I was waiting for our music meeting to post the selections for Lent. It was decided to have no song after communion with either silence or a chant. I’ll go silence for our masses. I was going to use a seasonal psalm, but since I will be switching from Saturday Vigil to Sunday mass at times during Lent, there isn’t the continuity to warrant it.
Entrance: Merciful God (Alonso)
Psalm 90 ( McKenna)
Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Gifts: Ashes ( Conroy) AOV 2/16
Communion: Be Not Afraid (Dufford) AOV 1/114
Recessional: Praise To You O Christ (Farrell) AOV 1/28
I’m sure it’s not meant to comprehensive and it certainly isn’t wholly accurate – AOV was first published 1992, for example and there was the Sing Alleluia supplement to the AH in 1987, between it and TIS. At the time she wrote only AOV and CWB II were still in print, but CWB II is now unavailable and I believe AOV is digital only but I must ask, it may be print on demand.
I can’t agree with her unsubstantiated claim that AOV was only successful because it was cheap. What was actually cheap was staying with older hymnals and using public domain tunes or chant. I would suggest AOV was a success because it filled a need unmet by the institutional Catholic church in Australia, it was well curated by people with a musical sensibility who were prepared to do a mountain of work getting the selections and the style correct with no guarantee it would get them anywhere, and parishes who were prepared to pay for the pew hymnals and sheet music books. As I have commented already here, AOV Vol 1&2, provided enough usable hymns for most Australian parishes so that many have never moved beyond it. It did actually include some traditional hymns, despite Brandt’s protestations to the contrary.
She doesn’t mention the little blue loose leaf hymnal, the Living Worship Hymnal, from the Liturgical Commission in Brisbane, that was used widely. My second hand copy is heavily adapted with some pages lyrics only, some music and large jumps in the numbering system.
At Star of the Sea, George Town, Tasmania, before they used AOV they used the “green book”, which was in fact the Praise to God: Parish Hymn Book, published by the Dominican Hymnal Committee and edited by Nicolas Falzun OP. I have borrowed the accompaniment edition which is the revised edition with a supplement from 1990, only two years before the first publication of AOV. I haven’t been able to find copies second hand anywhere. If someone has copies they are looking to offload, let me know.
These pages let you know what is in the hymnal. Most were extracted from Catholic Worship Book 1, the Australian Hymn book, the Celebration Hymnal (available in pdf on the internet), Glory and Praise, and the New Living Parish Hymnal.
One thing about the New Living Parish Hymnal is the arrangements by John de Luca, who took some of the simple folk arrangements and added some sophistication, so I will get back to that, but I thought in the interim I would look at songs from the Praise to God collection that I haven’t covered here, that the Dominicans found from outside the main sources. There seems to be a lot of folk mass era pieces to go along with the traditional hymnody.
Much of the original version is just organ music, with only occasional guitar chords, but the supplement has a lot more chorded arrangements. It’s a bit of a hodge podge of styles really and some pieces are melody line only. In the hands of our late and much missed organist though it was quite enough.
On the plus side it was very well bound – our parish’s copy has had the cover replaced but the original stitched binding appears indestructable. There are are also instances when they have created their own arrangements, but mostly there is a lot of cut and pasting going on. You can understand when AOV arrived in 1992 with a consistent and usable style, that it made this collection look amateurish indeed.
I find it interesting that the Dominican Fathers, when assembling this collection and even into the supplement in 1990 were only just catching up with 1960s folk mass era. There was, however, a laudable attempt to collect Australian songwriters like Frank Andersen, Brian Boniwell, Leo Watt and Father Kevin Bates that were being used in parishes along with very early Trish Watts and Monica O’Brien songs. It is these songs that were outside the major sources that I wish to look at first from Praise to God.
This is the last Jubilee song I have found to date – please let me know if there are others.
The One Life Music team have another song aimed at primary school children and have provided the sheet music for free here.
This won’t need much reworking to use beyond the Jubilee, which is nice. I haven’t been able to find details of the songwriters involved in One Life Music songs, nor their copyright details.
My backing is a gentle shuffle.
1 We are pilgrims on a journey, Lord, journeying with you.
Be with us as we walk together, light our faith in you.
Chorus
Give us hope, O Lord, give us hope, O Lord,
God of Spirit, God of Grace.
Give us hope, O Lord, give us hope, O Lord,
Fan in us the flame of truth and faith.
2 We are pilgrims in a holy year, transform us, O Lord.
Guide us as we rediscover, hope within our world.
Chorus
Bridge
We arev pilgrims, we are pilgrims,
Pilgrims on a road of hope!
Yes, we are pilgrims, we are pilgrims,
Pilgrims on a road of hope!
3 We are called to bring your hope, O Lord, hope to all the world.
Fill us, use us, send us out as messengers of love.
I have found a couple more Jubilee songs for primary school children, this time from the One Life Music team in the UK. As I frequently note, songs for children are often also fine for assemblies, especially if the local school has learned them as well.
You can see everyone is following the brief and hitting the thematic points in their texts. They will have to replace the explicit references to the Jubilee with other words if the song has traction and is to be used beyond 2025. I hate to be a pedant, but “to shine bright” is poor English even if the “brightly” doesn’t fit. It could be,” Shine brightly, shine brightly, children of love and truth.”
