We have had weeks of heatwaves and bush fires and thick smoke in the air but last night’s huge storms left us with an uncharacteristically cool wet Christmas day. Delightful.
I strummed along supporting one of our great pianists, who led music at mass last night, with the thunder accompanying us all.
We haven’t changed our songs for a few years, which is a good idea. I’m always interested, though, if parishes have new songs for Christmas or other liturgies.
Best wishes for Christmas from Queensland, Australia.
Nothing too unusual here… I may have missed another choir song from before mass, but this is most of it.
Carols before midnight mass:
Emmanuel Carol (Berberick) (choir) – It sounds a bit different on organ than it does on the OCP recording. 😉
Good Christian, Friends, Rejoice
Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming (choir)
Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
Coventry Carol (choir)
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O Holy Night (choir)
During Mass:
Gathering: O Come, All Ye Faithful
Gifts: Wood of the Cradle (O’Brien) (choir)
Communion: Silent Night
Angels We Have Heard on High
Closing: Joy to the World
Back in 2013, Michael Joncas (of “Eagle’s Wings” fame) released a collection of Advent and Christmas hymns (specific to the liturgy for each Sunday / major feast and year) published by OCP called “Within Our Hearts Be Born”. All of the hymns are metered, and so can be sung to existing hymn tunes. Some of his suggested tunes are somewhat obscure, but in most cases it’s not difficult to find a better known alternative. This technique is very handy for specific liturgies that don’t occur regularly, as there is no hope of the congregation holding on to something with a unique tune that can only be used once a year (or less). As an example, for the Baptism of the Lord we will be singing “When Jesus Comes to Jordan’s Stream” sung to KINGSFOLD (mostly associated with “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”). The first half of the first verse:
When Jesus comes to Jordan’s stream
a voice from heaven calls.
“This is my well-beloved Son,
on whom my favour falls”;
For the most part, the quality of the lyrics is excellent and perhaps not what people would expect based on his earlier compositions. I should also point out that although these use traditional hymn tunes, an organ is not necessary, and we, for the most part, play them on piano and they work fine.
Back in the day, I used to use Gregory Norbet’s “A Child Is Born in Bethlehem” with it’s numerous verses creating options for different days in the Christmas season. It seems to have fallen out of favour in recent hymnals.
He also has a similar collection for Lent called “We Contemplate the Mystery” . Neither are downloadable, so it is necessary to pay a fortune in freight to get them here.