Music Info on 10:00 a.m. Service – Sunday, February 2, 2014

Nunc dimittis

from The Lower Falls Service

by Nicholas White

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,

according to thy word.

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,

and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end. Amen.

–Book of Common Prayer The text of the Offertory anthem, the Nunc dimittis, is found in the 2nd Chapter of Luke, our Gospel reading for this Sunday, the Feast of the Presentation. The Nunc dimittis, also known as the Song of Simeon, is the prayer that Simeon offered upon seeing Jesus in the temple, where he was brought by his parents forty days after his birth. The Presentation of our Lord is also called Candlemas, because of an ancient tradition of blessing all the candles to used in the church in the coming year at the mass on that day. Simeon’s song underscores the message of “light coming into the darkness” that we celebrate during the season of Epiphany.

The Nunc dimittis and the Magnificat (Song of Mary) are the two canticles appointed for Evensong in the Book of Common Prayer. This Sunday’s setting of the Nunc dimittis is from The Lower Falls Service by Nicholas White, commissioned for St. Mary’s 200th Anniversary.