Gaudete

After yesterday, it was such a relief that today's cloud cover was at higher level than yesterday, so it wasn't as dark all day; the temperature was around ten degrees and there was no rain. At St John's this morning the new icon of St John with our Lady was blessed, a gift from the Russian Orthodox congreagation. I wish I coud have been there, but at the time I was driving to St German's to celebrat Mass with 27 others. For Gaudete Sunday a stylish pale pinky purple chasuble was laid out for me to wear, and the third pink candle was lit at the beginning of the liturgy.

I learned that we wouldn't have an organist for the carol service Sunday next, and using recorded music connected up to the church Bluetooth connected mobile speaker/amp was proposed as an alternative. This device connects to a smartphone, so one can play whatever music you want publicly with it directly. I wasn't terribly keen on the idea, but thought I should accept the challenge. 

It means making a playlist on YouTube and trusting the stability and strength of the phone/wifi signal, or having an archived set of MP3 tracks on my phone (my preferred option). There seems to be a hard-wire option for connecting the phone to the speaker also. This would minimise the risk of something going wrong. When I returned to church after lunch for the third of the Advent Great O services, I checked out the device and found it connected via Bluetooth to my phone quite easily. 

I walked in the dark for an hour or  so when I got back and then got to work finding suitable material on YouTube to record on to my digital dictating machine, then edited the file in Audacity to suit. I just hope the tracks I've chosen can be sung along to by a congregation.

There was one beautiful track of 'Silent Night' arranged by John Rutter and sung by a virtual choir this time last year. This one I think we'll just listen to. Also I came across a version of Hark the Herald by an Irish Showband, in full folk dance mode, with fiddles, flutes guitars, hand drums, singers and dancers, a delightful replacement for an organ voluntary after the service I thought. Getting this job done took up the entire evening, but I was fairly pleased with the result. I tell myself it's going to be all right on the night.