I’m running this because in conversation on another site, the musical playbook for this weekend became clear:
Opening: “All are Welcome Here”
Offertory: “Here I am, Lord”
Closing: “Sing a New Church”
Others reported “The Summons,” which I confess I’ve never heard.
And what about you?
Boy, that music was terrible. The sad part to me is that the execution was good – well done. Strong voices, good harmonizing and so on. But the Mass part setting was some awful, sing-songy arrangement I had never heard that struck me as sentimental and childish. Immature. And as for the hymns, well. I don’t mind “Here I am Lord,” but the others are just so terrible and beside the point and even a bit against the point in their Celebration of Us – it really is just too bad that the energy can’t go into more substantive pieces, both musically and lyrically.
My son, in Rome, said he heard one of the best homilies he’s ever heard at Santa Susanna Saturday night, preached by a transitional deacon, he said. So, Deacon, if you’re out there…good job!
I do love this Gospel. The simplicity of it: What are you looking for….Come and see.
Darkness, at times, can seem comfortable. I can hide, and spend my life asleep. Yet we are not called to darkness, but to light.
Pope Benedict, Easter Vigil Homily, 2008