WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE — St. Colman Catholic Church will be holding an “Evening Prayer – a Devotion for Lent” event, on Sunday, March 19, at 3 p.m. This is a service of Psalms and other Scripture with choir, accompanied by organ and strings, for the fourth Sunday in Lent.

The church is two blocks north and one block east of the Fayette County Courthouse. There is ample free parking.

The Choir of St. Colman with soloists Kirsten Smith and Thomas Mitchell will perform, accompanied by a string quartet. Craig Jaynes is the director of music and organist. Fr. C. M. Haddad is the pastor.

The prayer service, known formally as Evening Prayer, sometimes called Vespers or Evensong, is one of the oldest in western Christendom. It is actually ordered for daily use — the Sunday version of it often being made more elaborate with music. It is known, in some form or another, throughout most Christian denominations and is highly suited for ecumenical participation.

St. Colman has made a tradition of presenting a special treatment of the service for the fourth Sunday of Lent, one of two Sundays in the liturgical year designated as a “Rose” Sunday, that being the liturgical color specified for the day. It is of a less somber tone than the usual color of purple and reflects the more joyful nature of the day (because it’s more than halfway through the season). It is also the only Sunday in Lent when the use of flowers is permitted.

The primary scripture reading for the day is from the Letter of Peter and it quotes from the prophet Isaiah concerning the Messiah. Those words are paraphrased in the second part of Handel’s “Messiah” and for that reason, the first section of that work is used as the special music of the day. This is in addition to the sung Psalms, a Magnificat (The Song of Mary) and sung prayer for the evening, all to be performed by the choir.

The prelude for the service will be the well-known “Adagio for Strings” by Samuel Barber, performed by the string quartet and the organ.

Admission is free to all, although a free-will offering is taken to help support the music program at St. Colman.