4th Sunday of Lent

30 March 2014

Entrance	For God so loved the world (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm 22	The Lord is my shepherd (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Lenten (mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	My shepherd will supply (Virgil Thomson)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Lamb of God	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion Antiphon	The Lord anointed my eyes (mtgf)
Communion	Song of the Man born blind (Bob Hurd)
Final	I heard the voice of Jesus say

A little Americana this morning. Bob Hurd's Song of the Man born blind is a little C&W. we sing it in 3 part close harmony. As with other sings from the collection A lenten Journey it combines images from the gospel with the other readings - in particular the Good Shepherd. The Virgil Thomson is an arrangement of a Southern American hymn tune (Resignation I think) with words by Isaac Watts - a paraphrase of Psalm 22 (23).

Until I checked I thought that Horatius Bonar was also American, an Episcopalian I thought. But he was Scottish and a minister of the Free Presbyterian Church. Though the (different) Church of Scotland has now adopted the Revised Common Lectionary I am not sure what was used previously whether a variant of the old Roman Lectionary (used in Tridentine Missal & BCP) or whether there was greater latitude. Anyway the point of this is that the readings we can see as central to Lent on the 3rd, 4th and 5th Sundays in Year A from John's Gospel were not used. So the connection of I heard the voice of Jesus say to the Samaritan Woman and the Man born blind is probably a happy coincidence. A number of years ago I wrote 4th verse for the raising of Lazarus and the 5th Sunday which is now available here.

3rd Sunday of Lent

23 March 2014

Entrance	For God so loved the world (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm 94	O that today (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Lenten (mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	O God, you search me (Bernadette Farrell)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Lamb of God	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion Antiphon	If anyone drinks (mtgf)
Communion	As the deer longs (Bob Hurd)
Final	Praise my soul

Today's psalm is a good example (unique) where the text repeats the first reading about the Israelites at Massah and Meribah. What otherwise can be obscure place names are here given a context of thirsting for water and the psalm adds listening for God's voice. When I first became aware of the significance of the gospel's on the 34rd, 4th and 5th Sundays of Lent I was underwhelmed by the choice of psalm. Surely there plenty better psalms that could be sung including Psalm 41-42 which we sang at Communion. But the Gospel of Samaritan woman offers so many layers of meaning.

Our other psalm at the Preparation of Gifts was intended as the 'song of the Samaritan women' uncomfortably recognising Jesus as a prophet. Another text which might have been my choice of responsorial psalm we used as the verses for the Communion antiphon from Isaiah 12 - with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

2nd Sunday of Lent

16 March 2014

Entrance	For God so loved the world (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm 32	May your love (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Lenten (mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	O bata lux (Tallis)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Lamb of God	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion Antiphon	This is my beloved Son (mtgf)
Communion	Transfigure us, O Lord (Bob Hurd)
Final	Crown him with many crowns

1st Sunday of Lent

9 March 2014

Entrance	For God so loved the world (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm 50	Have mercy, O God (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Lenten (mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	Miserere (Lotti)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Lamb of God	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion Antiphon	One does not eat (mtgf)
Communion	Out into the wilderness (Bob Hurd)
Final	Guide me, O thou great Redeemer

Lent is our most regular season in that many of the elements are not changed from year to year. This makes both planning and preparation easier. The Lotti we have done before but take a leaf out of Martin Barry's book we sang some verses from psalm 50 before relating the Miserere once more. We sang the psalm to a simplified Gregorian psalm tone. I find that Gregorian psalm tones are a little forced in English. I am not sure if it because of the Grail translation and its pulse or because of the difference between English and Latin prosody.

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 March 2014

Entrance	All my hope on God is founded
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Newman (James MacMillan)
Psalm 61	In God alone (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Lead kindly light (Howard Goodall)
Eucharistic Acclamations	St Annes (James MacMillan)
Lamb of God	Newman (James MacMillan)
Communion Antiphon	Behold, I am with you (mtgf)
Communion	Restless is the heart (Bernadette Farrell)
Final	Out of Darkness (Christopher Walker)

Originally I had planned for the opening hymn to be My soul is longing for your peace. It picked up ideas of trust in God and the image of mother and child. However I suspected that it would be unfamiliar to the other singers and so picked a more well know hymn.

This is Sunday which rarely appears unless Easter is quite late. I was surprised when I looked at my files to see an unfinished setting last looked at in 2001. The psalm text is quite simple and in some ways mores songlike than usual - so the setting was completed.

Last week we were at the Cathedrals Group Choirs' Festival. Today we sang a movement from a piece we learnt for it 4 years ago in Lincoln: Lead kindly light from Howard Goodall's Eternal Light. I was not a fan of the complete work but I thought this was a good setting of an awkward text. I am not sure that it is a good hymn text, a similar thought struck me singing a Keble text at an Evensong a few weeks ago. Both were written as devotional poetry and have a personal element on which one might criticise in more contemporary texts.

We ended with Out of Darkness - its last outing before Easter.

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

23 February 2014

This Sunday all the musicians were at the Cathedrals Group Choirs' Festival in Chichester and so, as happens occasionally, there was no music at Mass.