LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS

More than 44 years ago, my music experience was enhanced by participating with The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, which is the city's oldest major chorus totally more than 180 amateur and professional members. The conductor, Russell G. Wichmann, decided during that 58th season to record a Christmas album using the Allegheny Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and recording with Columbia Record Productions. The title of the album was, "Love Came Down at Christmas." Christina Rossetti's poem, "Love Came Down at Christmas," was set to music by Leo Sowerby.

The album included the following:
Joy to the World with chorus, organ, brasses and timpani that calls for a new setting of "A Handelian Fanfare." This wonderful selection was a Handel inspired festive carol by Lowell Mason (1830), Boston hymn composer and music educator, Joseph Wilcox Jenkins, of the music faculty at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University. The next selection was "Love Came Down at Christmas with Chorus and strings with an arrangement by Roland Leich of the music faculty at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Institute of Technology. The lyrics of the carol were written by Christina Rossetti in 1885. Here are the lyrics of the carol:

"Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, love Divine; Love was born at Christmas,
Stars and Angels gave the sign. Worship we the Godhead, Love Incarnate, Love Divine; Worship we our Jesus: But wherewith for sacred sign? Love shall be our token, Love shall be yours and Love be mine, Love to God and to all men and women, Love for plea and gift and sign."

In addition, The Chorus and the accompanying professional musicians presented A Sequence of Carols; Kolyada, Glory to God; Silent Night; Hark! the Herald Angels Sing; Adeste Fideles; Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming; For unto Us a Child is Born; Christmas, the Year One, A.D.; The Shepherd's Star; Slumber Now Beloved Child; and Glory to God, which was the grand finale of this recorded concert focusing on Ron Nelson's , The Christmas Story. Mendelssohn Choir members would agree with the distinguished composer, William Byrd, who wrote almost 400 years ago: "Since singing is so good a thing, I wish all men and women would learn to sing."

The color photo reproduced on the front jacket of this Christmas album is a reproduction of the Nativity Window in the Heinz Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh Campus. This Nativity Window was given in memory of their grandfather, Henry John Heinz, by H.J.Heinz II; Rust Heinz; Nancy, Dorothy and Clifford S. Heinz, Jr.; Sarah Given Larson and John L. Given, Jr. The recording was recorded October 8th and 9th, 1965, in Allegheny Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh, PA.

As we commenorate the first coming of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago, may we prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ in our lives every day through prayer, penance, and almsgiving during this Advent season and throughout the New Year 2010 as a preparation for the final coming when we meet Jesus Christ face to face in eternity. When we read the inspired Word of God in the Sacred Scriptures, we discover two passages that are closely related. The first passage is John 3:16: "Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may not die, but may have eternal life." The second passage is I John 4:16: "God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." May all good men and women who really live God's Love in their every day lives, which includes all of the Achievement Ladder Enthusiasts, find His peace, His joy, and His love beyond all measure as we commemorate the BIRTHDAY OF JESUS CHRIST ON CHRISTMAS DAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS! WE TRUST IN YOU, JESUS! MARY CHRISTMAS AND A HOLY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!