According to Associate Director of Campus Ministry and head of Chapel Choir, George P. Miller, Lessons and Carols first began on December 1988. “Father Nash was director of Campus Ministry [at that time],” said Miller, “right before he became director of the Bangkok program…it has been a yearly tradition ever since.” “There are nine readings,” says the Chapel Choir director. These recount the narrative concerning “Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden” and follow through “salvation history up through the Christmas… narrative,” said Miller. “[The songs] are designed to comment or reflect on the…scripture lesson that precedes it.” Chapel choir consists mainly of students; however, according to Miller there is also “a core of professional singers that join chapel choir.” He added that this year there are six that have added their voices to this Christmas tradition. “The planning starts with the music,” said the director, “the advent and Christmas carols that the congregation sing…stay [the same] from year to year. But everything else in between [changes], and sometimes, like this year, they change a lot.” In planning the music for this annual concert, Miller says he has “to wait until September to see what happens with Chapel choir.” Because sometimes, says Miller, he the choir has a low amount “of a certain type of voice.” So, he has to plan the songs according to the voices available. This year the choir sang songs from “Dormi Jesu” to some of the better-known carols such as “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Because Chapel Choir prepares this music along with regular songs for weekly mass, says Miller, the work isn’t easy. “It’s 50-60 minutes worth of music, so it’s preparing a concert on the side.” However, Junior English major and Chapel Choir member, Elaine Jimenez, believes it’s all worth it. “It’s nice to see how all of our hard work pays off at the end,” said Jimenez, “and how well received our music is.” It would seem the reception was very good; a crowd that packed out the four-hundred-seater chapel and the aisles greeted the performers. Also performing were instrumentalists. “The instrumentalists include student musicians,” says Miller, but the “the strings, and the brass, and timpani, the organist—are all friends, professional musicians,” some of whom teach applied music, either currently of formerly. One of the greatest lessons learned was perhaps the application of the meaning of the lessons in Presence for Christmas (a program which allows students to “adopt” a child and buy them Christmas presents). “When we get up to [the] point in the readings,” says Miller, “when the magi come and offer their gifts—that’s when anyone who had participated in Presence for Christmas…bring their gifts up and they place them under the Christmas tree.” Miller says that Presence for Christmas joined with Lessons and Carols about ten years ago. “The main purpose [of Lessons and Carols is to give the university community an opportunity to celebrate together” says Miller, “We’re not here for Christmas, and quite honestly some people have stronger ties to their friends and peers here than they may have [to] their own family. So it gives our Loyola family…the chance to celebrate together.”