Sing a NEW song!

It's amazing what a few pieces of purple cloth and a change in repertoire can make in the prayer of a parish moving through the season of Lent. Believing that less is more, my parish has simply scaled back for Lent and brought out a few pieces of well placed purple to mark the sanctuary for this holy season. A little more than half of our sung prayer for Lent is a cappella which makes for a very different experience.

Several months ago I wrote about a particularly prayerful celebration of the Sunday Eucharist in my parish. This morning's 7:30 Mass was another instance of the same. The ambiance; the entrance/penitential rite based on Haugen's Shepherd Me, O God; the strong proclamation of the scriptures; a solid homily; the Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation; the a cappella singing: all this contributed to a beautiful, prayerful liturgy.

And something inspiring happened at the Lamb of God. This piece, along with all of the acclamations, was to be sung a cappella so the pianist gave our cantor a pitch note. Then four amazing things happened. First, the cantor (accustomed to accompaniment) lost her sense of the melody for the Isele setting but sang out a rather nice line with a minor, Lenten feel for the first trope. Second, she remembered what she had sung and sang it again, perfectly, for the second trope. Third, the assembly, who had never heard this melody before, chimed right in on "Have mercy on us" as if they'd been singing it for years. Fourth, at the end of the third trope, the assembly sang "Grant us peace" even though the cantor was singing it for the first time!

That's what happens when your musician's excellence succeeds even in the face of a mistake.
That's what happens when your assembly's trust in their own singing and sound is very strong.
That's what happens at the 7:30 Sunday Mass when sung prayer has been part of the assembly's weekly worship for over three years.

We have recording capabilities in our sound system and, fortunately, a CD captured this event so perhaps next year we'll sing our cantor's on-the-spot Lamb of God for the whole season of Lent.

Praise God from whom all inspired compositions and blessings flow!