6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 12 February 2012

 

Entrance	Christ is made the sure foundation
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	(Peter Jones)
Psalm	Ps 31 (Christopher Walker)
Gospel Acclamation	Here in our Midst (Peter Jones)
Preparation of the Gifts	God be in my head (Henry Walford Davies, 1869-1941)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	You are my refuge (Christopher Walker)
Postcommunion	Domine, non sum dignus (T.L. de Victoria, 1548-1611)
Recessional	Lord, Jesus Christ, you have come to us (Patrick Appleford)

 

Today’s Psalm Response appears in two different versions in various people’s editions of the Missal. We sang

You are my hiding place, O Lord.
You surround me with cries of deliverance.

in Chris Walker’s setting. But in some sources it appears as

You are my refuge, O Lord;
you fill me with the joy of salvation.

I’m not sure I know the explanation for the two variants. (Anyone?) Our Communion song, again in a setting by Chris Walker (for whom it was evidently a bumper weekend here in Salford), echoed the second variant, this time taking its text from Ps 45(46).

The first reading, from Leviticus, and the Gospel reading from Mark both spoke of sickness and healing, so we sang Victoria’s setting of the liturgical text recently reconnected to its scriptural source (the words of the centurion in Matthew 8:8) in the new translation of the Mass:

Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

 

Entrance	Come, ring out your joy (17th c. Peruvian, arr. Martin Foster)
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	(Peter Jones)
Psalm	Ps 146 (Anne Ward)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Your hands, O Lord, in days of old
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Now in this banquet (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	O Quam Suavis (William Byrd, 1540-1623)
Recessional	Now thank we all our God

 

Our celebration for the fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time today was also offered in loving memory of our former parish sister Sr Anne O’Shea, who served the Diocese for thirty-seven years until her retirement in 2010. Her death had been expected for a little while, and we had sung her favourite hymn (Timothy Dudley-Smith’s O Christ the same, sung to the tune of O Danny boy) on the day her death was announced a couple of weeks ago. Today I looked for hymns and songs that would both respond to today’s texts from the Missal and Lectionary, and help us celebrate the life, and mourn the death, of a dear friend. Edward Plumptre’s Your hands, O Lord sings of healing, and of triumph over pain and death. And our final hymn reflected both today’s Communion antiphon –

Let them thank the Lord for his mercy,
his wonders for the children of men,
for he satisfies the thirsty soul,
and the hungry he fills with good things. (Psalm 107:8-9)

– and our thanks for a life of service lived in transparent (if occasionally crotchety) love for our community.

Today is also the feast (strictly the Memorial) of St Agatha, so we marked the occasion with a new verse for our Gospel acclamation.

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 29 January 2012

 

Entrance	Save us, Lord our God (Christopher Walker)
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	(Peter Jones)
Psalm	Listen to the voice of the Lord (Patrick Geary)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	The Beatitudes (Bob Chilcott)
Sanctus, Acclamation C, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Be still, and know that I am God
Postcommunion	The Lord bless you and keep you (John Rutter)
Recessional	O Lord my God

 

Something to reflect each of the two Communion antiphons from the Missal again this week:

Let your face shine on your servant.
Save me in your merciful love.
O Lord, let me never be put to shame, for I call on you.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the land.

in the anthems by Rutter (the Lord make his face to shine upon you) and Chilcott respectively.

The Gospel reading had Jesus saying “Be quiet”, which gave us our Communion song, in the enchanting arrangement from the RSCM’s Sing with all my soul, ending with double descant for solo sopranos added to the a cappella SATB repetition of the first verse.

We gave Peter Jones’s revised setting of the now-venerable Coventry Gloria a first outing, and the consensus would seem to be that it actually improves on the original.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 22 January 2012

 

Entrance	Sing a new song (John Bell)
Kyrie	Belmont Mass (Christopher Walker)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 24 (Geoffrey Boulton Smith/StephenDean)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (Plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Belmont Mass
Communion	Taste and see (Richard Proulx)
Postcommunion	A song of the light (Simon Lole)
Recessional	O Christ, the same (Timothy Dudley-Smith/Londonderry Air)

 

We usually sing John Bell’s Sing a new song, with its Alleluia refrain, as a Gospel Acclamation. Its verses are from Ps 95(96), and since this was the source of today’s entrance antiphon, we took the opportunity to sing the whole of it as our entrance song. We normally do it a cappella, but today Anthony improvised a sparkling accompaniment, spreading out into improvised toccata both before and after.

