7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

 
Entrance Praise to the Lord, the almighty
Kyrie Jubilation Mass (James Chepponis)
Gloria Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm Ps 102 (Stephen Dean/Laurence Bévenot)
Gospel Acclamation Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts Will you let me be your servant
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Assisi Acclamations (Nick Baty)
Agnus Dei Holy Family Mass (John Schiavone)
Communion Forget not what God has done (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion Laudate Pueri (W.A. Mozart)
Recessional God is love, his the care
 

Today’s communion antiphon came from Psalm 9:

I will tell all your marvellous works.
I will rejoice and be glad in you,
and sing to your name, Most High.

Psalm 112(113) also sings praise to God’s name:

Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
May the name of the Lord be blessed,
both now and for evermore.
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
praised be the name of the Lord.

We sang Mozart’s spirited setting from his Vesperae Solennes de Confessore of 1780. Sleeve notes tend to call it a “learned” or “conventional” fugue, but it’s unmistakably Mozart, even if less sunny than, say, Laudate Dominum from the same work.

I looked for songs to echo the line from today’s Gospel reading:

Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you

but the one or two I could think of seemed too banal, either textually or musically. Any good suggestions out there?

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 13 February 2011

 
Entrance O God, thy people gather
Kyrie Jubilation Mass (James Chepponis)
Gloria Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm Ps 118 (Martin Hall)
Gospel Acclamation Here in our Midst (Peter Jones)
Preparation of the Gifts Eye has not seen (Marty Haugen)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Assisi Acclamations (Nick Baty)
Agnus Dei from Beneath the Tree of Life (Marty Haugen)
Communion Teach me, O God (Christopher Walker)
Postcommunion Tantum Ergo (Maurice Duruflé, 1902-1986)
Recessional Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him
 

Today’s second reading, from Corinthians, spoke of

the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.

Our song at the preparation of the gifts was Marty Haugen’s thoughtful setting of the same text.

The first reading, the responsorial psalm and the Gospel reading all talked about the law, and our Lord’s completion of it. So Chris Walker’s Teach me, O God, to follow your ways was our communion song.

Christ’s completion of the law finds its fulfilment above all in the Eucharist. In the words of Thomas Aquinas,

Et antiquum documentum
novo cedat ritui

(And let the old practice yield to the new rite.)
We sang Duruflé’s dreamlike setting of the traditional chant melody. I’m pretty sure I could hear some older members of the congregation humming along.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

 
Entrance Come, ring out your joy (arr. Martin Foster)
Kyrie Jubilation Mass (James Chepponis)
Gloria Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm Good people are a light (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts Christ be our light (Bernadette Farrell)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Assisi Acclamations (Nick Baty)
Agnus Dei from Beneath the Tree of Life (Marty Haugen)
Communion Blest are they, the poor in spirit (David Haas)
Postcommunion Beati Quorum Via (Charles Villiers Stanford, 1852-1924)
Recessional Tell out, my soul
 

Martin Foster’s setting of Psalm 94(95), from which today’s entrance antiphon is drawn, to the music of the 17th Century Peruvian Hanacpachap Cussicuinin, made for an imposing Entrance Song. We used the opening verse

Come, ring out your joy to God,
Hail, the Lord, the rock who saves us
Let us come before him giving thanks,
With songs let us hail the Lord.
as a refrain, which the people joined in with heartily, while the choir supplied some of the other verses, variously in two- and three part harmony for women’s and men’s voices.

Our final hymn, well-known as an adaptation of the Magnificat, echoed the communion antiphon from Ps 106(107): He has filled the hungry with good things.

Today’s readings spoke of the good and the just as a light shining in the darkness. Stanford’s unaccompanied six-part motet Beati quorum via extols the same virtues. It would have done nicely for next week too, when the psalm response is They are happy who follow God’s law.