What are we singing at Church this week?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Snooley10
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Snooley10

Guest
As a music minister I am always interested in song selections at church. This week we are singing:

Entrance - As We Gather by Tom Coomes and Mike Fay
Offertory - O Come O Come Emmanuel
Communion - A Voice Cries Out by Michael Joncas
Going Forth - Days of Elijah by Robin Mark
 
We got our missalettes back, so now we can sing with the Cantor!

We’ve been singing a lot of Amazing Grace because everybody knows the words.
 
Sing your heart out for me!

When the churches were allowed to be open here, it was at 30% capacity and NO SINGING. They are closed now.
If someone had shown me a photo of my parish with everyone masked and not allowed to sing, I would have fallen over.
The parable of the virgins keeping oil in their lamps is very much on my mind.
 
We are using song sheets for disposability. Our song list for Advent is:

O Come, O Come! Emmanuel
My Soul in Stillness Waits
Taste and See
Like a Shepherd
People Look East
 
Don’t forget “O, Come Divine Messiah”, it is such a singable song.
 
Anybody singing the actual music for the Mass? The propers, antiphons, etc?
Does your pastor chant his parts as he ought to?
 
We sing the introit, which was a change just a year and a half ago. Father speaks the Communion antiphon. I’d like to sing the propers, and I have the resources, but my cantors are still getting comfortable with chanting the psalms a capella, so I’m not pushing it. Moving toward singing the Mass is a very looooooong process. For the moment we have at least made the switch from exclusively pop music to primarily solid hymnody, and I can contentedly stay there for years - many of these songs are good teaching tools.

Our pastor chants his parts on major feast days - and sometimes on a “regular” Sunday just because he feels like it. 🙂

He also “makes” us sing the Ordinary in Latin during Advent and Lent. This has been going on for many years, but people still resist it. The primary complaint seems to be that they “don’t know what they’re saying” - which from my point of view is nonsense, because we sing it in English nine months of the year. So this year, I made a Mass card with the English word-for-word translation immediately below the Latin. Now try and tell Father you don’t know what you’re saying! I can just picture the flat stare: “Can you read.”
 
Which province are you in? I’m in N.L. and we’ve been open since the end of June, max. 100 in the building, including the priest.

They haven’t returned books to the pews but, about 6 weeks ago, those of us who like to sing were invited to keep our masks on and sing what we knew. A few weeks later we were offered our own copies of CBW II & III to take home and bring back each time we attend Mass.

I introduced “Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All” to the music gal, who it turns out remembered it from her childhood, and she loved it. Lent her my copy of The Vatican II Hymnal which features it and hope to hear it at Mass soon.
 
Last edited:
TheLittleLady said:
Don’t forget “O, Come Divine Messiah”, it is such a singable song.
Click to expand...
We always sing that one though I must say, having grown up in a French parish, it still doesn’t sound right in English - neither does “O Holy Night” for the same reason. I much prefer “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”.
 
We don’t have missals or worship aids in our pews for the interim. I long for the day when we can go back to them.

I attend Mass at my diocese’s cathedral, and since we were allowed to resume public Masses back in June, we have mostly done antiphonal stuff where the congregation can sing a refrain and the cantor, verses.

Here’s what we did for the Second Sunday of Advent:

Processional: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Kyrie: Mass VIII (Missa de Angelis)
Psalm: 85 (J. Carroll/J. Gelineau)
Gospel Acc.: Taize #7 (J. Berthier)
Sanctus: Mass XVIII
Mystery: ICEL Mass
Amen: Danish Mass (R. Kraehenbuehl)
Lamb of God: Missa Emmanuel (R. Proulx)
Communion: My Soul in Stillness Waits (M. Haugen)

Offertory and recessional are just organ instrumental pieces. We typically do an opening hymn, offertory hymn, and recessional hymn, but alas, no hymnals/worship aids.
 
Last edited:
For the 2nd Sunday of Advent, we did not have the organ play during Mass. The organ did play during the processional and recessional. It was a Missa Cantata, so all of the propers of the Mass were sung (introit, gradual, alleluia, offertory, communion). The Kyrie, Sanctus, and Benedictus were Mass in a minor by Claudio Casciolini. Credo IV was sung.
Processional: O Come O Come Emmanuel (first three verses)
Offertory Motet: Ave Maria- Jacob Arcadelt/Pierre-Louis Dietsch
Communion Motet: Ave Maris Stella- Hans Leo Hassler
Marian Antiphon: Alma Redemptoris Mater
Recessional Hymn: Verses 4-7 of O Come O Come Emmanuel.
I thought it beautiful how the same hymn begun in the processional was used in the recessional. First time I sung all 7 verses at church. The following Sunday we sang On Jordan’s Bank in the same manner. I had never heard this song before, but I liked it a lot.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
48.png
Snooley10:
Offertory - O Come O Come Emmanuel
Click to expand...
No idea, but, O Come O Come Emmanuel is by far one of my favourite traditional hymns.
Click to expand...
I love it, and it’s usually the only “carol” I listen to until about Dec. 15.
Very disappointed they didn’t sing it this year, but it seem our music people prefer ‘O Come Divine Messiah”.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top