Church Music

This song was written by Jesse Hairston and first popularised by Harry Belafonte. We’ve used it for Christmas, especially for the early mass on Christmas eve.

Verse 1
Long time ago in Bethlehem,
So the Holy Bible say,
Mary’s boy child, Jesus Christ,
Was born on Christmas day,

Chorus
Hark, now hear the angels sing,
A new King born today,
And man will live forevermore,
Because of Christmas day.
Trumpets sound and angels sing,
Listen to what they say,
That man will live forevermore,
Because of Christmas day.

Verse 2
While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
They saw a bright new shining star,
They heard a choir sing,
The music seemed to come from afar,

Verse 3
Now, Joseph and his wife, Mary,
Come to Bethlehem that night,
They found no place to born she child,
Not a single room was in sight.

Chorus

Verse 4
By and by, they find a little nook,
In a stable all forlorn,
And in a manger cold and dark,
Mary’s little boy was born!

Verse 1
Chorus 

© 1956 Bourne Co.

Christopher Walker’s setting of this ancient blessing. You can hear a sample and buy the sheet music here.

May God bless and keep you,

May God’s face smile on you:

May God be kind to you and give you peace.

© Christopher Walker 1988, 1989, 1990, published by OCP Publications.

I’ve been having trouble with the audioplayer so I’ve switched to a different one. It doesn’t seem to work properly either but it has successfully stripped off all the audioplayer tags so for now on there will just be the link to the backing to click, until I figure it all out.

* I’ve switched back, but now the audiofiles don’t work in Firefox but do in Internet Explorer – I’m not sure if this a Flash problem, a Firefox Problem or a WP problem.

I’m still working through the music in the miscellaneous folder, which inevitably means revisiting liturgies from when my children were at school. This is a Michael Mangan advent song. You can hear a sample and buy the sheet music here.

Chorus

Mary said, “Yes, yes, yes! My Lord Your way is best!”

Mary said, “Yes, yes, yes! Your way is best!”

Verse 1

Gabriel appeared, a message to proclaim:

“Do not be afraid for you are blessed today!”

Chorus

Verse 2

“You will have a child, He’s the chosen One.

Jesus is His name and He will be God’s Son.”

Chorus

Verse 3

Mary wondered how, “How can this be true?”

Gabriel explained, “There’s nothing God can’t do!”

Chorus

Verse 4

Mary trusted God, she always obeyed,

We must do the same, so like her we can say,

Last Chorus

Oh we say, “Yes, yes, yes! My Lord Your way is best!”

Oh we say, “Yes, yes, yes! Your way is best!”

© Litmus Publications, 1995.

I don’t remember ever singing this song with words by Luke Connaughton to a traditional tune, Cresswell, but I find a made a MIDI for it in the 1990s so I suppose I must have.

You can hear it on bells here and on church organ here.

1. Love is His word, Love is His way,

Feasting with all, fasting alone,

Living and dying, rising again

 Love only love is His way.

Chorus

Richer than gold is the love of my Lord.

Better than splendour and wealth.

2. Love is His way, love is His mark,

Sharing His last Passover feast.

Christ at the table, host to the twelve Love,

only love, is His mark.

3. Love is his mark, love is His sign,

Bread for our strength, wine for our joy,

This is my body, this is my blood

Love, only love is His sign.

4. Love is His sign, love is His news,

Do this He said Lest you forget

All my deep sorrow, all my dear blood,

Love, only love, is His news.

5. Love is His news, Love is His name,

We are His own, chosen and called,

 Family, brethren, cousins and kin.

Love, only love is His name.

6. Love is His name, love is His law,

Hear His command, all who are His,

Love one another, I have loved you

Love, only love, is His law.

7. Love is His law, Love is His word,

Love of the Lord, Father, and Word,

Love of the Spirit, God ever one,

Love, only love, is His word.

 

© McCrimmon Publishing

This is a Eucharist chant by Michael Herry fms. This chant says about all that needs to be said. If you go here and scroll to the bottom of the page you will find an MP3 and the sheet music. For some reason the version I have in in G, but the downloadable version from the Marists is in Ab.

Lord, we come to your table.

Lord, we hear your word.

Lord, you are our bread of life,

and we the Body of Christ.

© Michael Herry fms, 1996.

This setting by Joe Zsigray is definitely Ps 104. We’ve only ever used the chorus as a response but the verses are fine, just with different tunes and probably best for a cantor. We’ve been doing too slowly; it fairly rockets along at 180 according to the songwriter. You can buy it from OCP here. This church  does it as the speed we do it and that is too slow, but the cantor does very well.

My backing is at the set speed.

Refrain

Lord send out your spirit
And renew the face of the earth.
Lord send out your spirit
And renew the face of the earth.

Verse 1
Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
Oh Lord, my God, You are great indeed.
How manifold are Your works, oh Lord!
The earth is full of your creatures.

Refrain

Verse 2
If you take away their breath, oh Lord,
They die and return to their dust.
When You send forth Your Spirit they live.
You renew the face of the earth.

Refrain

Verse 3
May the glory of the Lord
Endure forever, and may the Lord
Be glad in His work.
Pleasing to Him be my theme,
For I rejoice in the Lord.

Refrain

© North American Liturgy Services, 1979.

A song by James Garrahy from emmanuelworship that I suppose is loosely based on Ps104. It is from the Lifted collection and you can hear a sample and buy the music here.

You can do it gently or as a celebration of power chords.

My backing is at 84 bpm, don’t race it.

Chorus 1

Lord, send me Your Spirit, I need You now

to fill my heart with Your love.

Come fill me now.

Chorus 2

Lord, send me Your Spirit, I need You now

to fill my heart with Your love.

Come fill me now.

Come fill me now.

Verse

The love of God is overflowing

and I need You to fill me up,

So Lord send Your Spirit into my heart,

Please come into me now.

Chorus 2

Verse

Chorus 1

Chorus 2

Come fill me now.

© Emmanuel Worship, 1997.

The Liturgy team for this week have chosen these songs for this week.  We will be using Mason’s Mass of Glory and Praise beginning this week.

Entrance: Gather Us In (Haugen) AOV 1/12

Psalm Response: Give Thanks to the Lord

I think they mean the Steve Angrisano/Brian Green one from Spirit & Song Vol 2/276 but I’ll have to check.

Gifts: Great is Thy Faithfulness (Runyan) AOV 2/127

Communion: Jesus, Bread of Life (?)

I can only find a WLP song by James V. Marchionda that I can’t remember ever having done – I’ll have to ask the office!

In the Breaking of the Bread (Hurd)  AOV 1/58

Final Hymn: Bring Forth the Kingdom (Haugen) AOV 2/4

* Word from the Presbytery

Give Thanks to the Lord (Frank Andersen)

Jesus, Bread of Life (Amanda McKenna) AOV NG 80

OK, I know this is absolutely gorgeous, but we gave up after a couple of crash and burns and so haven’t touched it again. It may have been best left as a solo. I wish you better luck.

It was written by the wonderful Howard Goodall and you can hear it done superbly here. You can purchase the music here.

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want;
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside still waters.

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want;
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
Yea though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;

Yea though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me; You will comfort me
You are with me, You will comfort me.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life;
and I will dwell in the house of the
Lord forever, forever, forever, forever.

© Faber Music.