Baptism of the Lord

9 January 2011

Entrance	We shall draw water (Paul Inwood)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	St Augustine's Gloria (Christopher Walker)
Psalm 28	The Lord will bless (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	O child of promise (Andrew Maries)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Christmas (Ebeling arr. mtgf)
Communion	When John baptised (Bourgeois)
Final	Forth in the peace

Responsorial Psalms can be markers in the memory. Three years I must have been in Chile when last sang this psalm. I had left this setting to be used and it was revised for this morning. What struck me was the contrast between the response and the verses, between blessing people with peace and the God of glory and power who thunders over the seas.
The decorations were down, the crib put away and so only the colour white and the Lamb of God were the only echoes on the Christmas season otherwise our focus was directed to the feast and beyond. O child of promise has a sense of invocation or vigil for the feast, not now just 'come be with us' but 'come and show yourself'' and this revelation will eventually lead to passion and resurrection. If you want the textual connection he is God's delight, the one on whom the Holy Spirit rests.
The final hymn picked up references in the homily to baptism in Christ as priest, prophet and king. Though I always appreciate the articulateness of the theology of the text I find it a bit of a mouthful, all those 'Christ's to start with. May be it is the Gibbons tune. I have heard it sung to Jerusalem but then you have to lose a verse which then works against the text.