Church Music

One of the delights of hymnal archeology in the nooks and crannies of the Praise to God hymnal, is finding a lot of early Brian Boniwell songs that are new to me but more than forty years old. Some of his songs are now sold through Willow, but not this one.

This is the other song off the The Lord Delights record by Father Paul Gurr that was selected by the editors of PTG, that didn’t become a mainstay of Australian parish music – unlike, “Prepare the Way”, “The Lord is My Shepherd” and “Will You Love Me?”.

This song is sung in the voice of Christ, which may be a problem, although it seems obvious enough. Both The Lord Delights and Praise to God are long out of print, although while looking for information about all this I came across a couple of Paul Gurr songbooks in an online second hand music shop, which I have purchased and are on their way.

1 Ask the Father in my Name. He will give you his Kingdom,

And you shall be blessed, and you shall have life.

I’ll give to you my Spirit each day to share your load.

A light and joyful burdem you’d have upon your shoulder.

In my love. In my love.

2 Ask the Father in my Name, He will draw you to his freedom.

For He is life forever, seeking out your love,

And you will know the answer that others do not seek.

My love will grow within you and you will run to me.

In my love. In my love.

© 1981 Spectrum Publications

With zero chance of finding a copy of the sheet music to this song, I am putting up the music, but I am happy to take it down if there are objections. You will note that chords are supplied on this one – it all seems a bit random in this hymnal whether you get melody line, lead sheet or hand written organ music.

For Vigil this year, I am pretty much copying what we did in 2023:

For Vigil we will use Tony Alonso’s Exsultet if the practices go well! The sheet music is available at GIA.

Here we use three psalms in the readings and we will sing the responses using Amanda McKenna’s settings.

Psalm 32

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord,

The goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 15

Keep me safe O God; you are my hope.

Keep me safe O God; you are my hope.

Exodus 15

Let us sing to the Lord;

He has covered himself in glory.

We use Taylor’s Mass of St Francis as usual except we still use the Celtic Alleluia.

Sprinkling Rite: River of Glory (Schutte)

Gifts: Blessed be Our God (McKenna)

Communion: Glory in the Cross (Schutte) – Easter verses

After Communion: Alleluia! Love is Alive (Angrisano, Manibusan, Hart)

Recessional: Jesus is Risen (O’Brien/Ogilvie)

This is very quiet and low key as it should be, with no music except for Veneration of the Cross and Communion.

Behold the Wood (Schutte)

Holy Darkness (Schutte)

Jesus Remember Me (Berthier)

Entrance: Glory In The Cross – Holy Thursday (Schutte)

Psalm 115 (Mckenna)

Our blessing cup is a communion with the blood of Christ.

Washing of Feet: As I Have Done For You (Schutte)

Gifts: Blessed Be Our God  (McKenna) AOV NG 13

Communion: Bread Broken, Wine Shared Bread  (Horner) AOV 2/155

Procession to the Altar of Repose: Stay With Me (Berthier) AOV 2/88

We have a joint mass for Palm Sunday so no vigil.

Entrance: Blessings on the King AOV 1/104

Psalm 21 (McKenna)

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Gifts: Glory in the Cross (Good Friday verses)

Communion: We Remember AOV 1/81

Song After Communion : Holy Darkness (Schutte) AOV 2/24

Recessional: Jesus Remember Me AOV 1/152

This is a deep cut from Brian Boniwell that was selected for the Praise To God hymnal. The Dominican Fathers picked five of his songs that were in Father Paul Gurr’s The Lord Delights collection that used some of Boniwell’s best material. Three went on to be Boniwell’s best known songs, “Prepare the Way”, “The Lord is My Shepherd” and “Will You Love Me?”, all heavily used in Australian churches to this day.

The text is based on John 14:26-7, and the first verse is sung in the voice of Christ and the second isn’t. The Holy Spirit is apparently male here? I suppose you repeat the last two lines of the second verse to make it fit.

I’ve found a CD at Spectrum by Father Gurr, called The Lord Delights, but this song isn’t on it. I can’t find any sheet music for this anywhere, so I suspect it is only to be found in this out of print hymnal and the out print The Lord Delights, hence my posting of the sheet music below, apologies to Spectrum – I am happy to take it down. It looks like cut and paste in this case because it was spread over two pages and I did cut and paste it.

The sheet music in PTG is another that is melody line only – no chords. So I made some up again.

1 Peace I give to you my friends.

My peace I leave within your hearts.

My Spirit will be with you to guide you in His ways.

He’ll lead you where you’ve never been before.

He will show you wisdom.

You will know true joy when my spirit comes to lead you in His ways.

2 He is called the Counsellor.

He is the Prince of Peace.

