First Sunday of Advent edition.

What hymns were sung? What were the Mass parts? How was the Advent wreath handled? What liturgical colors were in evidence? Homily?

So…when did Lo, How a Rose "ere Blooming become an Advent hymn? Especially a First Sunday of Advent hymn?

Just wondering.

Our parish uses the very unfortunate Mass setting – Missa Emmanuel – in which the Sanctus, Eucharistic Acclamation and Great Amen are awkwardly set to "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." It just doesn’t work.

The Advent wreat was blessed and lit after the Offertory hymn and before the Prayer over the Gifts, a placement I’d not seen before. (Folks are assuring me this is "by the book." Not exactly. Perhaps you can see it that way if there had been no Offertory procession or hymn and the Communion vessels hadn’t been prepared and were sitting on the altar, and the lighting of the Advent wreath hadn’t occurred after all of that. So, yeah, technically, "After the General Intercessions"…but that’s generally understood to be right after the General Intercessions. Not that I care. I was more interested in the wreath being blessed at the second Mass of the weekend, and visions of my old friend Dorothy kept dancing through my head, since I believe in the parish at which we worked one of the priests insisted on blessing the Advent wreath at every Mass and that drove…Dorothy…crazy!)

Homily? It concerned the circular nature of life, that the readings we had at the end of the liturgical year are echoed in the readings for the First Sunday of Advent. He then segued into the Gospel: Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap, and a call for us not to let the busyness of the season distract us, etc.

Rich Leonardi gives us a snapshot of a Cincinnati parish here.