Wow.

Second rate words, second rate composer
Donna

In case you'd like to hear the tune, here's a link to OCP's sample. You can even see a sample PDF of the whole thing.

Sounds like it's still largely about us.

Oh, and it's boring too.

'So is the Mass the same act of offering or not? It's made ambiguous.' - Chonak

That's my impression, too, Charles. Again, the food obsession... what's up with that? 'Feast' is only part of the Mass. It is a true sacrifice as well.

Gather, celebrate, feast. Nothing wrong with those words in their proper balance, but they've been used too often as core manipulative buzz words to push an agenda. If I had to guess, I would say that Rev. Joncas is still attached to the hermeneutic of discontinuity. But you'd know about that better than me, Charles.

[BTW, my computer broke, I your email address was lost. Would you kindly email me? I'd love to have an update on Wendy.]

It's on the theological fence, isn't it? And, it's 'anybody's guess' what meaning should be attached to the words - perhaps this much was intentional. Why else be vague?

Otherwise, it is an incredibly pedestrian bit of verse; utterly uninspired and insipid. Why would anyone who believes the Catholic Faith sing it?

It sounds like a Lutheran song that serious Lutherans would not sing.

I appreciate don roy's critique of overused phrases. I do think those phrases could be used intelligently, but their repeated use in these coffee house songs is too much.

I would also suggest that singing the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the first person is something we should not do unless the hymn text includes quotes from Jesus clearly indicated by introduction in the text e.g., Jesus said, 'I am the Door...

Long ago I maintained that Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan's 'I am the Bread of Life" was far more compelling in the Second Person: "You are the Bread of Life. All who come to you shall not hunger. All who believe in you shall not thirst. No one can come to you unless the Father beckon. (or 'draw them') And You will raise us up, You will raise us up, You will raise us up on the Last Day."

Sometimes when thinking of recasting this hymn I prefer English that is more Tudor than contemporary: "Thou art the Bread of Life. All who come to Thee shall not hunger. All who believe on Thee shall not thirst. No one may come to Thee unless the Father beckon. And Thou shalt raise us up, Thou shalt raise us up. Thou shalt raise us up on the Last Day." I wonder if Sr. Suzanne would permit such a variation of her text. While overused, Sr. Toolan's hymn clearly is vastly superior to this 'fence-riding' song --as Jackson so aptly put it. [ Please forgive my digression. ]

oh yea, meal...lets ban that word too.

You know, the whole table/meal thing may have taken on such a life of its own, from more than just theological damping of sacrifice and emphasis on community and togetherness. Many families don't eat together anymore, and many single people never eat together except in a restaurant.

So maybe these songs are calls for help, and pleas to be invited home for Sunday dinner?

we could have a sunday dinner section in the back of the hymnal, just behind the social concerns! we could have hymns such as "Gather us at Wendys", "Be not alone (for dinner)" or "How great Thou eats"

I have never been able to figure out Joncas. There's the infamous psalm, "My soul is thirsting." It sounds like something from a gypsy camp. Is the man a frustrated composer of silent movie scores who missed his time and place? His music is theatrical, and there is stylistically nothing sacred about it. What's up with him?

Oh, wait. There's far worse. Maybe I should give Joncas a break. For Christ the King, RitualSong has another goody that's even worse. "O God, this is the people who long to see your face" by Kevin Keil. I am not familiar with him, but I put the tremolo on the mighty Schantz for this one at rehearsal, and the choir rolled in the floor. I have to use it because the pastor has decreed we use what is in the book. A good argument for tossing the book, I think. Urgh! Where's the key to the liquor cabinet?

Interestingly enough, CharlesW, "...this is the people..." is today's Psalm, is it not?

"This is the people..." was the psalm for this morning. The keyboard accompaniment is theater-organish, and sounds ludicrous. But, it is the only setting in the book, so I had to use it. I am waiting for the new translations, because the pastor will then let us get a new hymnal. And you are right, Maureen. It does sound fake.

it is the only setting in the book, so I had to use it.

Is that an order from above?
Otherwise, you can pick a psalm tone, any psalm tone, and point what's in the lectionary.
I am stuck with Goiter Reprehensive, and the preference of TPTB would be that I use its "psalms," and they'd be fine with seasonal antiphons.
That they be English was not negotiable.
So if the hymnal has an antiphon that isn't tooooo far off from the correct text I will use it, but then usually have the cantor or choir chant the verse, recto tono</> if necessary.
If looking at what's written in the hymnal won't be too confusing for the congregation, that is to what they are directed; otherwise the page in the missallette containing the correct words is announced.
Today, for instance, the people were told the words were in the missallette, then the cantor intoned the correct words but to the Keil tune (with the pick-up note omitted,) and there was only one iteration of the text.
Then the lectionary verses were chanted on G.
I also added some harmonization for the choir on the antiphon.
(I spend half of my waking hours marking up the choir hymnals, it sometimes seems, adding masculine 3rd person singular pronouns, smoothing out bizarre alto parts, eliminating superfluous repeats...)
And whatever the intentions of the composers seem to have been, the cantors and choir are told to treat it as if it were chant.

I would prefer to just not use the "psalter" in Gather, but TPTB love them, and so far I've managed to keep them moderately happy while amending the most egregiously bad ones.

The unusably-divergent from the authentic text settings that are extremely popular, (Shepherd Me, O God, for instance,) I'll try to squeeze in when appropriate as communions.

And after several years, TPTB can no longer deny that the people sing just as loudly and enthusiastically on an a capella Gregorian tone as they do the most well-known of the "Sellebration Series Salms," (tones 2, 5 & 8)

Save the Liturgy, Save the World

Charles, does the pastor know that the '94 Grail translation of the psalms in RitualSong is not approved for liturgical use? I suppose he might not care, but it is a sort of inclusive-language minefield...

I designed an organ for Kevin Keil at a parish and he was and is, I believe, Catholic. LOL, though not at him.

I guess I thought he might not be Catholic b/c of very early things he wrote for Lorenz

Donna