29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

18 October 2009

Entrance	Christ be our light (Bernadette Farrell)
Penitential Rite	omitted
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 32	May your love be upon us (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Ours were the griefs he bore (Stephen Dean)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 6 (mtgf)
Communion	He became poor (John Bell)
Final	Praise to the Holiest (John Henry Newman)

A baptism with Sunday Mass is not something we do well yet. Apart from improving communication so that it is not a surprise on a Sunday morning there are two aspects that relate to the choice of music. At present the rite feels very wordy so how might music be used. Secondly, the congregation which normally sings the parts of the Mass well and could be said to have a leadership role is sounds muffled. This relates to a non musical issue that they are uncertain what their role is.

The presence of a baptismal party affects the choice of music on the day. Often when there is a baptism we use Archbishop Denis Hurley's text 'God at creation's dawn' which articulates what is happening and our part in it. This time we sang 'Christ be our light' as something which seems to be quite well known.

I wondered about using 'Ours were the griefs he bore'. We can shy away from the more painful aspects of the gospel. Or was this 'too miserable' for a joyful baptism? How might it affect this potential moment of evangelisation? In the end I decided to keep it. We had after all prepared it. It is a lovely piece demanding a sustaining of line in the verses by the choir. It was also a piece that was relatively new to our repertoire and this was an opportunity to consolidate it. And it linked the readings with the rite expressing the mystery the child is baptised into - Christ suffered for you.