When I was younger, my family and I would travel to the Chicago area for Christmas to visit with both sets of grandparents. We would attend an 11:00pm Christmas Eve service to ring in the Day of Christmas, sitting with the choir. If memory serves, one of the traditional songs the choir would perform was the canon version of Dona Nobis Pacem, typically sung in the round. Over the years, those Christmas Eve nights have become a precious memory.
I went looking for a good quality video to include with this post, but unfortunately did not find one that met the standards I was looking for. This one is probably the best of them, if you can tune out the noise in the background.
Instead, allow me to offer the following version, as arranged by Bach. It is very well done, and takes me back to my college years when I sang regularly in a choir ensemble called Perfect Peace:
I don’t really have the opportunity to sing like this anymore, given that I attend a church with a modern worship style. But performances like the above do take me back, and allow me to step outside the rush of reality, slowing down time to just “be” with the music. I miss it.
Below is a John Rutter arrangement of a common benediction and blessing. I sang this version in college, and the performance below is very well done. I lift it up as a prayer for us all – may we all find peace this Christmas, and may the blessings of the Father be upon us all.
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