19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

8 August 2010

Entrance	Lord, you have come to the seashore
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Jeanne Jugan Gloria (Christopher Walker)
Psalm 32	Happy the people (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia (Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Let nothing trouble you (Bernadette Farrell)
Eucharistic Acclamations	No Greater Love (Michael Joncas)
Lamb of God	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Communion	I'll love the Lord (John Bell)
Final	Love divine

I am not sure that today's choices did justice to the texts we heard. As is often in the case hearing the readings proclaimed is a different experience to looking at them on paper. After the event the people that God has chosen as his own seems to ring out. It might even be a week when it was justifiable to sing about 'us' or least the people God has called us to be.

Let nothing trouble you by Bernadette Farrell has the refrain based on a text of St Teresa of Avile whereas the verses offer a rich mosaic of scriptural and liturgical texts. I'll love the Lord from John Bell has a simple responsorial patten with a cantor singing the first line which is varied in the repeat by all; the second phrase follows the same pattern and is followed by a repeat of the first phrase. The text suggest that it might have been written for a parish mission or the Church of Scotland equivalent, at least some sort of recommitment.

For various reasons I did not produce a Mass sheet for the last two weeks - apologies. Apart from the references to the readings it mostly serves as an aide-memoire for the Mass parts. The one exception is the psalm response so that has required extra enunciation these weeks. As the whole congregation is invited sing the complete text of the Gloria I have animated that more than I usually would. My impression is that the Mass parts are generally known and people weren't deterred by the lack of a piece of A5 paper. This does reinforce my apprehension about adapting current setting to the new translation. It seems to me laudable to aim for people to know Mass setting by heart. Though I think possible to change my guess is that we recognise that this not a case of reading and singing a new text (which maybe what the musicians will do) but of alerting the heart.