Hosanna III:5

"Lestat," she said, "it is the larger scheme which means nothing...It is the small act which means all...There are many nights when I lie awake, fully aware that there may be no personal God, and that the suffering of the children I see every day in our hospitals will never be balanced or redeemed. I think of those old arguments — you know, how can God justify the suffering of a child?...But it doesn't ultimately matter.

"God may or may not exist. But misery is real. It is absolutely real, and utterly undeniable. And in that reality lies my commitment—the core of my faith. I have to do something about it!"

"At at the hour of your death, if there is no God..."

"So be it. I will know that I did what I could. The hour of my death could be now." She gave a little shrug. "I wouldn't feel any different."

from Tale of the Body Thief

by Anne Rice [Knopf, New York, 1992]

Born now in stillness, distant cry,

If you exist, if you pass by,

Be life within their longing.

If you are not and cannot be,

Unspoken word, resound in me:

No God for our adoring.

You know me well, you bind me tight.

I cry out "You" both day and night.

Could I forget your presence?

Could we be one yet still alone,

Be homeless, nameless, still unknown,

And not behold each other?

Huub Oosterhuis, tr. Tom Conry

"Song at the Foot of the Mountain"

As we approach the end of Year A, what new insights have we come to regarding Christ's continuing presence in the world? "They shall call him, 'Emmanuel,' a name which means, 'God-with-us.'" These words were spoken on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, back in December 1992. Then at the end of the Easter season, we heard on the feast of the Ascension, "And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world."On the 22nd Sunday, there were these words from Jesus, taken again from Matthew's gospel: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.." Finally, coming up on the feast of Christ the King, we hear: "'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you drink?'....The king will answer them, 'I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least (ones), you did it for me.'" The year stretches from one end to the other as a meditation on the great Easter question: how is Christ alive? What does "to rise from the dead" mean? In whom or in what have we discovered the real, living presence of the Christ of God?

There have been other recurring themes this year: the parables of the reign of God have been heard on many Sundays since July. Have they opened our imagining to any new hope, any new joys? Have we had any insight into the great love and trust Jesus had for his Abba? Have his teachings that flow from that profound faith, teachings about living together peaceably, with forgiveness, and open to the great diversity of humankind, led us to any new behaviors as a community? How have we tried to sing that community into being?

A great danger is that we have been "just praising the Lord" for the way things are, satisfied with our status quo, and not allowed the axe of God's word to strike at the roots of our complacency. The din of our merrymaking blots out the word. I suppose that we thus tempt God to leave us to our own devices ("Turn back, O Man, forswear thy foolish ways!") or to try a less subtle approach, something in the fire-and-brimstone department. (As I reconsider these words, it seems more likely that we simply are reveling too much to hear the sound of God's axe hacking at the root, since the word does not go forth without accomplishing what it was sent to do!)

The last Sundays are sombre, but there is a great energy underlying them. It is the energy of something-about-to-happen. Beginning with the parable of the vineyard owner and going through the Solemnity of Christ the King, the gospels are largely calls to immediate action: to respond to the son, to render to God, to come to the banquet, to serve the rest, to stay awake, to live up to our abilities, to do unto the least ones. In each case, one of God's options is spelled out in the parable: destroying their city, weeping and grinding of teeth, letting in the bystanders, locking out in the cold, committing to the fire. These are not meant to be prophecies or predictions of an exact reality, but calls to action. Jesus does not expect the listener to fall asleep or ignore the needs of the little ones or refuse to come to the feast! As he did among listeners two millenia ago in the Bronze Age, Christ looks for a new way of living from those who hear in the age of Silicon.

Introductory and Dismissal Rites. It seems to me that two areas in which to concentrate our attention in the preparation of liturgy on these last Sundays are the introductory and dismissal rites. In the former case, we have the great covenant argument stated overtly while we also remember who we are to each other. We step outside of ourselves as individuals in the gathering rites, particularly the gathering song, and reassemble as an assembly, the sign of a people. Then, in the penitential rite, we step outside of ourselves as a people and remember aloud and publicly that Christ is the sovereign of the universe; following this, we proclaim the glory of this unseen God in the hymn of praise ("Glory to God.") Done in these three steps, not always perhaps, but on Sundays like these when it is appropriate to do so, the introductory rites can truly make us ready to hear the word of God, and then to act on it in the Eucharist.

