We often imagine angels as gentle and serene. But in Scripture they arrive in blinding light and overwhelming sound—so much so that their first words are almost always “Do not be afraid.” These are the messengers who burst into the night sky to meet a group of poor, worn-out shepherds—outsiders who become the first to hear the news of Christ’s birth.

“Angels We Have Heard on High” draws us into that holy night. Encounters with the divine rarely stay within the bounds of one language, and this carol embodies that truth. Born in French, welcomed into English, yet always held by one steady constant: the Latin refrain “Gloria in excelsis Deo.” According to French legend, shepherds sang that proclamation from field to field on Christmas Eve, their voices reaching person to person, place to place, echoing the angels announcing Christ’s birth to all.

Maggi speaks with:

Candida Moss, the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham, who explains why angels in Scripture inspire awe and fear, how the idea of guardian angels emerged later in Christian history and why God chose marginalized shepherds as the first recipients of the good news.

Christopher Walker, an internationally renowned Los Angeles-based composer, conductor, choir director and liturgist, returns to his hometown in Bristol, England, where he directed music at Clifton Cathedral for years. From a friend’s recording studio, he deconstructs the carol’s musical architecture, showing how a single word in the Latin refrain unfurls across sixteen soaring notes to evoke the motion, echo and lift of angels in flight.

Our thanks in this episode go to Armonico Consort; Vox Turturis and Andrew Gant of Signum Records; the Choir of King's College, Cambridge; Ricardo da Silva, S.J.; Derek Fiechter; the Gothard Sisters; Richard Gilewitz; Malukah; The Grant High School Royal Blues and John Eisemann; The Roches; Christopher Walker and OCP; Simon Wester; John Weston; and Anna, Fae, Frank and Genevieve Tuson. Our theme music was produced by Frank Tuson.

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