33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Remembrance Sunday

13 November 2011

Entrance	Eternal Rest (mtgf)
Gloria	Mass of the Angels and Saints (Steven Janco)
Psalm 127	o blessed are those (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Funeral Ikos (John Tavener)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Agnus Dei XVIII (Chant)
Communion	God remembers (Marty Huagen)
	Good and faithful Servant (Andrew Everson)
Final	Lord of all hopefulness

Today we were joined by members of the College Choir which gave us a fuller sound and the opportunity to do a piece such as John Tavener's Funeral Ikos. In preparing today's liturgy there was a balance between the Sunday scriptures, Remembrance and the musical resources. Today is a day when we recall the 65 students who died in the First World War and the 75 in the Second World War. It is also when we remember those, students, staff and local community, who have died in the last year.

I have long thought that though it is possible readings from the Masses for the Dead at one Mass today that the eschatological themes of the Lectionary in these last Sundays of the Year work well so that they are appropriate. I noticed this morning that though you could pigeon hole each piece under a particular category (Remembrance or 33rd Sunday) in the context of the liturgy they spoke more broadly.

An aspect I enjoyed about this morning, and I think worked, was the variety of the music: Plainchant, Orthodox, Gospel, traditional hymn and contemporary liturgical. It worked, I think, because the liturgy provided the space and context. By this I don't mean that the liturgy is necessarily big enough that you can 'bung anything at it' but that if the choices draw their origins from the liturgy, the liturgy deepens the meaning of the chosen pieces. So the choices are about entering mystery and therefore about helping others to enter - participation. I wonder if liturgy is stronger if there are different styles. That one style might be bland and therefore the difference might be about engagement. More importantly it is about the mystery we celebrate is exhaustible in the ways we can approach and begin to understand it.