The dismissal rites can be done in similar stages. Using a song like Tom Kendzia's "We Will Want No More" (NALR, GP#259), we can end the communion rite with a hymn of praise or thanksgiving. The first part of Kendzia's song, the first two verses that appeal to the praising heart with a Stephen Foster-like simplicity, would serve in this fashion. The Presider can then pray the communion prayer, offer the blessing and dismissal, and the assembly can leave amid the joyful sound of the gospel refrain, "On that day, we will want no more!" At my parish we have also used my song "I Am for You" (GIA) and "Dawn of Day" (Deiss, NALR) in a similar way, doing two or three verses after communion, then concluding the hymn after the dismissal. Improvised music played under the Presider's proclamation can bridge the two sections of the hymn.

Feast of All Saints. Since autumn and the end of the liturgical year both bring to mind the finality of things within the context of the undying mystery of Christ, it makes sense that we should pay special attention to the great feast of All Saints on November 1. With the emphasis that has been placed on renewing Sunday Eucharist in the church, there have been some significant losses, not the least of which is a sense of connection to the latter-day heroes of our tribe, those whose lives have been lived since the Christian scriptures were codified. Seeing ourselves in that long march of disciples that have journeyed with Jesus from Galilee to the cross to the empty tomb can only give added depth to our community building. Certainly, seeing ourselves as part of one another and attached to Christ is primary; but part of our connectedness, an element which adds richness and color to our storytelling and tribal imagination, is our connectedness with those who have gone before us.

Last year, when All Saints fell on Sunday, we made a big deal of the gathering rite, using the Litany of the Saints as our gathering music, and adding to it the names of those who had been baptized or who had died in our community during the past year. This year, we will do this again. Do not feel constrained to use the chant version of this litany. Grayson Brown has a gospel setting that is very easy to perform and would be especially good to use at liturgies with children; it is in the NALR collection I Will Rejoice. In addition, there is the popular setting by John Becker available from Oregon Catholic Press. For the Easter Vigil last year (1992), I adapted the spiritual "When the Saints Go Marching In" to include the Litany of the Saints, again, with celebrations in mind that include large numbers of children. (Note: This litany was published by GIA in 1998, Edition #G-5020.) With any of these settings, using two to four cantors in different parts of the assembly will add to the immediacy of the music. In addition, consider using the musical version of the gospel of the Beatitudes, one that incorporates the song "Blest Are They" (Haas, GIA; G&P #35). For a copy of the script we use at St. Jerome, write to me in care of this magazine. Today's feast also seems to be an appropriate day to use the first Eucharistic prayer, with its memorials of the apostles and other early saints.

"God alone may lead my spirit" (Psalm 23, Conry) The feast of Christ the King is worth looking at for a moment here, if only to point out again the great irony that should be apparent to us in the celebration. At every Sunday Eucharist we acknowledge that Christ is Kyrios, that is, the sovereign Lord of the universe. We tend to drape the celebration, therefore, with the paraphernalia of regency, which is one of the reasons that the liturgy and its music can seem so hopelessly outdated and irrelevant in our time. But all the while that we are acknowledging the Christ is Lord and King, the scriptures are unfolding for us just what God means by that: an unknown, a religious outsider, a man who breaks bread with all the wrong people, someone to be found on the road with nowhere to lay his head, and, ultimately, on death row. Scripture's vision of this king has nothing in common with our romanticized idea of it. It is looking-glass power, life that embraces death, utterly unconcerned with the trappings of strength or what human or created "powers" may think necessary to maintain a place of superiority. "(Jesus) did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at; rather, he emptied himself, and became a slave," this is the testimony of the letter to the Philippians. Even "Godness" in our reckoning could not come between us and the completely self-abasing love of Jesus.

