31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

 

Entrance	Lord of all hopefulness
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Psallite Mass
Psalm	Ps 130 (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Belmont Mass
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Centre of my life (Paul Inwood)
Postcommunion	Pater Noster (Igor Stravinsky, 1882-1971)
Recessional	Guide me, O thou great redeemer

 

Today’s readings offered images of parenthood. Have we not all one Father?, we were asked in the first reading from Malachi, and we heard our Lord’s answer in the reading from St Matthew’s Gospel: you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. We sang Stravinsky’s setting of the Lord’s Prayer, in which we call God Father, and obey his command (again recounted by Malachi) to glorify my name.

There were images of motherhood too, in the Responsorial Psalm, and in St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, but fewer choices when it came to musical settings embodying the same images.

The Communion Antiphon was from Psalm 15:

Lord, you will show me the path of life
and fill me with joy in your presence.

and our Communion processional song was Paul Inwood’s setting of this Psalm.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 23 October 2011

 

Entrance	Father, Lord of all creation
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 17 (James Walsh)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts	Make me a channel of your peace (Sebastian Temple, arr. William Llewellyn)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Belmont Mass
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Lord, your love has drawn us near (Stephen Dean)
Postcommunion	Love divine, all loves excelling (Howard Goodall)
Recessional	All my hope on God is founded

 

Prompted by today’s readings, our musical selections reflected on love, human and divine.

For the ordinary of the Mass, we continued with Chris Walker’s Belmont Mass, whose prayerful chant-inspired melodies to my mind succeed in embodying the ‘noble simplicity’ spoken of (in Sacrosanctum Concilium) as characteristic of the liturgy. The published version is entirely for unison voices, but we experimented today with a cappella four-part harmony, the choir fitting the words to the harmonies of the organ part in both the Kyrie and the Agnus Dei. It worked very well, I thought, and it will give us the option of varying the texture – unison voices with organ, unaccompanied unison singing, accompanied and unaccompanied vocal harmonies – to suit times and seasons.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 16 October 2011

 

Entrance	O God beyond all praising (Gustav Holst/Michael Perry)
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 95 (Reynolds)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Holy is God (Liam Lawton)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Belmont Mass
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Turn to me (John Foley)
Postcommunion	Ab ortu solis (William Byrd, 1540-1623)
Recessional	Holy God, we praise thy name

 

In today’s first reading, from Isaiah, we heard the words from the rising to the setting of the sun, apart from me, all is nothing. We sang a similar text with a different scriptural source (namely Malachi) in Byrd’s setting of the tract for the Votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament:

From the rising of the sun to its setting,
my name is great among the nations,
and in every place a pure sacrifice is offered to my name:
for my name is great among the nations.

This same scriptural text is highlighted in the new translation of the third Eucharistic prayer, which we also heard today.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 9 October 2011

 

Entrance	All are welcome (Marty Haugen)
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 22 (Boulton Smith/Gélineau)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts	The Lord is my Shepherd (John Rutter)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Now in this banquet (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	He hath filled the hungry from Magnificat, Op 69 no 3 (Felix Mendelssohn, 1809-1847)
Recessional	Thy hand, O God, has guided

 

The readings today told of the banquet prepared for all by the Lord, and our music explored this image.

In his homily Fr Tony explored the link between the Gospel story of the wedding feast, and the use of the the phrase for many in the newly-translated Eucharistic Prayers. Invite everyone you can find, the king orders; but one guest who fails to take the event seriously is given his marching orders. If the punch line (so to speak) had been all are called, many are chosen the two issues would have tied in exactly. But the Gospel story was still helpful in explaining why we needn’t be puzzled by the new-old use of the word many.

It reassured me, in any event, that our opening song today has words which we can properly sing as an invitation to the Eucharistic banquet.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, 2011)

Sunday, 2 October 2011

 

Entrance	This is the day (mcb)
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 79 (Walsh/Bévenot)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	The Lord of All (Daniel Bath)
Sanctus, Acclamation C, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	One bread, one body (John Foley)
Postcommunion	Rejoice in the Lord alway (Anon. c. 1600)
Recessional	My song is love unknown

 

There were plenty of key scriptural phrases to choose from in planning today’s music. The Gospel reading gave us

It was the stone rejected by the builders
that became the keystone.
This was the Lord’s doing
and it is wonderful to see.

which we sang in the final verse of our opening song. We took the entrance antiphon verbatim in Daniel Bath’s gentle African Gospel-style setting for our song at the preparation of the gifts; and at communion we sang the antiphon from 1 Cor 10:17 in John Foley’s now-venerable and still much-loved setting.