The Love Song of Our Lady of O

My first published poem has been set as an Advent Hymn!

In April in my first Substack post, Another Uplifting Email from Dana Gioia, I wrote about two unexpected occurrences in my late-blooming writing life that opened previously unforeseen possibilities for me as a writer about Catholic arts and that encouraged me to think I might actually be a poet, after all.

I have known for a while about a similar more recent unexpected occurrence, and I am thrilled finally to be able to tell you about it. I am happy to announce that "The Love Song of Our Lady of O,” the first poem I ever wrote on a sacred subject, which is also the first poem I ever published back in 2020, now is being set to music under the title "Our Lady Expectant: An Advent Carol,” and it will premiere this coming December 10.

Maggie Gallagher, Executive Director of Archbishop Cordileone’s Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Liturgy, was the judge of the Catholic Literary Arts Advent Sacred Poetry Contest in 2020, in which my poem "The Love Song of Our Lady of O,” received an honorable mention. The poem was subsequently published at Catholic Literary Arts and at Catholic Arts Today. A few months ago, I was surprised and delighted that Maggie remembered my poem these three years later and suggested it when the institute decided to commission new music for the Advent and Christmas seasons.

It’s profoundly satisfying when an opportunity like that comes my way without my having done anything to seek it. Like a gift. Out of the blue. From above.

Maggie recently wrote me, “You have written a beautiful poem, and I want to launch it into the liturgy of the Church. Down the road, I would like to record with our premiere choir and release a Christmas album.” If her ambitious plans succeed in this case (and due to her intelligence, drive, and connections her far-reaching creative plans quite often bear great fruit), my poem set in this carol could conceivably become part of the permanent repertoire of songs Catholics sing every Advent.

I’m also gratified that behind the scenes, in order to be part of this commission, my poem also must have gained the approval of Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, founder of the institute and that last week when I ran into Frank La Rocca, the B16 institute’s composer in residence, he told me it is a fine poem.

It’s delightful to imagine all the possibilities that might come about because this poem is being set to music. But even the already-known realities are pretty exciting too.

"Our Lady Expectant: An Advent Carol” will premier December 10 at "A Very Marian Advent Prayer Service" at 4 PM at Star of the Sea Church, 4420 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94118.

You can sign up here. Hope you can make it, registration is free with an optional donation, and it helps the organizers plan for the reception afterward. If you can’t make it, register anyway, so you’ll get a link to a recording after the event.

My poem is just part of the interesting program.

At this yearly prayer and music event, Archbishop Cordileone will lead Marian reflections for Advent, with music provided by the Archbishop's Schola. A parish version of composer Mark Nowakowski's setting of G. K. Chesterton’s “A Christmas Carol” will also premier.  

Here is a link to a performance of Nowakowski's original beautiful setting of the Chesterton Carol performed by the Vos Omnes Virtual Choir.

Meet Composer, Mina Pariseau

For the musical setting of my poem, the Benedict XVI Institute commissioned a highly regarded recently married young composer Mina (short for Wilhelmina) Pariseau (née Esary). This past June, Mina was one of eight composers competitively selected to take part in a week-long Composer’s Institute at St. Patrick’s Seminary for the Archdiocese of San Francisco—under the guidance of world-famous Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan. The first I heard of Mina’s talents was from Maggie Gallagher, after the Composer’s Institute ended, when she wrote, "When I interviewed Sir James the first words out of his mouth about Mina Esary were 'She is a very, very gifted composer.'” 

Hearing an accolade like that from one of the preeminent experts in his field, I could not help but be impressed. To know Mina is to be even more impressed.

In preparing for my initial ZOOM meeting with Mina, I learned that she has degrees from the Eastman School of Music, so she is trained in modern music theory. During our meeting, I was delighted to learn that she has sung for a long time in choirs at traditional Latin Masses.

I feel it is ideal that my poem will be set by this composer whose musical background has included long and deep immersion in the awesomely beautiful and varied Gregorian Chant and polyphony from the Church’s immense and glorious treasury of sacred music.

December 10, the date of the prayer service, falls between the Feast of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a week before the also-especially-significant-for-Advent date of December 17, which is the date when the Church begins to sing or recite the O Antiphons.

My poem is written from the point of view of Mary’s awe-filled anticipation of the imminent birth of her Holy Child. In the poem, Mary sings the words from the O antiphons to the baby Jesus in her womb.

How fitting it is that Mina Pariseau understands how the Church’s traditional music unfolds in the sung liturgy of the Mass and the Divine Office during the daily ever-changing observances of feasts and ordinary days throughout the liturgical year!

Anticipation and Ardent Desire: More About the O Antiphons and Our Lady’s Love Song

Towards the end of Advent, on each night between Dec. 17 and 23, wherever Latin Vespers or the vernacular Evening Prayer are prayed, one of the O antiphons is sung or recited before and after the Magnificat. The O antiphons powerfully express the Church’s longing and awe at this time of heightened anticipation, while Advent is coming to a close and the celebration of the birth of Christ approaches.

The Magnificat, as most Catholics know, is the canticle of Our Lady, which she sang under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost during her visit with her cousin Elizabeth soon after the annunciation— when she learned from the Angel Gabriel she would be the Mother of the Holy One of Israel.

All Israel was waiting for the coming of the Messiah in those days. Some say that every girl dreamed of being the Messiah’s mother after she married. Mary learned that she would be His mother although she knew not man.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, the great liturgical scholar from the late 19th century, wrote that the O antiphons are sung at the Magnificat, “to show us that the Saviour whom we expect is to come to us by Mary.”

“The Church enters today on the seven days which precede the Vigil of Christmas, and which are known in the liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. . . . Every day, at Vespers, is sung a solemn antiphon, consisting of a fervent prayer to the Messias, whom it addresses by one of the titles given Him in the sacred Scriptures. … The canonical Hour of Vespers has been selected as the most appropriate time for this solemn supplication to our Saviour, because, as the Church sings in one of her hymns, it was in the evening of the world (vergente mundi vespere) that the Messias came amongst us.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of Advent as making present the expectation of the Messiah: as we prepare to celebrate His first coming, we also prepare for His second coming.

“524 When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Saviour’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming.”

Each of the seven O antiphons begins with one of the names of a Scriptural type of the Messiah. He is the Wisdom of God, the Ruler of the House of Israel, the Root of Jesse, the Key of David, the Dawn, the King of the Nations, and God with us.

Each O antiphon ends by calling out to the Savior to come and to show us the divine power that is associated with the particular Messianic name that the antiphon uses. Each of the stanzas of my poem uses one of these titles of Our Lord.

During these last Great Days of Anticipation, Our Lady stands with her Holy Child in her womb at the center of salvation history.

Exspectans exspectavi Dominum, et intendit mihi.
Et exaudivit preces meas . . .

With expectation I awaited the Lord,  and he was attentive to me. And he heard my prayer.— Psalm 39:2-3a, Douay Rheims Bible