Our choice of music and texts for the Solemnity of Christ the King and the Sundays that surround it should think long and hard on this divine irony, lest we (again) either overlook the Savior or, finding him, wish to make him King.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper psalm: Psalm 80: "The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel."

Note: Save Us, O Lord (GP2121 , Music Issue) and "Lord, Come and Save Us" (GP150) are both easily accessible settings of Psalm 80.

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
Break Forth	Fabing	NALR	#39
Like A Shepherd	Dufford	New Dawn	#145
Ps 33 "Song of the Chosen"	Cooney	NALR	#203
We Have Been Told	Haas	GIA	#253
We Praise You	Dameans	GIA	#254
Yahweh, the Faithful One	Schutte	New Dawn	#268
Road to Jerusalem	Cooney	NALR	#211
*from other sources*
Covenant Hymn	Daigle	GIA	Praise the Maker's Love

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper psalm: Psalm 23, "I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."2

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
All People That on Earth Do Dwell	trad.		#8
All the Ends of the Earth	Dufford	New Dawn	#11
Anthem	Conry	New Dawn	#19
Come to the Water	Foley	New Dawn	#56
Gather Us In	Haugen	GIA	#78
Gather Us In/Let Your Will	Kendzia	NALR	#79
In Christ There Is No East or West	trad.		#113
One Bread, One Body	Foley	New Dawn	#180
Tableprayer	Dameans	GIA	#237
The Message Goes Forth	Consiglio	NALR	#161
*from other sources*
All the Earth	Deiss	WLP	Music Issue
Psalm 23	Conry	Team/OCP	Music Issue
We Are His People	Haas	GIA	Gather #45

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper psalm: Psalm 96: Give the Lord glory and honor.

Note: Possible substitutes from the common psalter would include Psalm 67, "May all the nations praise you, O God;" or Psalm 98 or 100.

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
All the Ends of the Earth	Dufford	New Dawn	#11
Come to the Water	Foley	New Dawn	#56
Glory and Praise to Our God	Schutte	New Dawn	#82
Here I Am, Lord	Schutte	New Dawn	#92
How Beautiful	Consiglio	NALR	#95
How Can I Keep from Singing	trad.		#96
Only in God	Foley	New Dawn	#182
Send Us Your Spirit	Schutte	New Dawn	#214
There Is a River	Manion	NALR	#241
Speak, Lord	Ault	GIA	#230
Thy Kingdom Come	Cooney	NALR	#245
*from other sources*
Walk in the Reign	Cooney	GIA	Safety Harbor
Psalm 23	Conry	Team/OCP	Music Issue
To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King	trad./Goemanne	GIA/choral	G1901

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper psalm: Psalm 18: I love you, Lord, my strength.

Note: Possible substitute from the common psalter: Psalm 146, "Praise the Lord, my Soul," or Psalm 34, "The Lord hears the cry of the poor."

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
Beatitudes	Ducote	GIA	#27
Bread of Life	Cooney	NALR	#37
Come to the Lord	Kendzia	NALR	#55
Come to Us	Cooney	NALR	#57
Cry of the Poor	Foley	New Dawn	#61
He Has Anointed Me	Dameans	GIA	#90
I Am the Bread of Life	Toolan	GIA	#100
I Have Loved You	Joncas	New Dawn	#102
You in Our Day	Cooney	NALR	#275

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper psalm: Psalm 131, "In you, Lord, I have found my peace."

Note: Musical versions of this psalm include Christopher Walker's "Like a Child," (OCP) and Lucien Deiss's "My Soul Is Longing," (WLP).

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
Cry of the Poor	Foley	New Dawn	#61
Like A Shepherd	Dufford	New Dawn	#145
Peace Prayer	Foley	New Dawn	#191
Servant Song	Cooney	NALR	#215
*from other sources*
I Will Lift Up My Eyes	Conry	Team/OCP	Music Issue
Psalm 23	Conry	Team/OCP	Music Issue
Canticle of the Turning	Cooney	GIA	Safety Harbor

Feast of All Saints

Proper psalm: Psalm 24, "Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face."

