The Baptism of the Lord

January 12, 2025 

Happy New Year everyone! So, a few days ago I was having breakfast at my go-to breakfast café in West Roxbury, Joe’s 320 Café. As I was having my coffee, I watched one of the servers take down the Christmas lights from the windows. Then she said to one of the other regular customers, “This place looks so sad without the Christmas lights.” I shared the sentiment of course. BUT… Did you know that (as of the time of this writing) we’re still technically in the Christmas season? Yes, the Christmas season officially ends with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which is this Sunday. That said, our music ministry won’t be doing specifically Christmas songs this Sunday, but hey, you’ll still get to see the Christmas decorations!

 

Now as it so happens, the Baptism of the Lord isn’t exactly the easiest Feast to pick out music for. To my best knowledge, there are only three hymns in our hymnal that are directly about Jesus’ baptism: #117 When Jesus Comes to Be Baptized, #118 When Jesus Comes to Jordan’s Stream, and #119 Jesus to Jordan’s Waters Came, and only the first of these is familiar to the congregation. At our morning Masses, we’ll definitely do #117 as the Gathering Hymn, and the rest of the music selections will touch on themes found in the Gospel reading: water, baptism in general, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. And just to plug it in here… if you come to the 9:30 AM Mass, you may hear two very talented kids do a duet on a well-known water-themed hymn!

 

With my peace,

Carlo Serrano, Music Director