11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

13 June 2010

Entrance	There's wideness in God's mercy (Faber/Blaenwern)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Jeanne Jugan Gloria (Christopher Walker)
Psalm 31	Forgive, Lord (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia (Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Remember not the things of the past (Bob Hurd)
Eucharistic Acclamations	No Greater Love (Michael Joncas)
Lamb of God	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Communion	All your sins have been for given (Collegeville Composers Group)
Final	Praise we our God with joy

After so long we are back in the pastures of (real) Ordinary Time. What I particularly mean is since the beginning of Lent I have known what the readings will be, or at least a good guess, without having to check. I have been on a clear path now, though there is a shape in the readings from Luke's Gospel, it is needs some orientation.
There's a richness in the opening hymn; I think it is a successful lyrical expression of theology one might almost say Wesleyian - though the author may not have been grateful for the comparison. This begs the question what other Catholic hymns manage this? In recent years there have been many scripturally based hymns. The variety of versions of the text led me to check - it was originally 13 4-line stanzas.
Remember, not things of the past is a favourite from Bob Hurd's collection A Lenten Journey. Even if scripture scholars caution against equating the woman caught in adultery with the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus I think the text, though written for the former, fitted today's celebration. The Communion refrain from Psallite showed the insight of the authors. There is a clear theme of sinfulness and forgiveness in the readings and the refrain both reflected this but also allowed redemption/communion:

All your sins have been forgiven;
love has swept your guilt away.
Go in peace: your faith has saved you;
love has come to you today.

I am less sure whether Psalm 84 was the best choice of accompanying psalm.

The Body and Blood of the Lord

6 June 2010

Entrance	Of the glorious body telling
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Jeanne Jugan Gloria (Christopher Walker)
Psalm 109	You are a priest for ever (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia (A G Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	You have fed your people (mtgf)
Eucharistic Acclamations	No Greater Love (Michael Joncas)
Lamb of God	O Lamb of God (Berthier)
Communion	Pange Lingua (Ricky Manalo CSP)
Final	My God, and is thy table spread (Dodderidge)

Like last week there are 3 distinct sources for choosing music: the Lectionary; the Missal and the concept of the feast. Part of the concept is a connection with Maundy Thursday - something borne out by the 2nd reading. We used again, therefore, the chant Pange Lingua at Communion and at the beginning of Mass sang the text as a hymn. The final hymn I chose for its echos of O Sacrum Convivium (Magnificat Antiphon at Evening Prayer). I doubt this was something the author was conscious of as an 18th century Nonconformist minister. Both hymns speak of Body and Blood - if I remember correctly many years ago someone asked at a Conference I attended whether when St Thomas Aquinas wrote his texts for then new feast of Corpus Christi people were still receiving under both kinds, when they did receive - it was thought that they did.

At the Preparation of the Gifts we sang a setting of the Offertory Antiphon from the Simple Gradual

You have fed your people with the food of angels,
you have given them bread from heaven, alleluia.

One reason for singing this text was to get beyond the error of particularity — can you sing about partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ at the Preparation of Gifts? Yes, as this antiphon suggests because when we celebrate it is not a unique occasions but stretches back to the Last Supper and forward to the pledge of future glory.

Trinity Sunday

30 May 2010

Entrance	Holy, Holy, Holy (Heber/Dykes)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Jeanne Jugan (Christopher Walker)
Psalm 8	How great is your name (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	(A Gregory Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Hymn of the Cherubim (Anonymous Russian?)
Eucharistic Acclamations	No Greater Love (Michael Joncas)
Lamb of God	O Lamb of God (Berthier)
Communion	God beyond all names (Bernadette Farrell)
Final	Holy God, we praise thy name

This is an 'all change' Sunday where we out aside settings for the Easter Season and move into Summer Ordinary Time. These settings will last us until September. It is one way of differentiating this succession of Solemnities we now have from Ascension to Corpus Christi. It is always heartening to see the assembly remember and sing Mass parts. The Jeanne Jugan Gloria is sung by the whole congregation throughout — I have a view that the congregation should have the opportunity to sing the whole text of the Gloria in at least one setting. For one week only the cantor sings the refrain first repeated by all.

The last time I sang the opening hymn was in Finland a few weeks ago, Pyhä, Pyhä, Pyhä, it is always interesting to see what hymns have travelled. I did wonder this morning if the text was originally written for hymn singing as the line lengths are not consistent from verse to verse - but apparently it was. It is based on Revelation 4. The final hymn is based on the Te Deum and there are versions which paraphrase the whole text. I am not sure whether it is unfamiliarity of these verses or the nature of the text of the Te Deum but I never feel I miss these missing verses.

Hymn of the Cherubim uses the Orthodox text for the preparation is a hymn to the Trinity. I inherited the piece from my time in Chichester and never found a composer. It has always been a choir favourite and produces a rich sonorous sound from simple resources.

