Psalm suggestions?

[presbyter]

thinking of Mendelssohn: "Oh for the lungs, for the lungs of an ox..."

In which case the cantor might be best to bellow " far away, far away, far away from the mic-ro-o-phone".

[mcb]

My head starts to do odd things when people put words like "solemn" alongside "celebration"

We had our celebration of Evening Prayer today. The service booklets called it 'Solemn Vespers', mind, but it struck me today, as it has many times over the last eight days, that the words solemn and celebration have in fact gone together very well as the Church has marked Pope John Paul's death and (we pray) sharing in the Resurrection.

The solemnity almost (but not quite) reached the level of camp, with massed ranks of civic dignitaries sporting their bling. (Eight Lord Mayors! Also, a Lord Lieutenant and a Lord High Sheriff. No idea what they do; I never knew we had them.) The supporting cast (not camp at all, I hasten to add) included two government ministers and a Lord, and four Anglican bishops. To say nothing of other ecumenical leaders, leaders from other faiths, and lots and lots and lots of ordinary folk who seem to have been inspired in extraordinary numbers to come and take part these past few days.

As for the celebration, I'd like to think we achieved what we set out to, namely the prayer of the Church. The cathedral was packed and everyone sang heartily, both the hymns (The Day Thou Gavest and Holy God We Praise Thy Name) and the Psalms. We did the psalms (well, two psalms and a canticle) antiphonally to chanted psalm tones, and with the help of a little rehearsal before everything started, the assembly joined in like they'd been doing it for years. The antiphons I lifted from the Liber Usualis - just shoe-horning the English text in in place of the Latin. All that and a bit of Taize too.

We had a bit of 'quires and places' stuff as well - the Lassus Magnificat Octavi Toni and Maurice Besly's setting of Cardinal Newman's O Lord, Support Us. In all I'd like to think that people felt that they'd been to something special, and had taken part in it rather than spectated.

With that and the two sung Requiem Masses we've had in the past week, I feel we've done our bit to mark the Pope's passing! If you'll pardon the expression, I'm poped.

M.

[sidvicius]

Yes, perhaps you are right and I should know better than to opine that the two words cannot reasonably walk hand in hand. Sorry about that.