The fire of love that’s living in our hearts.

May his love keep burning and recreate our lives,

When the Spirit comes to lead us in his ways.

© 1981 Spectrum Publications

Way back when the Praise to God hymnal was put together Monica Brown was Sister Monica Brown SGS and making songs for children. Now she has lots of music for adults as well, especially to assist with meditation. This is a nice article about Monica.

I recall her songs from when my children were small and they were always welcome for First Communion classes and the like. It’s great that her music is still in print and available.

I any case the editors of PTG are to be applauded for seeking out women’s voices and not all of them were nuns. This was originally sourced from a collection called, Let the Children Come, but is now available as sheet music in the collection, Praise and Blessings. You can get MP3s and sheet music at her Emmaus site.

This is another case where all you get is melody line in this collection. So I made up some chords. Watch out for the key change for the last chorus – D to Eb.

Chorus

We belong. We belong.

You and I we belong to Jesus.

So together let’s sing our belonging song

And praise and thank our God.

1 We belong just like a branch to a tree,

Just like flower to the seed.

That’s just how it’s supposed to be.

Chorus

2 We belong just like the tear to the eye,

Just like a smile to the face.

That’s just how it’s supposed to be.

Chorus

3 We belong just like children in a family,

Just like love between friends.

That’s just how it’s supposed to be.

The editors of Praise to God actually used two collections from Sister Miriam Therese Winter. “Spirit of God in the Clear Running Water” and “God Gives His People Strength” were from Joy is Like the Rain, and I have blogged them both already. You can still purchase sheet music for that collection at the Medical Mission Sisters.

I have a copy of her book, Why Sing? that I got second hand, probably at a LifeLine Bookfest – I miss them but its for the best that I am far away from those sales as I have no more room for books. There are copies of her book at Abebooks at the moment.

“The Visit” is from a different collection called, Knock, Knock, which is also available at that site. It is about Mary’s visit to her cousin, Elizabeth. There is further background at Godsongs. It is too gentle a song for congregational use, but would make a nice solo in the right context.

1 She walked in the summer through the heat on the hill.

She hurried as one who went with a will.

She danced in the sunlight when the day was done.

Her heart knew no evening who carried the sun.

2 Fresh as a flower at the first ray of dawn.

She came to her cousin whose morning was gone.

There leaped a little child in the ancient womb,

And there leaped a little hope in ev’ry ancient tomb.

3 Hail, little sister, who heralds the spring.

Hail, brave mother, who carries the King.

Hail to the moment beneath your breast,

May all generations called you blessed.

4 When you walk in the summer, through the heat on the hill.

When you’re wound with the wind and one with the will.

Be brave with the burden you are blessed to bear,

For it’s Christ that you carry ev’rywhere, ev’rywhere, ev’rywhere.

© 1968 Medical Mission Sisters

I blogged this song by Sister Miriam Winter here, and her version is indeed in the Praise To God hymnal, but the editor Nicolas Falzun OP gave us bonus material with his own setting of her text.

It’s an interesting tune with a neat modulation into the chorus and a bit of a jerk back into the verse, but if you love the text and want a new setting he has written one for you.

I mentioned in my post about this song that the words were a little odd. Father Falzun has rewritten them and they are – less odd – in his version. Since this hymn is unobtainable and as far as I can tell, this hymnal is the only place on earth it is available, I’ll post his setting so you can see how improved the words.

This is getting a bit obscure. This song from the Praise to God hymnal doesn’t appear to have been in any sheet music collection and I can only find it as the title track on an album of Australian Christian folk songs by Maureen Carroll. It was written by Damian West, although as the guitarist on Carroll’s album he is listed as Damien. The text as actually attributed to Damian West (alt), which means the editors have amended the words, but since I can find no trace of the song anywhere, I don’t know what has been changed. The sheet music is in this hymnal’s hand-written style they use for their own arrangements.

Having no idea what it is meant to sound like, I set the tempo to 135 and made a backing that is probably not folky enough, but it does sound like very early praise and worship from 1979.

1 Rejoice, you children of God; rejoice you children of faith.

God has sent his son to save us from all suffering and death.

Refrain

So let us rejoice, shout out our praise,

Thank the Lord with all our hearts.

He is the Joygiver, peace sharer for all humankind.

2 Believers of the risen Lord; sing the glory of our king.

He has come to renew us with bread that gives us life.

Refrain

3 O hear those soul saving words of the prophet crucified to death.

Hearts are made pure and joyful by the saving blood of Christ.

I’d love to know more about these songs – let me know if they are still in use anywhere or if there is more to know about the circumstances involved.

I will post the sheet music as it it unavailable anywhere I can find, but I will take it down if there is any way of getting the sheet music that is found.