2nd Sunday of Easter (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	Crown him with many crowns
Gloria	Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm	Ps 117 (Eugene Monaghan)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Gospel Acclamation (Brian Luckner)
Preparation of the Gifts	Regina Caeli (Samuel Webbe, 1740-1816)
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd) [UC 66]
Agnus Dei	Lamb of God II (mcb)
Communion	Godhead here in hiding (chant) & Confitemini Domino (Taizé)
Postcommunion	Surrexit Christus Dominus (Michael Praetorius, 1571-1621)
Recessional	Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour

 

The Beatification of Pope John Paul II today deprived us of our customary weekend off after the exertions of Holy Week and Easter, and instead we joined the Bishop in a festive Mass in celebration of the event.

Samuel Webbe is described (in a late 19th century collection edited by Wilhelm Lutz Meyer of Southwark Cathedral) as “the father of modern Catholic music in England”. Wikipedia is a bit more restrained on the subject of his collected works: “If not of a very high order, they are at least devotional.” His Regina Caeli, with its lyrical melodic line punctuated by effervescent Alleluias, was just right for a sunny Spring morning.

Doubting Thomas plays a starring role in today’s Gospel reading, and so we sang the words of Adoro Te devote, in Gerard Manley Hopkins’s translation, interspersed with Jacques Berthier’s Confitemini Domino. The fourth verse runs:

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
This faith each day deeper be my holding of;
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.