Two Feast Services this Week at Church of the Advent

The Rock of the Eucharistic Miracle in Bolsena, associated with the origin of the Corpus Christi feast (photograph by Maciej Szczepańczyk Mathiasrex, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

This week the Church of the Advent of Christ the King will be celebrating High Mass for two major feast days. At both services there will be a musical setting of the Mass sung by the church’s resident professional choir, Schola Adventus, led by Director of Music Paul Ellison. As always, the services will include additional musical selections presented by the choir and the organ.

The first of these, which will take place this coming Thursday, has already been announced; but some corrections are in order. The celebration will be for the Feast of the Visitation, rather than the Annunciation. The Mass setting will still be by Hans Leo Hassler, his Missa Dixit Maria. There will still be additional music by Franz Liszt; but the other composers will be Michel Corrette, Edward Elgar, and Francis Poulenc. The service will still begin at 6:30 p.m.

The Feast of Corpus Christi will be celebrated with a High Mass on Sunday, June 3. The service will also include a procession and solemn benediction. Schola Adventus will sing William Byrd’s Mass setting for five voices. The other choral selections will be “Oculi omnium” by Charles Wood, “Coenantibis illis” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and “O salutaris Hostia” by Thomas Tallis. This will also be Music Memorial Sunday, when the memory of loved ones may be honored through tax-deductible donations to the Music Endowment Fund. The service will begin at 11 a.m.

The Church of the Advent of Christ the King is located at 261 Fell Street, between Franklin Street and Gough Street. The entry is diagonally across the street from the SFJAZZ Center. There will, of course, be no admission fee for church services; but those attending the service are kindly requested to leave something in the collection plate.