Solemn Vespers and Benediction in NYC for the Exaltation of the Cross

The Durandus Institute for Sacred Liturgy and Music has arranged for the celebration of Solemn Vespers and Benediction at the Basilica of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City on September 14th, for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. A chamber orchestra will assist with some of the greatest choral works ever written for the Divine Office, the centerpiece being Mozart’s Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore, K. 339, to be supplemented with:

Concerto No. 1 in D Major – W. A. Mozart after Johann Christian Bach
Domine ad adjuvandum – Baldassare Galuppi
O Salutaris – Luigi Cherubini
Salve Regina – Vincenzo Bellini

The celebrating priest will be assisted by six other clerics as cantors in copes. Following Vespers will be a short sermon, then Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Visitors will also be able to enjoy the celebrations for the feast of San Gennaro, a week-long festival in New York City’s Little Italy district, which begins on this same day.

Pentecost - Solemn Vespers & Benediction with the Washington Oratorians

Solemn Vespers & Benediction of Pentecost will take place at St Thomas Apostle, Washington DC at 4pm this Sunday, with a Chant Rehearsal immediately beforehand at 3.30pm. See poster for more information.

Ordinariate Evensong in the Philadelphia Area

On Friday, February 3rd, at 8 p.m., the church of St John the Baptist in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, a parish of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, will begin a series of celebrations of choral Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, featuring the music of composers such as Thomas Tallis, Orlando Gibbons, Jacques Arcedelt and Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Solemn Vespers at St James, Spanish Place, London

Thanks to reader James Turner for sending us photographs of Solemn First Vespers of the Eighth Sunday per annum, celebrated before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and followed by Benediction, at St James’, Spanish Place in London. The celebration was the first in what we hope will become a semi-regular celebration of Vespers in the parish. The liturgy was sung in Latin with the assistance of the parish choir, with psalms and antiphons in Gregorian chant, together with a Guerrero Magnificat, a motet by Verdelot, the hymn Rerum Deus fons omnium to a setting by de Nardt, and an Ave Regina Caelorum by Morales. The Tantum ergo was sung congregationally to the tune Cwm Rhondda in honour of St. David, whose feast day is March 1st, the day on which this Vespers was celebrated.

Solemn Benediction on Christmas Day at the London Oratory

Solemn Benediction on Christmas Day at the London Oratory earlier this afternoon.