Christ the King (Year C, 2013)

Sunday, 24 November 2013

 

Entrance	The Servant King (Graham Kendrick, arr. Jeremy Thurlow)
Kyrie	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	I Rejoiced (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts	I Was Glad (C.H.H. Parry, 1848-1918)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Redeemer
Communion	Te saeculorum principem (chant) & Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
Postcommunion	O Bone Jesu (Johannes Brahms, 1833-1897)
Recessional	Christus Vincit (arr. Martin Baker)

 

Everything from plainchant to Graham Kendrick, which I like to think is the way it should be.

On the way we had two very contrasting choral pieces, in Brahms's gentle motet for four women’s voices, and Parry’s uplifting setting of Ps 121(122), which was also today’s responsorial psalm. At just fourteen voices today, we sang the Parry with one or two to a part, but I thought it worked extremely convincingly on this reduced scale.

33rd Sunday of the Year (Year C, 2013)

Sunday, 17 November 2013

 

Entrance	Thy hand, O God, has guided
Kyrie	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 97 (Eugene Monaghan)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Beati Quorum (Charles Villiers Stanford, 1852-1924)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Communion	Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
Postcommunion	The Lamb (John Tavener, 1944-2013)
Recessional	O Jesus Christ, remember

 

The sentiment of today’s Communion antiphon

To be near God is my happiness,
to place my hope in God the Lord.

was not too far from that of Stanford’s Beati Quorum:

Happy are those whose way is pure,
who walk in the way of the Lord.

Tavener’s The Lamb marked his untimely death earlier in the week.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) and Remembrance Sunday 2013

Sunday, 10 November 2013

 

Entrance	Requiem Aeternam (chant) Two minutes’ silence Abide with me
Kyrie	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 16 (Stephen Dean)
Gospel Acclamation	Celtic Alleluia (Fintan O’Carroll)
Preparation of the Gifts	Justorum Animae (William Byrd, c. 1540-1623)
Sanctus, Acclamation A, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer
Agnus Dei	Mass of the Redeemer
Communion	Centre of my Life (Paul Inwood)
Postcommunion	We shall walk through the valley (trad. arr. Moses Hogan)
Recessional	Love divine, all loves excelling

 

For Remembrance Sunday we had both Byrd’s Justorum Animae and Moses Hogan’s serene and haunting arrangement of a traditional spiritual. Here's a link to a recording by Calvin College Alumni Choir. Worth a listen.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2013)

Presentation of Candidates for Confirmation & First Communion

Sunday, 3 November 2013

 

Entrance	Here I am, Lord (Dan Schutte)
Sprinkling Rite	Springs of Water (Marty Haugen)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 144 (Martin Hall)
Gospel Acclamation	St Agatha Alleluia (mcb)
Presentation of Candidates	Christ be our light (Bernadette Farrell)
Preparation of the Gifts	Laudate Nomen Domini (adapted from the Rachmaninov All-night Vigil)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Communion	Take and Eat (Michael Joncas)
Recessional	Alleluia, sing to Jesus

 

We followed the usual pattern for the presentation of the children embarking on this year’s sacramental programme. To match the Psalm response I will bless your name forever, O God my King, and the words from the second reading from Thessalonians:

In this way
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
will be glorified in you
and you in him

we sang my adaptation of Khvalite Imya Gospodne (Praise the Name of the Lord) from the Rachmaninov Vespers, translated into Latin and slimmed down to seven parts.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2013)

Sunday, 27 October 2013

 

Entrance	Rejoice, the Lord is King
Kyrie	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	The cry of the poor (John Foley)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Restless is the heart (Bernadette Farrell)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer
Agnus Dei	Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Communion	Take, O take me as I am (John Bell)
Postcommunion	Narrate omnia mirabilia eius (Orlande de Lassus, 1532-1594)
Recessional	Fight the good fight

 

Today’s Entrance Antiphon included the words Let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice. Our song at the preparation of the gifts sang in St Augustine’s words of the restless heart seeking God, and after Communion we sang the second part of Lassus’s motet Confitemini Domino:

Tell of all his marvellous deeds,
Glory in his holy name,
Let hearts rejoice who seek the Lord.

with the same text from Ps 104(105).

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2013)

Sunday, 20 October 2013

 

Entrance	Lord of all hopefulness
Kyrie	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 120 (Claire Lee/Stephen Dean)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Domine Exaudi (Orlande de Lassus, 1532-1594)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer
Agnus Dei	Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Communion	I lift up my eyes (David Ogden)
Postcommunion	O Salutaris Hostia in E♭ (Edward Elgar, 1857-1934)
Recessional	All my hope on God is founded

 

In today’s Gospel reading from St Luke we heard our Lord’s words:

Pray continually… Will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night?

We responded with Lassus’s setting of similar words from Ps 101(102):

O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Do not turn your face from me.

Elsewhere we sang repeatedly of our hope in God, in the opening and closing hymns, in the Responsorial Psalm, and in David Ogden’s peaceful and thoughtful setting of the same psalm text.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2013)

Sunday, 13 October 2013

 

Entrance	O praise ye the Lord
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices, adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Mass of the Most Sacred Heart (Jacob Bancks)
Psalm	Ps 97: The Lord has shown his salvation (Geoffrey Boulton Smith)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia Mode 2 (plainchant)
Preparation of the Gifts	Si Iniquitates (Samuel Wesley, 1766-1837)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass of the Redeemer (mcb)
Agnus Dei	Paschal Mass (Alan Rees)
Communion	Unless a grain of wheat (Bernadette Farrell)
Postcommunion	He hath filled the hungry (Felix Mendelssohn, 1809-1847)
Recessional	Thanks be to God (Stephen Dean)

 

In the second reading, from 2 Timothy, we heard St Paul’s words:

If we have died with him, then we shall live with him,
If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him.

and we sang them again in the first verse of our Communion song. Before that, we took words from the entrance antiphon:

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

and sang them in Samuel Wesley’s gem of a miniature for three-part unaccompanied men’s voices.