Pentecost

23 May 2010

Entrance	Come down, O love divine
Gloria	Glory to God (Berthier)
Psalm 103	Send forth your Spirit , O Lord (mtgf)
Sequence & Gospel Acclamation	Veni Sancte Spiritus (Plainchant arr. mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	Spirit of God (Bernadette Farrell)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Gathering (Paul Inwood)
Lamb of God	O Lamb of God (Berthier)
Communion	May the mind of Christ (mtgf)
Final	Christ be our light (Bernadette Farrell)

Chant melodies were heard twice in the liturgy. The psalm uses the opening motif from Veni Creator Spiritus in the bridge between response and verse. In the version used at the Easter Vigil with 5 verses the last verse use the chant for the first verse of Veni Sancte Spiritus as a countermelody. As noted on Easter Sunday I have an unease about the Sequence. Is it meant to be everyone singing as a hymn Holy Spirit, Lord of light or people listening to (singing?) the chant in Latin or something else. I offer a similar solution to Easter Sunday — a refrain for all which acts also as a Gospel Acclamation and verses sung by the choir. For Pentecost we do use the plainchant melody but, as others have suggested, in triple time so it has a lilting rhythm. We also sing the verses in English. Does it work? I don't know, partly because I don't know how the Sequence is supposed to work. My solution would not satisfy the purist. People sang the refrain but had that slight look of 'what again?' The refrain was rewritten this year so that it better fitted the modality of the chant.

I have suspicion that much of what we might sing at Pentecost is not quite right. The Missal texts are not invocations or invitations nor are they theological reflections on the Holy Spirit. It is the Lectionary in Psalm and Sequence that offers a pair of invocations. It is more about the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church. One of the important aspects of the renewal of the liturgy was a better and more explicit understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy. The Holy Spirit as enabler of the liturgical action. I am expressing my unease but cannot offer solutions. My guess they lie in less seeing this as a Sunday when we celebrate the Holy Spirit (just once a year) and more in the context of the whole Easter Season with its emphasis on the nature of the Church.

Ascension of the Lord

16 May 2010

Entrance	Worthy are you, O Lord (mtgf)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Glory to God (Berthier)
Psalm 46	Our God goes up (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Celtic (O'Carroll/Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Christ the Glory (Lalouette)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Gathering (Paul Inwood)
Lamb of God	O Lamb of God (Berthier)
Communion	Call us to your table (Christopher Walker)
Final	Alleluia, sing to Jesus (Dix/Pritchard)

'when the forty days were o'er' &mdash I had not appreciated until reading a post on the PrayTell blog that Luke's Gospel account of the Ascension occurs on the Easter Sunday evening. It perhaps highlights one of the challenges of a Lectionary that jumps from place and not having a regard for the continuity of the gospel narrative.

The musical choices were less about narrative than about the risen, glorious, ascended Christ. The opening song is a setting of Revelation 4 - a canticle at Evening Prayer - I had meant to do it at some point this Easter Season so that we sung some revelation as well as heard it. Circumstances meant we used it on the one Sunday when we did not hear from Revelation but the refrain Worthy are you, O Lord, to receive wisdom and glory and blessings. I hope set the tone for the celebration. It is a piece that does not get out that much, though I am fond of it, it was written for a celebration of Evening Prayer in Oscott to mark the 150th anniversary of the Bishops' Conference in 2000.

Today's second reading was Ephesians and we used the verses from Ephesians for Call us to your table — all creation find fulfilment in the ascended Christ.

6th Sunday of Easter

9 May 2010

Entrance	Christ is alive (Stotter)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriels (mtgf)
Gloria	Glory to God (Berthier)
Psalm 66	Let the peoples praise you, O God (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Celtic (O'Carroll/Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Live on in my love (Collegeville Composers Group)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Gathering (Paul Inwood)
Lamb of God	O Lamb of God (Berthier)
Communion	Take and Eat (Quinn/Joncas)
Final	We have a gospel

5th Sunday of Easter

2 May 2010

Entrance	Love is his word (Connaughton/Milner)
Gloria	Glory to God (Berthier)
Psalm 144	I will bless your name (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Celtic (O'Carroll/Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Love one another (mtgf)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Gathering (Paul Inwood)
Lamb of God	O Lamb of God (Berthier)
Communion	A new commandment (Collegeville Composers Group)
Final	God is love, his the care

There was a baptism during Mass this morning, so I hope that the hymns provided something familiar. In some ways it is hard to imagine that occasional Catholics would not have heard and sung the Celtic Alleluia and the Gathering Mass.

Love one another was written for the 150th Anniversary of the College, 10 years ago, and uses texts from John's Gospel which are heard through the Easter Season. A new commandment from Psallite has verses for Maundy Thursday where I feel it does not displace other pieces but it also has a set of verses for this Sunday - I saw the holy city. The refrain does have that quality of familiarity even on one hearing.