the melody and since it has a Latin chorus that makes it better.

Caput apri defero (Translation: The boar’s head I offer)
Reddens laudes Domino (Translation: Giving praises to the Lord)

Still not being able to randomize my playlist in an ideal fashion is certainly a #FirstWorld Problem. Mostly I am greatly pleased to create a large playlist containing all songs I like and that are also of good audio production. A nice mix of full choirs, ensembles, and individual singers. I’ve certainly grown an appreciation of crooners of the past like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra when they used their voices to the classic carols and more modern standards. White Christmas is certainly not my favorite of the modern standards, but when sung by Bing Crosby – that’s another thing.

What amazes me most is that each year I find a new favorite hymn. One that totally delights and inspires me. Last year that hymn was “Fum, Fum, Fum”. Still I need to do less writing and more searching for my next favorite hymn or selection of favorites sung by an artist not yet on my playlist.

One thing about Mass at Christmas is that choirs suddenly remember that there were hymns written before 1960. Seriously though I so love the work that choirs put into the hymns for Mass at Christmas. Each year usually I give an A for effort, not for technical performance. They are giving up their time so I try to put away my hypercriticalness. Last year it was hard to do that since the choir consisted of a couple of really awful singers whose discordance felt like screeching chalk on a chalkboard to me.

This year we drove down to Orlando to the Basillica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe which ministers to Disneyworld tourists. First bonus is that the doors to the Basillica have been dedicated as Holy Doors for the Year of Mercy. Have been there several times and the performances of the hymns was usually excellent, but not done by a full choir. It was totally worth the 2 hour plus drive down and then back again. I was really blown away by the performance of the choir and partial orchestra. A couple of times it brought tears to my eyes in joy. They were of one voice and I could not discern individual vocalists. Plus there is something incredible about a live choir in a room with good acoustics. Sure I can listen to great technical performances on CD or streaming, but there is a sacramental quality to hearing these hymns performed live. The downside it that I will be comparing subsequent experiences. I certainly was thankful to God for this and prayed in gratitude for the members of the choir and orchestra (in lieu of clapping).

Over the years I have heard excellent solo performances at Mass, just not a choir acting as one. I realize how hard this is to do having spent four years in a High School choir where this goal is rarely met (especially my efforts).

The homily was a bit of a disappointment. Pretty much totally forgettable. A intro personal story was fine, but as is often the case had nothing to do with the homily other than as a warmup icebreaker. As with most homilies I see them as another opportunity lost. Sure personally I do turn to multiple homiletic sources via podcast or written to find something more substantial. So maybe for once the disappointment isn’t “all about me”. I guess I really do want other people to have something substantial to light the fire of their faith and the turning once again to the Lord. I know I need all the help I can get. Besides something is seriously wrong when you can’t preach on the incarnation, the birth of the Messiah. It is as if repentance is a landmine that must be stepped around and our desperate need for our Savior.

Still I am sure God can bring good out of even bad or mediocre homilies.

Oh and one other thing I found annoying. They usually have some patter regarding this not being part of the diocese and some fundraising pitch. Which is fine as far as it goes. But asking if there were any people from out of town? Sure this was asked rather humorlessly for a church that is almost entirely made up of tourists. It was kind of a meta joke regarding other parishes that ask this. But then they were actually asking people to raise hands and announce where they were from. Fortunately they only asked a sampling or I think we would still be there waiting for Mass to go on.

Otherwise the Mass was quite beautiful rising up my gratitude to God. Te Deum laudimus!

Still I wish they would return the “crucifix” from the set of Frozen.

Ten years ago I decided to create my own Advent Wreath graphic instead of just using the normal animated gif that I had used previously. If you would like it for your own blog you can use the html code below. I will replace the graphic each week so that it correctly shows the number of candles that should be lit. On Christmas I will change it to another graphic I created for Christmastide.

<img src="http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/wp-content/uploads/Advent/curtjester_advent.gif" width="170" height="189" />