The Missal offers two Communion antiphons today:

Look toward the Lord and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed.

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

We sang something to reflect each: Richard Proulx's setting of Ps 33(34), from which the first was drawn, and Simon Lole’s elegant paraphrase of Hail, gladdening light.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, 2012)

Sunday, 15 January 2012

 

Entrance	Here I am, Lord (Dan Schutte)
Kyrie	Kyrie II from Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 39 (Paul Inwood)
Gospel Acclamation	Sing a New Song (John Bell)
Preparation of the Gifts	The Lamb (John Tavener)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Spring Sanctus (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Holy Family Mass (John Schiavone)
Communion	Jesus, Lamb of God (Bernadette Farrell)
Postcommunion	Venite Comedite (William Byrd, 1540-1623)
Recessional	Forth in the peace of Christ

 

The story of Samuel in the first reading, and the Psalm response, both had the words Here I am, and it was no distance from there to Dan Schutte’s old favourite. In the Gospel reading John the Baptist calls Jesus Lamb of God, and in Bernadette Farrell’s litany we did the same.

The refrain to Bernadette Farrell’s song has the words Hear our prayer, through this bread and wine we share, and our postcommunion motet, a setting of the tract (from Proverbs) from the Votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament, also featured the word wine:

Venite comedite panem meam, et bibite vinum quod miscui vobis.

(Come and eat my bread, and drink the wine I have poured out for you)

In the previous translation of the Missal, today’s Communion antiphon did too, paraphrasing from the words calix inebrians in the Vulgate rendition of Ps 22(23):

The Lord has prepared a feast for me:
given wine in plenty for me to drink.

The new translation is more oblique:

You have prepared a table before me,
and how precious is the chalice that quenches my thirst.

The Epiphany (2012)

Sunday, 8 January 2012

 

Entrance	O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness
Gloria	Gloria de Noël (Thomas Niel)
Psalm	Ps 71 (Eugene Monaghan/Stephen Dean)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Bethlehem! of noblest cities
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas
Communion	Laudate Omnes Gentes (Taizé) & Reges Tharsis (chant)
Postcommunion	Videntes stellam (Francis Poulenc, 1899-1963)
Recessional	The first nowell

 

Poulenc’s Four Motets for Christmas Time are among my all-time favourite pieces of music. So I’m glad we could muster the forces for the quirkily serene Videntes Stellam. At least one member of the congregation reported a tingling spine.

Ordination to the Diaconate of Joseph Gee

Saturday before Epiphany

7 January 2012

 

Entrance	Of the Father’s love begotten
Gloria	Gloria de Noël (Thomas Niel)
Psalm	Ps 149 (The Lord takes delight) (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation	Easter Alleluia
Litany of the Saints	chant
Vesting	How lovely is your dwelling place (Paul Wellicome)
Kiss of Peace	Si quis mihi ministraverit (chant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Cantate Domino (Giuseppe Pitoni, 1657-1743)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Agnus Dei	Missa Ubi Caritas
Communion	(i) Bread of Life (Bernadette Farrell) (ii) O nata lux (Thomas Tallis, c. 1505-1585)
Recessional	Songs of thankfulness and praise

 

An ordination to the diaconate was a new experience for us, in the last 20-odd years at any rate. I thought the elements proper to the rite combined well with seasonal items appropriate to the Saturday falling before a late Epiphany.

The vesting of the new deacon calls for Ps 83(84), and we had Paul Wellicome’s gentle reflective setting. Ps 146(146) is laid down for the Kiss of Peace, but with only the Bishop and four other deacons exchanging the sign of peace with Joseph, we sang just the antiphon, taken from the Graduale. The Responsorial Psalm was from Ps 149, and we had my simple setting during the Liturgy of the Word, and Pitoni’s more boisterous rendition at the Preparation of the Gifts.