New Very Marian Advent carols premieres in concert in San Francisco, Oakland

Benedict XVI Institute executive director Maggie Gallagher loves a good Christmas and Advent hymn or carol, but she realized a few years ago that she hadn’t heard anything new in decades — not even secular songs. At the same time, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone wanted to honor the Blessed Mother and nurture Marian devotion during the most beloved and very blessed season of the year. That is how a Very Marian Advent Prayer Service got its start three years ago at San Francisco’s Star of the Sea Church. Modeled on a lessons and carols format, Very Marian Advent invites Catholics to “wait with Mary” in prayer and song during the final weeks before Christmas — which coincides with Mary’s “last difficult month of pregnancy,” said Gallagher, who leads the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, founded in 2013 by Archbishop Cordileone.