Sunday, September 26, 2010

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

26 September 2010

EntranceLonging for Light (Bernadette Farrell)
Penitential RiteSt Gabriel (mtgf)
GloriaSt Gabriel (mtgf)
Psalm 145My soul give praise to the Lord (mtgf)
Gospel AcclamationAlleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of GiftsWhere your treasure is (Marty Haugen)
Eucharistic AcclamationsMass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of GodSt Gabriel (mtgf)
CommunionThe cry of the poor (John Foley)
FinalThe Voice of God

Sometimes one has an idea of the various pieces one might do but not necessarily the order. We considered The
cry of the poor
as an entrance psalm but one constraint today was the beginning of term and so we thought it would be good to begin that would be widely known.

Where your treasure is might be seen as a reflection on the rich man, whereas The Cry of the Poor reflected Lazarus. The final hymn picked up the more general sentiments of the psalm. Today's psalm is a good example of where the psalm and its response is not a simple reflection of the first reading. In some ways it is literally a reflection of the image providing the mirror image — the poor give praise because the 'sprawler's revelry is over' and the psalmist lists the world turned upside down something, ironically, Lazarus does not experience in this world.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

19 September 2010

EntrancePraise to the holiest (Bl. John Henry Newman/Terry)
Penitential RiteSt Gabriel (mtgf)
GloriaSt Gabriel (mtgf)
Psalm 112Praise the Lord who raises the poor (mtgf)
Gospel AcclamationAlleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of GiftsUbi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Eucharistic AcclamationsCreationI (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of GodSt Gabriel (mtgf)
CommunionI am your Saviour (Collegeville Composers Group)
FinalNow thank we all our God


What connections do we make between the liturgy we celebrate and those we may watch. It would have been odd not to have sung something by Newman this morning and we had Mass at 9am so that people could watch the Mass of Beatification. I wonder how many had watched the Vigil in Hyde Park and recognised Alleluia Beati.
Some of the connections were memory and objects today. Remembering that two days ago the Holy Father came here gave a poignancy returning the space and on display was the mosaic of the Virgin and Child presented by the Pope to the College.
Ubi Caritas took up the theme of care for the poor.




Saturday, September 18, 2010

Papal Visit - Prayer with Religious

Friday 17 September

Morning Prayer
HymnWord of God (Quinn/Bach)
Psalm 50(Bévenot)
Tobit 13 (James Walsh)
Psalm 148(Bévenot)
ReadingEphesians 4:1-7, 11-13
ResponseYour words are spirit and life (Bernadette Farrell)
MotetMay the mind of Christ our Saviour (mtgf)
Benedictus(Rees)
Lord's Prayer (Rimsky Korsakov)
InstrumentalLiebster Jesu (Bach)
Papal Prayer
EntranceVeni Sancte Spiritus (Christopher Walker
ReadingWisdom 7:7-10. 15-16
ResponseYour words are spirit and life (Bernadette Farrell)
Address
Prayer & Blessing
Final HymnLord, you give the great commission (Jeffrey Rowthorn/CV Taylor)

 It is an astonishing honour to be invited to participate in a papal liturgy. Even more so if he comes to church and you are involved in the preparation of the liturgy and provision of music. This was the Prayer with the religious, the first of three events at Strawberry Hill and the first event in England.

The Holy See provides an excellent document giving guidelines for papal liturgy and so the format of the prayer was given. There was a subtitle to the prayer with religious — with a charism in education. The reading, from Wisdom, was taken from first reading for St Robert Bellarmine and gave a focus to the liturgy. It was followed by just the response of Bernadette Farrell's Your words are spirit and life which is based on the psalm chosen in response to the reading in the Lectionary. It began with a playthrough on a solo violin — though the liturgy was short there were moments of repose and prayer.

