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Candlelight Carols

On Saturday Dale and I went to Trinity Church in Boston for their free Candlelight Carols concert. It’s the 3rd year in a row that we have gone and I think this concert was the best one yet.

They start with a prelude of 15 minutes of Latin carols and harp music. And then the choir processes into the church while singing “Once in Royal David’s City.” It’s a wonderful moment as they pass by, carrying candles. You can hear each choir member’s voice strong and clear and beautiful.

The concert then continues with a mixture of carols and readings, some classic and some modern.  And, while everyone loves the moment when the lights are dimmed and candles are carried throughout the church while the choir sings “Silent Night,” nothing is more beautiful to me than when the choir rises and processes through the church singing “O Come All Ye Faithful.” It is loud, it is bold, and it is beautiful and it makes me cry.

It’s wonderful to be in this spiritual setting the week before Christmas. For 2 hours you can relax and forget about shopping and wrapping, baking and cooking, and all the work that has to be done and instead just enjoy the music and glory of the season. I’m so glad we discovered this a few year’s back and I’m thrilled that it is now part of our annual Christmas celebration.

In closing, allow me to share my favorite reading from this year’s service. It is called “Christmas Poem” by Jim Strathdee.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the magi and the shepherds have found their way home,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost and lonely one,
To heal the broken soul with love,
To feed the hungry children with warmth and good food,
To feel the earth below, the sky above!
To free the prisoner from all chains,
To make the powerful care,
To rebuild the nations with strength of good will,
To see God’s children everywhere!
To bring hope to every task you do,
To dance at a baby’s new birth,
To make music in an old person’s heart,
And to sing to the colors of the earth!



This Post Has 17 Comments

  1. Beautiful poem, beautiful pictures, beautiful Christmas tradition! Long ago
    before I met my husband, I lived on Commonweath Ave. right around the
    corner from Trinity and I use to attend services on Sundays.

  2. That sounds so wonderful! O Come All Ye Faithful is one of my favorite carols and I think I would have been crying right there with you! Thanks for sharing that poem, too.

  3. Beautiful poem! This fall my girlfriends and I spent a weekend in Boston. During our stay we visited the Trinity Church and were in awe of it’s beauty. I can’t imagine what this church would look and feel like filled with music and holiday decoration. One of the things I miss most about teaching was the holiday concerts put on by the kids. Last year, my DH and I attended the Boston Pops concert at UCONN and loved it. Family concerns kept us away this year, but with luck we’ll try again next year. Who knows maybe we’ll go to the Trinity Church concert! My daughter and family live in Boston, so no excuses!

  4. You certainly know the best way to celebrate the season, the reason we give, the reason we care, bake and decorate. It comes down to this one simple event, the birth of Christ. You celebrated in a beautiful and wonderful way. What a gift.

  5. I’m so glad that you enjoyed our Candlelight Carols. It is one of the highlights of our Advent Season here at Trinity. I work here at Trinity as the Asst to the Rector and so get the pleasure of being here each and every day but Advent is the loveliest time, I think. Keep coming back!

  6. We attend a similar Lessons and Carols ceremony at Phillips Academy in Andover every year on the second Sunday of Advent. The students and a few faculty do the readings, the congregation participates in the singing of traditional hymns immediately after the readings, and the student choirs do several special hymns . Before the ceremony begins, several students play a medley of Christmas hymns on their harps, and the handbell choir plays as well. The setting is their Cochran Chapel with beautiful wood carving, stained glass windows, and poinsettias and lit candles in the windows. It is all beautiful. The students are SO talented, and it is just a lovely way to begin the Christmas season and remember the “reason for the season.”

  7. We enjoyed a similar event at Epcot during our Disney vacation … the candlelight processional. It was wonderful, amazingly beautiful, and made me cry. Whoopi Goldberg was the narrator the night we were there, and I’m so thankful that we had the opportunity to stop for a moment during the hustle and bustle of the season (and our vacation) and just experience the joy of the music, while reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas.

  8. What a wonderful tradition! I was worried I would miss a candlelight service this year because of a family get together on Christmas Eve…then I discovered a church that is having their candlelight service on Thursday night. Yay!!!

  9. Thank you, Carole, for this beautiful gift.

    Please know that I plan to extend the gift. I am playing the harp at a retirement home on Christmas eve. When I read the poem I realized that I should do some readings in between carols – what a wonderful idea that would bring a great deal more substance to the experience. And the poem you included would be perfect – but I know I would have to omit a couple of lines because I don’t think I could get through them… Thank you so much!

  10. What a lovely post (to make the powerful care, indeed….) I always tear up a bit, too, at our little Rockport Christmas Pageant as the procession winds up the street and the narrator reads out the bible story. I don’t really know WHY I get so sentimental, and I feel a little embarrassed!

  11. What a wonderful tradition! I was worried I would miss a candlelight service this year because of a family get together on Christmas Eve…then I discovered a church that is having their candlelight service on Thursday night. Yay!!!

  12. We enjoyed a similar event at Epcot during our Disney vacation … the candlelight processional. It was wonderful, amazingly beautiful, and made me cry. Whoopi Goldberg was the narrator the night we were there, and I’m so thankful that we had the opportunity to stop for a moment during the hustle and bustle of the season (and our vacation) and just experience the joy of the music, while reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas.

  13. Thank you, Carole, for this beautiful gift. Please know that I plan to extend the gift. I am playing the harp at a retirement home on Christmas eve. When I read the poem I realized that I should do some readings in between carols – what a wonderful idea that would bring a great deal more substance to the experience. And the poem you included would be perfect – but I know I would have to omit a couple of lines because I don’t think I could get through them… Thank you so much!

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