23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

4 September 2011

Entrance	Brother, sister let me serve you
Penitential Rite	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Gloria	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Psalm 94	O that today (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	(A G Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Ubi caritas (Bob Hurd)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Communion	Where two or three (Collegeville Composers Group)
Final	God is love

And so we begin. We went again for the total with new (revised) Mass settings as well as the new translation for the Order of Mass. People were reminded before Mass that they needed an extra booklet and there was an introduction to the translation after the Gospel (though the Deacon gave a 'short' homily as well because he he had prepared one).

We sang a revised version of the St Gabriel's Gloria using the new translation, once people had got past the awkwardness of the first refrain and were onto more familiar terrain it seemed OK. The revised Mass of Creation was introduced briefly before Mass. We sang the first acclamation as cantor repeated by all, and will do so for a couple of week to introduce it. Though some are concerned that there is a danger with rewritten settings that it will be easy to lapse into 'old ways' I think with strong leadership from the musicians there should not be a problem (of course, if the musicians slip…). More interestingly when we used one practice to review new settings there was a general feeling that the rewritten settings may tied us over but we may continue looking for new ones.

In general people's responses seemed OK; nobody expects perfection in week one. What I was aware of was that I come to the text knowing what has changed and what has not whereas I got the impression this morning that people could be thrown by the familiar because you do not know what to expect, so the response 'For the kingdom' was a little subdued (actually as this is said by people alone rather than priest and people together it has often been subdued).

I particularly wanted that the choices for other texts would be familiar, hence opening and closing hymn. I think they were at one remove from the scripture texts but still appropriate. Ubi caritas linked the command of love in the 2nd reading with the idea of coming together in Christ's name. It was good to have a setting of the words 'Where 2 or 3' as that had been a link between the Gospel and the reflection on the Introductory Rites.