Music for the forgotten Sundays
Every year in Catholic churches throughout the world, overworked and underpaid choir directors work themselves and their choirs to the bone preparing the perfect Christmas musical experience for their parishes. And it’s no surprise that they work so hard. The musical bar has been raised very high by the secular Christmas culture. In the months leading up to the Nativity of the Lord we are all bombarded by thousands of finely polished recordings of seasonal favorites at the malls, on the streets, and even in the restrooms of your favorite fast food restaurant. We see perfect performances of carols on the TV and in the concert halls. How can the typical parish choir ever hope to compete with that? In fact, so much effort is put into the music for Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass, and the various Masses on Christmas Day, that the other Sundays of the Christmas season and Ordinary Time that follow it are often given very little attention. In this article, I hope to share some strategies and repertoire suggestions that can help you make the “forgotten Sundays” both beautiful and musically rich celebrations.
Sundays of the Christmas Season
Christmas is a season. Paragraphs 32 and 33 of the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar tell us that, “after the annual celebration of the Paschal Mystery, the Church has no more ancient custom than celebrating the memorial of the Nativity of the Lord and of his first manifestations, and this takes place in Christmas Time. Christmas Time runs from … the Nativity of the Lord up to and including the Sunday after Epiphany” (The Baptism of the Lord).
Since we are dealing with a season, the first consideration is how to musically connect the various Sundays. Here are some ideas.
Use the same Gloria or Mass setting during the entire season. Paul Gibson’s “A Christmas Gloria” (found in Breaking Bread and Today’s Missal; ocp.org/30106749) uses the familiar tune from “Angels We Have Heard on High” as a refrain that everyone can immediately sing. When you are ready to take the next step, Paul has added eucharistic acclamations and a Lamb of God based on familiar Christmas melodies to his Gloria to create A Christmas Mass.
The “Christmas Season Gospel Acclamation” by Barbara Bridge (found in Breaking Bread and Today’s Missal, ocp.org/20721) will also tie the season together.
You might try using one Communion hymn during the entire Christmas Season. Jeffrey Honoré’s arrangement of “Rise Up, Shepherd and Follow,” with its ten verses that explore the entire paschal mystery, is perfect for this (found in Breaking Bread and Today’s Missal, ocp.org/compositions/66276).
One caveat: Although it’s laudable to musically connect the entire Christmas season, I would avoid using all these songs each week. It might get tiresome. Pick one or two to bring your liturgies together.
When preparing your program and liturgy for the Mass during the Night, give attention to choral selections that can be repurposed during the rest of the season. Scott Soper’s “Child of the Poor/What Child Is This” (Breaking Bread, Today’s Missal, ocp.org/9886) can be used for a concert and then brought back on the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. My own “Star of Wonder” (ocp.org/20305) and “Follow the Light” (ocp.org/30108163) by Gael Berberick and myself are suited for both a Christmas concert and as choral anthems on the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. Consider using Richard Proulx’s SAB arrangement of “Joy to the World” (ocp.org/9569) as the final hymn at both the Nativity Masses and on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. At first it might seem strange singing this carol in January while the stores are putting up their Valentine’s decorations, but if you look carefully at the words you will see Psalm 98, which makes no mention of a newborn King but rather celebrates the coming of the kingdom of God. What a perfect way to conclude the season of Christmas Time!
And now for one of my pet peeves: If you are singing “We Three Kings,” “The First Noel,” or “What Child Is This” as an assembly hymn on the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, be sure to sing all the verses. “We Three Kings” recalls Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection, but only if you sing all five verses. If you skip verse five, there’s no resurrection. Major faux pas!
The six verses of “The First Noel” tell the story of the visit of the Magi, and they should all be used. If singing six verses of a hymn is too much for your assembly, how about singing the first three verses as your entrance chant, and then the last three verses at the end of Mass? Just don’t call it “The First and Last Noel.”
And finally, it’s not until the third verse of “What Child Is This” that incense, gold, and myrrh are mentioned. We should “Haste, haste to bring him laud,” but not “haste, haste” to finish the carol.
Sundays of Ordinary Time up to Lent
Ordinary Time is that period of thirty-three or thirty-four weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the mystery of Christ is honored in its fullness, especially on Sundays (Universal Norms 43).
Some years it seems that we just finish Christmas Time and suddenly there’s Ash Wednesday rearing its cross-smeared forehead for all to see. The intervening three or four Sundays of Ordinary Time just seemed to disappear. Thanks be to God that this year we actually have eight Sundays of Ordinary Time to celebrate before Lent begins, and one of those is the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Let’s not let this opportunity go to waste by only keeping our eyes on Lent.
My first suggestion is that we use these weeks to learn that new Mass setting, with all the bells and whistles, that we want to use on Easter Sunday. It’s never a good idea to introduce a new Mass setting during Holy Week. We want people to participate easily during those most holy days, but a new Mass, especially a big, splashy one, can change the assembly from participant to audience. Let’s start using that new Mass during these weeks before Lent. Save the choral harmonies and fancy instrumentation for Easter, but learn the tunes now.
For a big “high church” sound check out Randall DeBruyn’s Mass of the Resurrection (ocp.org/30114756), Bernard Kirkpatrick’s Mass of Christ the Redeemer (ocp.org/30105536), or my own Mass of Saint Frances Cabrini (ocp.org/30107443).
Since many Sundays in Ordinary Time have no single overarching theme, we can use this time to add some new songs to our parish repertoire.
If you would like to learn a new Communion hymn, please check out “Lord, by Your Cross and Resurrection” by John Foley, “Ang Katawan ni Kristo” by Ricky Manalo, “Ubi Caritas” by Bob Hurd or “One Love Released” by Bob Frenzel and myself. They are all found in Breaking Bread and Today’s Missal Music Issue. The added benefit of learning one of these hymns is that you can use it on Holy Thursday or Easter Vigil/Sunday.
Other general songs from Breaking Bread and Music Issue to consider during these weeks include “O God, You Search Me” by Bernadette Farrell, “Go Make a Difference” by Steve Angrisano, and “Love One Another” by Bob Dufford.
As you can see, this time between the Nativity of Jesus and Ash Wednesday can be a time of great enrichment for your music ministry and your parish. Plan ahead now and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.
Find seasonal resources on our Lent and Easter page, here.
Originally published in Today’s Liturgy © 2013 OCP. All rights reserved.