Detail of Adoration of the Magi by Pieter Aertsen
Our annual Christmas program, Venite Adoremus, is a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The 2011 program will be Thursday, December 8, at 7PM. The “lessons” are readings from Scripture that trace the gospel from Genesis through the birth of Jesus, and each passage is answered by a carol.
Our program is based on one developed by Edward White Benson while he was bishop of Truro in Cornwall. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is now performed in numerous churches and schools around the world, the most famous of which is at King’s College, Cambridge. Like King’s College, we use nearly identical readings each year, but change out the musical pieces. In addition, each year our Grammar School chorus prepares two special pieces that serve as carols.
The traditional readings are:
Genesis 3:8-15, 22-23
God tells sinful Adam that he has lost the life of Paradise and that his seed will bruise the serpent’s head.
Genesis 22:15-18
God promises to faithful Abraham that in his seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Isaiah 9:2-7
The prophet foretells the coming of the Saviour.
Isaiah 11:1-9
The peace that Christ will bring is foreshown.
Luke 1:26-38
The angel Gabriel salutes the Blessed Virgin Mary. (The Annunciation)
Luke 2:1-7
St Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus.
Matthew 1:18-23
Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth
Luke 2:8-16
The angels appear to shepherds, who go to the manger.
Matthew 2:1-12
The wise men are led by the star to Jesus.
John 1:1-14
St John unfolds the great mystery of the Incarnation. This serves as the final reading, given by the headmaster, and it encapsulates the gospel in a single passage.
