3rd Sunday of Easter (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	The day of resurrection
Gloria	Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm	Ps 15 (Robert Sherlaw Johnson)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Gospel Acclamation (Brian Luckner)
Preparation of the Gifts	On the journey to Emmaus (Marty Haugen)
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Mass of Hope (Stephen Dean)
Communion	At your word our hearts are burning (Psallite)
Postcommunion	Awake thou wintry earth (Thomas Blackburn, 1916-1977 & J.S. Bach, 1685-1750)
Recessional	Alleluia sing to Jesus

 

We took our first steps with the new Missal texts, in the form of my revised Spring Sanctus. For the Sanctus, it seems to me, it makes sense to begin with a reworked version of something already familiar to the singing assembly. The change – of the words “God of power and might” to “God of hosts” is small enough that the melody can be left intact for most of the piece, and people seemed happy to cope with the change in words and tune in the first line. The Memorial Acclamations represent a more sweeping change, but here too our assembly seemed happy to tackle the new challenge.

Our postcommunion piece had a spring feel as well: the fifth movement of Bach’s cantata Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott, BWV 129 with words by the English poet Thomas Blackburn, beginning

Awake, thou wintry earth, fling off, fling off thy sadness.
Ye vernal flowers, laugh forth, laugh forth, your ancient gladness.
A new and lovely tale throughout the land is sped,
it floats o’er hill and dale to tell that death is dead.