As I explained last week, the blog is going to follow something of a series for a few weeks, as the liturgical calendar suggested several items from the works of the self-consciously theological composer Olivier Messiaen. This week we are in the time between Ascension Day and Pentecost, and the musical focus will be on the Messe de la Pentecôte, first performed as a composition in 1951, though based – the composer tells us – on his improvisations in the proceeding years.

I have entitled this post ‘Advent, again?’, however, because it turns out that at least one of the key improvisations on which Messiaen had based his Mass for Pentecost had been made initially on the third Sunday of Advent. I know this both because his notes on the project refer to it, and because it turns out that on of the melodies in the Offertory of the Mass is a disguised version of the plainchant gradual for Advent IV (Prope est Dominus: The Lord is near).

Given that Advent and Pentecost are about as far apart as they could be in terms of where they fall in the liturgical year, this seemed initially to be an odd thing to have done. Might it in fact undermine my supposition that music itself can reflect theological themes if it turns out that the same music can simply be moved from one penitential season onto a festival at a different time of  year? On further reflection, though, maybe it doesn’t.

Advent is our preparation for the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity. Pentecost is the Advent of the Holy Spirit; by marking both in similar ways we underscore the unity within Trinity of the persons. By making this music function as the offertory of a Mass, it also serves to prepare the faithful heart for the spirit-enabled incarnation of Christ under the species of bread and wine which is at the heart of that sacrament. By giving it the subtitle ‘things visible and invisible’ it connects not only to the Creed, but also to the mystery of the Eucharist.

All this on just one movement. Perhaps I will reserve the other four movements of this Mass for the possibility that I’m still writing this blog next year. Please, go, listen, pray, seek, and receive the grace that the Holy Spirit brings to the Pentecost Church.