6th Sunday on Ordinary Time

date

Entrance	Your words are spirit (Bernadette Farrell)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Newman (James MacMillan)
Psalm 118	They are happy (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Eye has not seen (Marty Haugen)
Eucharistic Acclamations	St Annes (James MacMillan)
Lamb of God	Newman (James MacMillan)
Communion Antiphon	They ate and had their fill (mtgf)
Communion	In perfect charity (Randall DeBruyn)
Final	Lord of Creation

Though the Entrance Psalm picked up the idea of God's law the rest of the choices reflected the Second reading more.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

9 February 2014

Entrance	Christ be our light
Gloria	Newman (James MacMillan)
Psalm 111	Good people are a light (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	What does the Lord require (mtgf)
Eucharistic Acclamations	St Annes (James MacMillan)
Lamb of God	Newman (James MacMillan)
Communion Antiphon	Blessed are those who mourn (mtgf)
Communion	Bread for the world (Christopher Walker)
Final	The kingdom of God

Light, light, light — again.

When the reform of the liturgy was happening one of the first parts which had to be revised was the Calendar and I am slightly surprised that the Presentation of the Lord 'knocked out' the Beatitudes - as my impression is that generally celebrations which take the place of Sundays don't interrupt the flow of the readings.

We did sing the Beatitudes. They form the verses of What does the Lord require? and we tried a new version with more melodic verses.

We had a Baptism this morning at Mass which we have had not had for a long time. Even so some things do not change as we only discovered before Mass that it was taking place. If nothing else to would nice to include it in the Mass leaflet and invite people to remember and pray for the child.

Thanksgiving for University Title

5 February 2013

Entrance	As a fire
Canticle	My soul rejoices (Owen Alstott)
Reflection	Ave Maria (Chris Rolinson)
Final Hymn	O God beyond all praising

We are now St Mary's University and on Wednesday there was a short service of thanksgiving in the Chapel. The University Choir (as they are now known) came and with a trumpet, the organ and member of staff sang the Rolinson. The final hymn we use for graduations but it indicated the need to find things that people would sing. In preparing for a service for a mixed group of staff, students, governors and beyond from a variety of backgrounds the best you can do, I think, is pick melodies that people know with appropriate words. So the final hymn was Thaxted and the first (we are learners, we are teachers) was sung to Ode to Joy.

Presentation of the Lord

2 February 2014

Entrance	The Lord is my light (Taizé)
Procession	Christ is the light (Stephen Dean)
Gloria	Newman (James MacMillan)
Psalm 23	Who is the king of glory? (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	O nata lux (Tallis)
Eucharistic Acclamations	St Annes (James MacMillan)
Lamb of God	Newman (James MacMillan)
Communion Antiphon	My eyes have seen your salvation (mtgf)
Communion	Song of Simeon (mtgf)
Final	Out of darkness (Christopher Walker

It is a long time since we celebrated Candlemas on a Sunday — I am not sure what we did last time. What is striking is that is the final ripple of the Christmas season or cycle of feasts but ritually it looks forward to Easter. Our procession was physically the same as the Procession with Palms and our opening chant is repeated at the Easter Vigil. On practical note with the weather and lights off in the chapel we had an effective gloom for candles at 11am.

We were going to sing The Lord is now about to enter the temple by Gouzes. It is one of those pieces that stares out from Laudate but I changed it to the Tallis. We did it in an English version which had 3 verses only the second of which was explicit about the Transfiguration and so was omitted.

As promised last week we repeated Out of Darkness this time as a final hymn. I told people why - that I intended to use it at Easter and they seemed to sing it.