Requiem Mass for the centenary of the outbreak of World War I

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Sunday, 27 July 2014

 
Entrance (i) Requiem Aeternam (chant)
(ii) Be thou my vision
Kyrie Mass XVIII (at Masses of the Dead)
Gloria none
Psalm Ps 118 (Simon Reynolds)
Gospel Acclamation Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright) with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts The kingdom of God
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass XVIII and Missal tones
Agnus Dei Missa pro defunctis
Communion Forget not what God has done (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion (i) Lux Aeterna (chant)
(ii) Justorum Animae (R R Terry, 1865-1938)
Recessional Abide with me
 

The choir – this time a skeleton crew of regular members, with no reinforcements – once again achieved remarkable results in challenging circumstances. The occasion was sprung on us, ironically for a WWI commemoration, at the eleventh hour, so with only a brief rehearsal before Mass we brushed up the plainchant Requiem, including Introit and Communio. Richard Terry’s melodramatic Edwardian miniature, which presumably dates from around a hundred years ago (I can’t find a reliable record of the publication date), and the opening and closing hymns also fed into the themes of death and war.

As well as this we had music appropriate to the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Communion antiphon for the day was from Ps 102(103):

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and never forget all his benefits.

We sang Marty Haugen’s setting of the same psalm, and rounded off three Sundays on which the Gospel reading touched on the Kingdom, with a hymn on the same subject.

That’s all for now from the choir — we’re on our annual break for the next five Sundays. Back in September.

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