Thanks to reader James Turner for sending us photographs of
Solemn First Vespers of the Eighth Sunday per annum, celebrated before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and
followed by Benediction, at St James’, Spanish Place in
London. The celebration was the first in what we hope will become a
semi-regular celebration of Vespers in the parish. The liturgy was sung in
Latin with the assistance of the parish choir, with psalms and antiphons in
Gregorian chant, together with a Guerrero Magnificat, a motet by Verdelot, the
hymn Rerum Deus fons omnium to a setting by de Nardt, and an Ave Regina
Caelorum by Morales. The Tantum ergo
was sung congregationally to the tune Cwm Rhondda in honour of St. David, whose
feast day is March 1st, the day on which this Vespers was celebrated.
