That’s exactly what Father Dwight Longenecker, pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, was called to do. He answered — and he delivered. His beautiful hymns will be shared with parishes all over the country during this most joyous season.

First commissioned in 2024 by the Benedict XVI Institute, Father Longenecker wrote Our Lady’s Lullaby to music by William J. Fritz. It was in honor of Mary as Virgin Mother. Commissioned again in 2025, he was tasked with writing new Christmas hymns, an honor Father Longenecker could never have imagined. He certainly couldn’t pass it up.

The two Christmas carols for this year are to honor St. Francis of Assisi. They anticipate next year’s 250th anniversary of the founding of Mission Dolores, the oldest structure in the city of San Francisco. It also happens to be the 250th birthday of the city of San Francisco, named after the saint.

The 2025 Christmas carols are titled St. Francis and the Christmas Crèche and St. Francis’s Salutation to the Virgin. The former celebrates the founding of the crèche tradition by St. Francis, who staged the first nativity scene on Christmas Eve in 1223 while visiting the Italian village of Greccio.

In St. Francis’s Salutation to the Virgin, Father Longenecker takes the Latin hymn penned by Francis of Assisi and adapts it as a hymn in English, set to music again by Fritz. St. Francis emphasized three concrete images to evangelize souls: the crib, the cross and the ciborium, which contains the Eucharist. Francis, and many others during the 13th and 14th centuries, renewed an emphasis on Mary’s role in our salvation. 

“I have now written two Christmas carols honoring St. Francis to well-known tunes,” Father Longenecker said. “With the patronage of the Benedict XVI Institute, William J. Fritz has composed moving and memorable arrangements accessible for ordinary parish choirs.”

The priest said it is a privilege to offer new carols for congregations and choirs, and “in a practical way” to renew worship in this holy season.

For the past two years, Archbishop Cordileone has commissioned two new Christmastime carols through the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship. The songs are to be used in the innovative “Very Marian Advent Prayer Service” he launched in 2023 at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco. It has become an annual tradition.

The prayer service is a flexible lessons and carols format based on the idea of waiting with Mary, through her last difficult month of pregnancy, for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“I hope every parish in the country takes a chance on new Advent and Christmas music and considers hosting their own Very Marian Advent Prayer Service,” Father Longenecker said, because these worship services are spreading. 

A summer Zoom event hosted by the Benedict XVI Institute to promote the new carols called “Christmas in August” resulted in requests for use of one or more of the new carols in parishes in Kentucky, here in South Carolina and Wisconsin. The new hymns will be used in concerts and prayer services in San Francisco on Dec. 14, led by Archbishop Cordileone; on Dec. 20, the Very Marian Advent Prayer Service at Oakland’s Cathedral will be broadcast by EWTN; and in December 2026, the Advent hymns will travel to St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City, in partnership with the Higher Word Orchestra that showcases the beauty of Catholicism through music.

Pastors or music directors interested in using these new carols or hosting a Very Marian Advent Prayer Service can email Patrick Gallagher: pgallagher@bxvi.org or visit benedictinstitute.org to receive information on how to obtain the scores.

Learn more 

For links to listen to four of these carols and more information, visit: benedictinstitute.org/very-marian-advent-and-christmas-carols.