The Morning Star Rises at the Oratory

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Picture the scene and the sounds. On the north side of the London Oratory’s nave, the Junior Choir – famous for the purity of its sound – sings the meandering treble line of The Three Kings by Peter Cornelius: “Three Kings from Persian lands afar, to Jordan following the pointing star.” On the south side, the main Oratory choir cuts through the melody with the Lutheran chorale (much used by Bach) “How brightly shines the morning star”, which Cornelius added to his hymn at the suggestion of Liszt. The morning star is not the star followed by the kings but Christ, whose birth into a world of darkness it represents. And, between the two choirs, at the highest point of the sanctuary, the Blessed Sacrament exposed for adoration.

I’d never been to the carol service at the Brompton Oratory before; I didn’t know why it incorporated Benediction – until that moment. The programme had asked us to “join heartily in the hymns”, but I was too preoccupied by my own worries to do more than mutter them sullenly. (No change there, as my mother will attest.) But the combination of singing and Sacrament – singing to the Sacrament, I suppose – was overwhelming: I understood what the Orthodox mean when they talk about the liturgy bringing heaven down to earth.

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December 25, 2009