Note: This psalm is available as an ostinato-style setting in my collections, Missa America and Cries of the Spirit (NALR), and as an octavo [CY-25].

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
Anthem	Conry	New Dawn	#19
Blest Are They	Haas	GIA	#35
• Eye Has Not Seen4	Haugen	GIA	#69
Faithful Family	Cooney	NALR	#70
For All the Saints	How/Vaughn Williams		#74
Glory and Praise to Our God	Schutte	New Dawn	#82
Joyfully Singing	Dameans	GIA	#127
Peace Prayer	Foley	New Dawn	#191
Servant Song	Cooney	NALR	#215
Ps 33 "Song of the Chosen"	Cooney	NALR	#203
*from other sources*
Litany of the Saints	Becker	OCP

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper psalm: Psalm 63, "My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God."

Note: Among the many available settings of this beautiful psalm are the Dameans' "I Long for You" (GP105) and Tom Conry's "I Will Lift Up my Eyes" (Music Issue.)

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
And the Father Will Dance	Landry	NALR	#16
Glory and Praise to Our God	Schutte	New Dawn	#82
I Am the Bread of Life	Toolan	GIA	#100
I Found the Treasure	Schutte	New Dawn	#102
Patience, People	Foley	New Dawn	#189
Seek the Lord	O'Connor	New Dawn	#213
Sing to the Mountains	Dufford	New Dawn	#227
• Thy Kingdom Come	Cooney	NALR	#245
• We Will Want No More	Kendzia	NALR	#259
*from other sources*
How Firm a Foundation	trad.		Music Issue
• Trumpet in the Morning	arr. Wagner	GlorySound
Spirits Seeking Light and Beauty	arr. Daigle	GIA	Vision

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper psalm: Psalm 128, "Happy are those who fear the Lord, and walk in his ways."

Note: This psalm is commonly used at weddings. In addition, the Dameans "We Praise You" (GP254) includes verses 6 and 7 which are paraphrases of this psalm.

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
Beginning Today	Ducote	GIA	#29
I Found the Treasure	Schutte	New Dawn	#102
Seek the Lord	Dufford	New Dawn	#213
Servant Song	Cooney	NALR	#215
Sing a New Song	Schutte	New Dawn	#218
Take, Lord, Receive	Foley	New Dawn	#239
Thy Kingdom Come	Cooney	NALR	#245
*from other sources*
Do Not Fear to Hope	Cooney	NALR	GP Classic
• Rejoice	Consiglio	NALR	GP Classic
I Will Never Know	Kendzia	NALR	No Greater Love
• Trumpet in the Morning	arr. Wagner	GlorySound
• The Day Will Break	Willett	OCP

Solemnity of Christ the King

Proper psalm: Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want."

*from Glory & Praise Comprehensive:*
Alleluia, Sing to Jesus	trad.		#12
• The Christ of God	Foley	New Dawn	#44
• Dawn of Day	Deiss	NALR	#62
• Eye Has Not Seen	Haugen	GIA	#69
I, the Lord	Kendzia	NALR	#109
Road to Jerusalem	Cooney	NALR	#211
• The King Shall Come When.Morning Dawns	trad.		#129
Thy Kingdom Come	Cooney	NALR	#245
• We Remember	Haugen	GIA	#255
You in Our Day	Cooney	NALR	#275
*from other sources*
• Soon and Very Soon	Crouch		Lead Me,Guide Me
• Sign Me Up	Yancy		Lead Me,Guide Me
• Festival Canticle: Worthy Is Christ	Hillert	Concordia	Music Issue
Whatsoever You Do	Jabusch	WLP	Music Issue
• Justice	Consiglio	NALR	GP Classic

1 Numbers refer to Glory and Praise Comprehensive Hymnal, unless otherwise noted.

2 This antiphon can be found included with the setting of Psalm 23 in my collection, You Alone, available from NALR.

4 Titles marked with a bullet (•) would be good selections for any of the final Sundays of the year, and should be considered for adding to the repertoire through repetition over several weeks if they are new.