matthewj
Does your priest sing his parts of the Mass? Sometimes hearing sung dialogues/orations makes the other musical changes make more sense in the eyes of those who prefer other music.

Yes, our pastor sings many parts of the Mass, and so does our small choir.

It's a rather loose English adaptation of St. Thomas Aquinas' "O Sacrum Convivium", combined with other thoughts about the Eucharist.

The original is not very long, which allows it to be reflective:

O sacred banquet, in which Christ is received;
the memory of his passion is renewed;
the mind is filled with grace
and a firstfruits of future glory is given to us, alleluia.

Fr. Manalo is padding this with added material and making it much longer to fit the structure he's chosen.

There's no harm in singing it, but I wouldn't do all the verses: maybe just 1 and 2. Maybe 5. As you observed, the text is putting too much attention on us.

Two things I do not like: the repeated emphasis on “meal” and the fact that it reads like **yet another** social justice tract. That said, by and large, you can do worse (at least textually).

I'm quite surprised to see " O Sacrum Convivium" mentioned. I will let you all know I was the DOM who was behind the commission of that piece in 2019 and I love it for a multitude of reasons. It was composed for my then-parish's 100th anniversary Celebration (2019-2020). In the Diocese of Covington (Kentucky), this piece is actually considered good compared to what many of the other parishes are doing. There are a number of publication edits that made it into the final version I wasn't completely thrilled about, but the piece nonetheless holds a special place in my heart.

Verses 1, 2, 5, and 6 were meant to be a paraphrase/gloss of the traditional O Sacrum Convivium text. Verses 3 and 4 brought it the works of mercy because we were really trying to get a parish with "old money" that was in the habit of paying off their responsibilities to understand authentic stewardship. We really used this centennial year to reflect on James 2: 14-16 "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?" Another pearl of wisdom we attempted to weave into the hymn was Augustine's sermon 272, "If you, therefore, are Christ's body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord's table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! You are saying "Amen" to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. When you hear "The body of Christ", you reply "Amen." Be a member of Christ's body, then, so that your "Amen" may ring true!" The parish was in the midst of rediscovering authentic stewardship; not the silly version of the prosperity gospel, but one rooted in Hospitality, Prayer, Formation and Service. Once the parish has offered those, we might earn the privilege of asking for the faithful's time, talent, and treasure; in that order.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I will gladly continue to use it because it marked a very important step in my career and really brought a disjointed music program together and unified the parish around the stewardship renewal for our 100th anniversary. Yes, this piece of music and the catechesis that accompanied it really did this.

I proudly served Blessed Sacrament for five and half years (2018-2023) before moving on. Over the course of those five years we had a pastor change and a number of staff members retire and the new ones were... not the quality of the old ones. I realized it was my time to move on and have been blessed with opportunities to continue as a music director and as a high school choir director.

things I do not like: the repeated emphasis on “meal”

As one priest said, “if I wanted to serve dinner I’d have become a waiter.”

In a church context, if someone says "my way or the highway", then the answer is always to bless then and wish them a safe journey.

And that applies equally to rad-trads, dippy-hippies, charismatic-crackpots, CCM-young-bucks, chant-fanatics, church-music-lite-fuddy-duddies and whatever other names you want to call people whose spirit moves to different grooves.

Here is a nicer engraving of the Remondi/Montani. A favorite of ours.