Veni Sancte Spiritus was chosen for a number of reasons: the link between wisdom and calling on the Holy Spirit; the hymn text was written by an English man — Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury; it needed to be flexible in length (there was quite a bit of pressure to keep the prayer as short as possible); it could begin before the Holy Father arrived sothat he would join us in prayer; it was a connection with the previous Papal Visit being written for the Mass on Pentecost Sunday at Coventry in 1982. In the event the Pope was delayed by about 30 mins so it had to be flexible and so was sung for about 35 minutes.

As the religious were asked to be in the chapel at least 90 mins before 10am it was thought appropriate to celebrate Morning Prayer. One aspect of it musically was to represent the contribution of English, Welsh and Scottish religious to the liturgy of the Church through psalm tones and hymn texts. The hymn tune used for the hymn tune was the basis of the instrumental at the end of the morning prayer arranged for 2 violins and organ. After the reading there was a reflection from 3 religious on the contribution of religious to education: in formal eduction, parish settings and with the marginalised. After each reflection the response was sung and so made a link with the papal prayer.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

12 September 2010

EntranceThere's wideness in God's mercy (FW Faber)
Penitential RiteSt Gabriel (mtgf)
GloriaSt Gabriel (mtgf)
Psalm 50I will leave this place (mtgf)
Gospel AcclamationAlleluia Beati (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of GiftsOut of the depths (Scott Soper)
Eucharistic AcclamationsCreation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of GodSt Gabriel (mtgf)
CommunionWord of God (Quinn/Bach)
FinalPraise my soul the King of heaven

The psalm response is a quotation from the Gospel — the words of the prodigal son. Though both first reading and gospel are about God's mercy the protagonists are different. Moses is seeking mercy for the people of Israel: Have mercy on them perhaps. I am not sure what other examples there are in the Sunday lectionary where the psalm is more (directly) linked to the gospel.

God's mercy permeated the other choices. A penitential psalm at the Preparation of the Gifts — Psalm 129. I decided to choose the first response: Out of the depths rather God of compassion partly because we rarely cry from the depths preferring softer images and seems to me to be occasionally appropriate to give people these words. A second reason was that the second response is not in the hymn book.

I am always struck by the directness of the language of There's a wideness in God's mercy. It is a skill to convey meaning succinctly within one line of a verse. It was also nice to sing some Faber this week as I am sure we shall sing some Newman next week. Word of God was also partly chosen in preparation for later this week. We began with the chorale prelude before singing the hymn. Putting the two side by side it was possible to hear the link between the two of them.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

5 September 2010

EntranceAll that is hidden (Bernadette Farrell)
Penitential RiteSt Gabriel (mtgf)
GloriaSt Gabriel (mtgf)
Psalm 90O Lord, you have been our refuge (mtgf)
Gospel AcclamationAlleluia (Murray)
Preparation of GiftsThe love of the Lord (Michael Joncas)
Eucharistic AcclamationsCreation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of GodSt Gabriel (mtgf)
CommunionRestless is the heart (Bernadette Farrell)
FinalBe thou my vision

When All that is hidden was new it seemed to me at least a piece that excited me but doubted that congregations would 'get'. One of choir speaks about trying to introduce it at the time and the group wishing to resolve the final chord — one of the strengths of the piece. The melody of the refrain requires a level of commitment from the congregation for it actually to work. I know that when I have introduced I have said that it may not seem immediately attractive but give it time. Well we have and it seems to have taken root. I think I recall Bernadette saying at the time of composition she thought it too American for here.

We have a regular group who come to Mass from the nearby Roy Kinnear Home which provides care for people with severe learning and physical disabilities. Today we prayed for a member who died a year ago. As often is the case we learnt this late in the day and in some ways I am not sure what we might have done differently as what we sang offered its own consolation I hope — Restless is the heart until it comes to rest in you.

We began our change to our Autumn music today. It is odd to think that this may be the last year in which we sing this translation. I know there are versions fitted to the new translations for these current settings but I think some more thought is needed for how we will move forward. I need to factor this into the forward planning.