Church Music

We have a meeting coming up to look at seasonal songs selections for Advent this year.

What I would like is the same music across the whole month – laying it on with a trowel liturgy wise.

Entrance: Advent Song (Browne/Wood) GA 281

Candle Lighting: Like a Candle (O’Brien/Ogilvie) AOV NG 91 – it has a verse for each week.

Seasonal Psalm: To You O God, I Lift Up My Soul (Hurd) AOV 2/14

Advent Gospel Alleluia to the tune of “O Come O Come Emmanuel”

Gifts: All the Hungry, Come (Doherty)

Communion: Maranatha (Smith) tune O WALY WALY

Recessional: O Emmanuel (Mangan)

It is mostly Australian. I like Paul Mason’s “To You O God” but we know the Hurd one very well.

Don’t forget all the Advent resources at liturgyshare.

Including this one:

This is the last song added to Breaking Bread by OCP for 2026.

It says something that this gentle minor key song for Easter is one of the more uplifting songs added. I can’t really fault any of the songs chosen individually, but there isn’t a lot of range in the songs selected and there is a lot of looking back to traditional sources.

This one is a Sarah Hart text set by Katie Wills in part based on O FILII ET FILIAE.

The sheet music can be purchased at OCP where there provide the text in their previews.

OCP have chosen this Cyprian Consiglio funeral song for Breaking Bread in 2026.

Unfamiliar songs like this at a funerals have to be solos, so if that is that you need it may be a useful hymn.

The sheet music is at OCP and the text is in their previews.

I like this version:

This is Sarah Hart‘s setting (GAUDENS) of the Caswell translation of Aquinas’s Pange Lingua Gloriosi, which has been added to Breaking Bread by OCP for 2026.

This ancient communion hymn is especially suitable for Holy Thursday, Corpus Christi and Adoration.

For my range I’d probably drop from Dm to Bm which also makes the guitar chords easier for my poor old hands.

The sheet music is at OCP.

Sing, my tongue, the Saviour’s glory
Of His Flesh, the mystery sing;
Of the Blood, all price exceeding
Shed by our Immortal King
Destined, for the world’s redemption
From a noble Womb to spring.

Of a pure and spotless Virgin
Born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing
Stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then He closed in solemn order
Wondrously His Life of woe.

On the night of that Last Supper
Seated with His chosen band,
He, the Paschal Victim eating
First fulfills the Law’s command;
Then as Food to his disciples
Gives Himself with His own Hand.

Word made Flesh, the bread of nature
By His Word to Flesh He turns;
Wine into His Blood He changes:
What though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest
Faith her lesson quickly learns.

Down in adoration falling
This great sacrament we hail.
Over ancient forms of worship
Newer rites of grace prevail:
Faith will tell us Christ is present
When our human senses fail

To the Everlasting Father
And the Son who made us free
And the Spirit, God proceeding
From them each eternally
Be salvation, honour, blessing
Might and endless majesty.

Looking further at the new entries for OCP’s Breaking Bread for 2026 is this Bob Hurd text. He has set it to Dvorak’s “Largetto” from the New World Symphony.

It is a prayer and a lament for a world that is not peaceful in any language.

The sheet music can be purchased at OCP where they provide the text in their preview.

BIAB and Dvorak – hmmm.

This is basically a single sentence mantra from Timothy R. Smith that has been added to Breaking Bread for 2026 by OCP.

You can leave it as simple a prayer as you like or build it up into a choral piece.

As always, the sheet music can be purchased at OCP who provide the words in their previews.

My backing is very long in case you need a lot of mercy.

This is a moving funeral song from Sarah Hart and Francesca LaRosa with inspiration from In Paridisum. It would be suitable as a solo during the ceremony – OCP suggests the Procession out of the church. It was selected for Breaking Bread in 2026 by OCP.

OCP will sell you the sheet music and the text is in their preview. This song is only from 2023 and there are a lot of YouTube clips already, which usually means a song is a hit.

Everything sounds a little bit country to me these days and my backing leaned that way too.

I love this from the blessing that is Chris Brunelle.

Sarah Hart: Behind the Mic.

This is a choral song for the Holy Family and Christmas from OCP, that they have added to Breaking Bread for 2026. It was written by Angela Birkhead-Flight who suggests it as a wedding song.

It’s a simple text and should be singable enough.

The sheet music is available at OCP where they provide the text in their preview.

In my backing I used the lower melody line in the second verse as indicated in the sheet music, but in general you wouldn’t except for a choir.

This is another new song for 2026 in OCP’s Breaking Bread with a text by Owen Alstott and a setting by Rick Modlin.

OCP describe it thusly:

This new text by Alstott is full of social justice concerns and the call to service. Its four verses and memorable refrain cover a wide range of topics including discipleship, evangelization, charity, unity, and love for others making it appropriate for use throughout the liturgical year. Musically reflected by Modlin’s strong, rugged setting, featuring striking harmonic shifts and an assertive foursquare rhythmic profile, it is scored for SATB choir with descant, keyboard, guitar, and trumpet in C.

The first verse suggests a problem, the second Jesus as the answer and the third and fourth the preferred outcome. With such a structure the whole song needs to be sung and the chorus is pretty short so that should work.

The sheet music can be purchased at OCP (at least 7 copies) and the text is there in their preview.

I resorted to fake BIAB organ yet again and aimed for “vigorous” as suggested:

Tom Booth has written a song for Gifts and Eucharist that has been added to Breaking Bread by OCP for 2026.

It is a simple song with an impressive bridge.

The sheet music can be purchased at OCP where the text is in their preview.

Chris Brunelle has made wonderful versions of most of these new songs.