The Body and Blood of Christ (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	O Bread of Heaven
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	(ad experimentum)
Psalm	Ps 147 (Colin Mawby)
Sequence	Lauda Sion Salvatorem (Chris Mueller)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Sweet Sacrament Divine
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Take and Eat (Michael Joncas)
Postcommunion	Ave Verum Corpus (W.A. Mozart, 1756-1791)
Recessional	Soul of my Saviour

 

My “retro” taste in hymns this morning attracted comment from The Management. Opportunities to sing old favourites like these are relatively infrequent, and it seems to me that they’re still powerful vehicles for Eucharistic devotion, especially for those who (like me) still have them firmly lodged in memory. But for all that, the Mass propers tell of a more active relationship with the Sacrament than we find in hymns for Benediction:

The Lord fed his people with the finest wheat and honey;
their hunger was satisfied.(Ps 80:17)

and

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live in me and I in him, says the Lord. (Jn 6:57)

So there’s some more thinking to be done before next time.

We made room for an abridged version of the sequence, in the form of Chris Mueller’s very fine harmonised chant setting for six-part choir of the final verses, which we preceded with the opening lines of St Thomas Aquinas’s original chant. The music of Mueller (who is director of music at the church of Notre Dame in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York) is a pleasing internet ‘find’, and I’m glad that there’s more to explore.