3 January 2010
| Entrance | What child is this (Dix) |
| Penitential Rite | St Gabriels (mtgf) |
| Gloria | Christmas Gloria (Paul Gibson) |
| Psalm 71 | O Lord, all the earth (mtgf) |
| Gospel Acclamation | Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker) |
| Preparation of Gifts | Carol at Bethelehem Cave (Spanish arr. Christopher Walker) |
| Eucharistic Acclamations | Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen) |
| Lamb of God | Behold the Lamb (Iona) |
| Communion | He became poor (John Bell) |
| Final | We three kings (Hopkins) |
Whatever preparation one does real life intrudes. So though the Christmas season was planned a while ago being an accompaniment and a voice down this morning meant some adjustments. Out went the Cornelius 'Three Kings' — so out went any musing about appreciating the use of 'Wie schön leuchtet' intellectually rather than more instinctively if the hymn were part of your regular sung repertoire. In came 'He became poor'. As noted previously we pair the chant with verses from Philippians (His state was divine). This with the two carols gave a Paschal slant to the sung texts which is not there in the Lectionary or Missal. It did strike me that we might - with a little more forethought - have used the Canticle from 1 Timothy 3:16 which is used at Evening Prayer 1 of the Epiphany. Are there any (decent) settings of the Timothy text?
Though scripture scholars are keen to remind us that there are not 3 kings in Matthew's account the texts of liturgy point otherwise. Both first reading (Isaiah 60:1-6) and psalm speak of kings coming to do homage. It is worth pointing out that the first reading was one of the very few (less than 5?) readings from the Old Testament found in the Tridentine Missal. Indeed, the conceit of the Entrance Antiphon relies on the idea — the child the kings do homage is revealed as a king.
The psalm response given in the Lectionary: All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord, is one I have always found clunky. I am not sure that prostrate is a very musical word. In my own setting I have tried two possible paraphrases: O Lord, all the earth shall bow down and worship you and All nations, O Lord, shall…. The published version (in Veni Emmanuel and wrongly attributed to Fintan O'Carroll) has the latter which I think I prefer — that it is political entities rather just 'people' seems to be an important nuance. However the version on the Mass leaflet was the former. If this blog has no other purpose it has at least reminded me now to make amends. (The word setting in the verses in the published version could do with some polishing too.)
A final thought is to note how many Christmas carol texts are written in the present tense. They are not about a past event but Hodie Christus natus est — today Christ is born.
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