15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

15 July 2012

Entrance	O the word of my Lord
Penitential Rite	At the Table of the Lord (Collegeville Composers Group)
Gloria	At the Table of the Lord (Collegeville Composers Group)
Psalm 84	Let us see, O Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	(Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Lord you have come to the seashore (Gabarain)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Missal (ICEL)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 9 (mtgf)
Communion	Bread of life from heaven (Marty Haugen)
Final	Forth in thy name

We had a first for us this morning. I had not asked the visiting priest, who is with us for July, what he was planning for the Penitential Act. The first week had spoke the invocations in the third form and we came in, the next we had the I confess and we followed on. This week, because I suspect he had our original Order of Mass card, he look non-plussed so I sang the invocations in the 3rd form - our first. I should note that people are singing the Kyrie well.

We also managed something I have long wished to try which is the verse of O the word of my Lord in parallel triads - which wasn't prepared but once one singer was adding the lower third I added the upper.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

8 July 2012

Entrance	Christ be our light
Penitential Rite	At the Table of the Lord (Collegeville Composers Group)
Gloria	At the Table of the Lord (Collegeville Composers Group)
Psalm 122	Our eyes are on the Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	(Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Song of God among us (Huijbers)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Missal (ICEL)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 9 (mtgf)
Communion	Eye has not seen (Marty Haugen)
Final	He who would valiant be

It seems to me a key (set of) questions for those who prepare music has to be:

• Why this psalm?
• Why this response?
• How does this relate to the Gospel?

The first reading ends: (they) shall know there is a prophet among them' .'Our' in the response is us, the assembly and we are claiming that we will recognise Jesus both within the Gospel (i.e. at Nazareth) and also within this liturgy. Not only that he is a prophet but that we have faith and so he can show us is mercy. Singing psalm responses is dangerous stuff.

These thoughts partly come being asked about replacing the psalm. As will noted by regular readers we endeavour to sing what is given in the Lectionary each week. When musicians go beyond this it seems to me they are weighing two values: the Lectionary text and the value of singing at this point of the Liturgy of the Word. As usual there are levels of proximlty to the Lectionary text - the same psalm with a different response, a similar psalm and response on to a hymn which speaks of some of the same things. The further you get from Lectionary text the more levels of meaning you are losing. I commented a few weeks ago about the psalm being preached upon but I think there is generally an under appreciation of the role of the psalm in the Liturgy of the Word - and in particular its function and relationship. I am not aware of any book which explores this in detail among the myriad of Lectionary commentaries.

This reflection on the psalm makes a connection between faith and sight which is a familiar theme from from the Easter Season and guided many of the choices today.

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 July 2012

Entrance	Lord of Life
Penitential Rite	At the Table of the Lord (Collegeville Composers Group)
Gloria	At the Table of the Lord (Collegeville Composers Group)
Psalm 29	I will praise you, Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	(Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Healer of our every ill (Marty Haugen)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Missal (ICEL)
Lamb of God	Lamb of God 9 (mtgf)
Communion	Lord, your love has drawn us near (Stephen Dean)
Final	Praise my soul the King of heaven

Healing and thanksgiving for healing today. We had not used the Hebridean tune before so I sang it first and then it was repeated by all. I think it is a lovely tine and made a nice short entrance but not everyone was taken. Lord, your love started with the idea of thanksgiving and so a Eucharistic dimension. But I was struck by the idea of the Syro-Phoenician woman drawn to Jesus which gave the text and added dimension. I am sure I have said this before but I always wonder why we don't sing this more often - until we sing it and the use of the choir parts as an SATB echo means that we can't adapt it to our resources. By this I'm saying that it has to be both lovely and interesting for us.