The church of Santa Catalina in Valencia will hold a Christmas carol concert this Friday, December 30, at 8:00 p.m., after the celebration of mass at the Sagrada Familia festival.
For this occasion, a group of Catholic singers will unite “towards Bethlehem” and “with their compositions, music and voices, they will help us to continue celebrating Christmas, give thanks for the year that is ending and pray for the new 2023, Marian Jubilee Year. that the diocese is living on the occasion of the Centennial of the Coronation of the Virgen de los Desamparados”, they explain from Santa Catalina.
Karolinns Cristiana, Roberto Vega, Mariola Alcocer and D’colores Band, and Vicente Almenar, among others, will participate in the recital.
“Eucharistic Manger” and living nativity scene
Since Santa Catalina de Valencia is a temple of Eucharistic reparation that diocesan priests attend to in the center of the city, “this concert will be, in turn, a special moment of prayer and adoration: a Eucharistic Crib.”
In imitation of the old pastorelas and sacramental plays, “the Eucharistic Crib begins with the story of carols, songs of the town, until it becomes Christmas songs. And since the theme of the Christmas carol is centered on the baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the Three Wise Men, the shepherds and the star of Bethlehem, the characters of the nativity scene will come to life during the concert”.
The public will also take an active part in this performance. For this very reason, “we ask all those who attend the concert to come equipped with their Christmas instruments: zambombas, castanets, tambourines, mortars, guitars, bandurrias and lutes…, as well as some pastoral clothing”.
Finally, “this representation of the Nativity makes us aware of the immense joy of continuing to have “God with us (Emmanuel)”. Now Bethlehem is here in our Eucharistic temple and on our altar where the Nativity is. And it will be the moment of Eucharistic adoration”.
And all with texts by Saint Francis of Assisi “who, in 1223, recreated the first nativity scene, almost eight hundred years ago, for Blessed Manuel Domingo y Sol, founder of the diocesan workers and apostle of youth, vocations and the Eucharist, and the magisterium of the last popes, specifically Benedict XVI and Pope Francis”.
At the Feast of the Holy Family
Within the Christmas celebrations, Friday December 30 is also the feast of the Holy Family. For this reason, “before the concert, a mass will be held, at 7:00 p.m., in thanksgiving for all the families and, more especially, for all the married couples who celebrated their wedding in Santa Catalina in 2021 and 2022. All of them have been invited to participate in this party together with the couples who regularly collaborate in the pre-marriage ministry”.
Thanks
From the church of Santa Catalina they show their gratitude “to the group of Catholic singers who will carry out this prayer concert” and to the Abraham Community and Nocturnal Adoration, two groups of Eucharistic spirituality that are based in Santa Catalina, for their collaboration. Also to the Nightfever Valencia and Ars Magna team “for their logistical support”, and to the volunteer team “committed to the church of Santa Catalina in its various activities throughout the year”.
In a musical “Eucharistic Manger” of prayer, songs and adoration on the feast of the Holy Family