Diaper Drive

Diaper Drive

During the month of January, both our parish and our school will be having a Diaper Drive benefiting Birthright of Greenville. When a baby is born, every mother is given a “Baby Bundle” with baby diapers (newborn), baby lotions, baby wipes, and baby wash. As you can imagine, they go through these items fairly quickly. We will be collecting these items in the narthex and the church office. This is a wonderful opportunity for you and your family to participate in a pro-life activity to mark the anniversary of Roe vs Wade and the annual March for Life in DC.

Pray the Angelus this Advent!

Pray the Angelus this Advent!

In the narthex you will find holy cards with the prayer of the Angelus and the Regina Coeli. It is customary for Catholics at morning, noon and night to commemorate the Incarnation of the Son of God with the Angelus during the year and the Regina Coeli during Paschaltide. We encourage you to take some of these cards home to commit to memory, or to put in a prayerbook.  You can even download an app on the phone called Angelus with bells to remind you to pray this important prayer. This is our communal Advent project this year!

A Choral Mass for Advent – Sundays at Noon

A Choral Mass for Advent – Sundays at Noon

The Sundays of Advent will feature a masterpiece of Guillaume Du Fay, Missa Ecce Ancilla Domini.

Guillaume Du Fay (1397-1474) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Medieval and early Renaissance periods. Du Fay’s musical talents were noticed at a young age by the cathedral authorities of his home in Cambrai. He went on to hold a number of prominent posts—including at Cambrai, Tournai, the court of Savoy, and the papal chapels in Rome and Florence—and was well regarded by his contemporaries. Du Fay is considered the central figure of the Burgundian School, a generation of composers which ushered in the new practices of the burgeoning musical Renaissance in Europe.

Missa Ecce Ancilla Domini, composed during Du Fay’s late period and copied into the Cambrai choirbook around 1464, emulates the English tradition of mass cycles based on a cantus firmus (a pre-existent melody). The tunes used, in this case, are “Ecce Ancilla Domini” (Antiphon: Annunciation) and “Beata es Maria” (Antiphon: Visitation). The mass’s flowing rhythmic style, frequent cadences, and consonant, third-filled harmony exemplify the sweetness and clarity of Dufay’s late-life, early-Renaissance style.