You can download the sheet music for free at One Life.
My backing is a little more laid back than their recording.
1 We are pilgrims on a journey,
Journeying together, journeying together with you, O Lord.
We are called and chosen,
Called and chosen, called and chosen by you, O Lord.
Prechorus
To sing a song of hope, hope for all the world.
To bring the grace of Jubilee alive!
Chorus
Fan the flame of hope bringing light to the world.
May my song of hope rise in you, God of love, Lord of all.
2 We have hope within us.
Hope within us, hope within us from you, O Lord.
We are called to shine bright;
Children of light, children of light and truth, O Lord.
Prechorus
Chorus
3 Given gifts of service,
To serve one another, serve one another and you, O Lord.
I’m pushing on to find Jubilee songs, while we are in the Jubilee year of 2025.
This is the CRA‘s song for the Jubilee, written by Simon Hyland.
It is a song that I think has uses outside of the Catholic Religious communities of sisters, brothers and priests, but I haven’t been able to find a link to the sheet music anywhere.
The full text is available here and we can at least sing along to the clip, but it would be nice to have some music, so if anyone knows where it can be sourced or has nutted it out, I’d be interested.
STOP PRESS 7/3/25
Taylor Coutinho from CRA has been in touch – the sheet music is now available here.
In that case why not a backing track, key change and all:
Two clips of the same song with different visuals:
I had so much trouble making this backing as I didn’t notice the verses were subtly different and all my lazy short cutting didn’t work.
1 On this sacred journey We seek human dignity Each one of us is precious Show respect and empathy. Keepers of the earth Care for all creation Conserve, care and cultivate Every land and every nation.
Chorus WE ARE PILGRIMS OF HOPE FOLLOWING THE WAY OUR EYES ARE FIXED ON YOU. KEEP THE FLAME BURNING AND OUR HEARTS YEARNING OUR DESIRE MUST BE RENEWED. CELEBRATE THIS JUBILEE THIS SYMPHONY OF PRAYER RAISE YOUR VOICES IN HARMONY TOGETHER LET US SHARE
2 Blaze a trail of love Help those in poverty. Do not turn a blind eye, Spread love and charity. Serve one another, In solidarity Use the gifts you have, Create community.
Chorus
3 Blessed are the peacemakers, You children of God. Building bridges of hope At home and abroad. With Jesus at the centre, There is no need to fear. Follow His example, The truth that we hold dear
Bridge
Lift your hands in surrender, Feel the power of Gods’ grace. With love and compassion Make the world a better place. Walk in faith, Our hope isin the Lord Open our hearts, Our hope is in the Lord Be a light in the world Our hope isin the Lord On earth as it is in heaven.
WE ARE PILGRIMS OF HOPE FOLLOWING THE WAY OUR EYES ARE FIXED ON YOU.
Chorus
Outro
WE ARE PILGRIMS OF HOPE FOLLOWING THE WAY OUR EYES ARE FIXED ON YOU.
This is Michael Herry‘s hymn for the Jubilee year, co-written with Tricia Murray, and set to BUNESSAN. It has a Marian text and is a natural for the Star of the Sea parish here in George Town.
Pilgrims of hope, we gather with Mary, Here in this fam’ly, seeking your way. Loved by the Father, baptized in Jesus, Out of the darkness into the day.
God of compassion, tender and patient, Deepen our faith in Jesus, your Son. Send us the Spirit, guide ev’ry pilgrim, Lead us to pasture on our way home.
Pilgrims of hope, we boldly proclaim you, Pledging our lives to live in your light. Beyond the shadows, hope will not fail us, Radiant your presence, holy and bright.
Renew our hearts and lives in your Spirit, Deepen our faith to live in your love. Where two or three are gathered together, There you are with us, here and above.
Joy to you Mary, blest among women, Beacon to fain hearts, Star of the Sea. Lead us O Mother to your son Jesus; He is our Good News, hope given free.
I’m pretty sure it was Chris who alerted me to this one and he has his helpful backing + music post on YouTube.
There are a few more Jubilee Year song matters to deal with.
The lovely people at CJM music collective have had a crack at the official hymn for the Jubilee, in a style better suited to a “a more contemporary liturgical music repertoire.”
You can find their arrangement in 2 keys here, and it fits on one page!
This is the official version, which I blogged here. Maybe I just don’t like long echo times, but the song benefits from their simple arrangement.
Willow’s Pilgrims of Hope collection closes out with another Gen Bryant song, this time in collaboration with Ashen Warnakulasooryia. The sheet music and other bundles for the collection can be purchased at Willow.
Like the other songs in the collection, the text is inspired by the themes of Jubilee year, but here with additional inspiration from St Mary Mackillop and Sister Joan Chittester.
This is an inspirational song that will suit school ministry. Gen was thinking of celebrating the diversity and connectedness she sees in Australia, but the themes are universal beyond her country and the Jubilee year. It is also a song for people who feel their spirituality while on their feet and moving.
My backing has a different feel to her great version – mine is more a laid back dance beat.
1 There is a light, guiding our hearts, To see through the storm. There is a way, we travel as one, By name we are called.
Prechorus
From the north to the south, every sight, every sound. From the east to the west, light will rise and will set. Feel the dust at our feet, it will centre our hearts. See the rivers collide, we are one, we will rise and sing…
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
