Church Music

Entrance: Canticle of the Sun (Haugen) AOV 1/3

Psalm 24 (McKenna)

Remember your mercies, O Lord.

Gifts: A Trusting Psalm (Bates) AOV 1/115

Communion: Tend the Ground (Stephan)

Recessional: A New Heart for a New World (O’Brien/Watts) AOV 1/158

Entrance: Seek Ye First (Lafferty) AOV 1/48

Psalm 144 (McKenna)

The Lord is near to all who call him.

Gifts: Bless Our Gifts (Grant) AOVD

Communion: Tend the Ground (Stephan)

Recessional: Hope in Love (Bierer, Deegan, Hart, Lynch, Watts)

Entrance:  I’ll Be Always Loving You (Watts) AOV 1/82

Psalm 102 (McKenna)

The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger and rich in compassion.

Gifts: All the Hungry, Come (Doherty)

Communion: Tend the Ground (Stephan)

Recessional: All You Works of God (Haugen) AOV 1/19

For the Season of Creation, we have songs with that theme selected for Mass during September.

Entrance: Canticle of Creation (Watts-O’Brien) AOV NG 20

Psalm 94 (McKenna)

O that today you would listen to his voice!

Harden not your hearts.

Gifts: Harvest (Grant) AOV Digital

Communion: Tend the Ground (Stephan)

Recessional: Shout to the Lord (Zschech) AOV NG 114

Putting up music selections up until Advent is is an act of hope over reality for me. Our priest is leaving by late September and we have no inkling if or when he will be replaced. The most likely outcome is no priest for a least some time, with someone coming up from the nearest major centre to fill in once a week. Our priest also covers two even smaller rural churches alternate weeks and I have no idea what will happen there.

If we are down to one mass a weekend from two, there will be a need to reorganise local rosters.

For now, though:

Entrance: Mercy from the Heart of God (O’Brien/Ogilive) AOVD

Psalm 62 (McKenna)

My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Gifts: The Fullness of God (Andersen) AOV 2/62

Communion: My Soul Is Thirsting (Angrisano) AOV NG 97

Recessional: Be Hope (Bryant, Jorna, McNally, Madden)

This is Frank Andersen’s, “Eagles Wings”, a beloved Australian classic, here arranged by John de Luca. I hadn’t noticed before that the verses are actually a paraphrase of Psalm 105, taken from Psalms Now by Leslie F. Brandt. Andersen’s antiphon is based on Exodus 9:4.

Godsongs found more YouTube clips than I did, and adds some background.

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Store is currently down for maintenance, but is where you would usually go to purchase his music online.

Father Frank gave strict instructions that the assembly should only sing the refain of this song, never the verses, which is quite properly ignored. The verse order varies depending on the version of the sheet music you have – verse 5 sometimes is moved to verse 3.

I blogged this here with a perfectly reasonable backing for a change, but obviously I had another look at it, because de Luca has a knack of improving simple songs.

He resisted wholesale changed to more sophisticated chord options this time, merely replacing a C with an Am7 in the last line of the verse. He also retained most of the exclamation marks, so Father Frank would be pleased.

Compared to Erica Marshall’s original arrangement he has added a lot more movement in the bass. In my backing I co-opted some of his extra organ arrangement into a harp and celeste track (thank you Spitfire audio free plugins).

Antiphon:

I have carried you on eagle’s wings!
I will care for you in all your years!

1 My heart is full of peace;
You have been within my life!
Your guiding hand has always covered me,
I am full of confidence in You!

2 My soul is like a child,
Cradled safe within your arms!
You have carried me across my years,
Leading me thru sorrow and thru joy.

3 Never need I be afraid!
No matter how uncertain things may be!
Sometimes thru me, sometimes in spite of me,
You seem to find your purpose in my life!

4 I know failure in my life
The weakness so central to my heart!
When I have strayed or fallen in my life
You gently set me on my feet again!

5 You have bridged the flowing streams!
And moved aside the mountains tall!
You have kept me through the stormy past,
I know that you secure and guide me still!

© 1979 Frank Andersen

We had a meeting about the Season of Creation and the Jubilee year of St Francis of Assisi during September 2026.

Some songs that were suggested:

All You Works of God (Haugen)

Canticle of the Sun (Haugen)

On This Sacred Ground (Heaney, Janke)

Prayer of St Francis (Temple)

Canticle of Creation (Watts/O’Brien)

All Creatures of Our God and King (text attributed to St Francis)

Brother Wind (Susan Saint Sing)

Lord Make Us Servants of Your Peace (McKinley)

Make Me a Servant of Your Peace (McKenna)

Kapayapaan (Nieva)

Sacred Creation (Zaragoa)

Litany for the Earth (Bridge)

Tend the Ground (Stephan)

If you search on this site, there is information on all these songs.

We played through most them and liked many, but of those we hadn’t used before, Stephan’s “Tend the Ground” was the most congenial.

This is Sydney Carter‘s “Lord of the Dance” based on a Shaker tune, SIMPLE GIFTS.

I covered this back in AOV with a truly dreadful backing. I suppose it is an Easter song but I’m not at all sure of its place in a liturgy.

I made a less frenetic backing this time:

1 I danced in the morning when the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun;
And I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem I had my birth:

Chorus

Dance, then, where ever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he;
And I’ll lead you all where ever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.

2 I danced for the scribe and the pharisee,
But they would not dance and they would not dance with me.
I danced for fisher men, for James and John —
They came with me and the dance went on:

Chorus

3 I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame:
The holy people said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high,
And they left me there on a cross to die:

Chorus

4 I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black;
It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back.
They buried my body and they thought I’d gone;
But I am the dance & I still go on:

Chorus

5 They cut me down and I leap up high,
I am the life that’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in Me:
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he:

Chorus

© Stainer & Bell 1963.

Entrance: You Are Welcome (Watt)

Psalm 137 (McKenna)

Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.

Gifts: Bless Our Gifts (Grant) AOVD

Communion: Bread Broken, Wine Shared Bread  (Horner) AOV 2/155

Recessional:  The Summons  (Maule-Bell) AOV NG 149

This beloved song is quite impossible to sing as I documented here. It is by Sister Suzanne Toolan – now 98 years old – and is popular despite everything, even for funerals.

In this hymnal, the key is brought down to Ab from Bb which helps – we used to take it down to G and the low notes scraped in the gravel and the high notes were still a challenge. You either need a phenomenal range or two teams! This version somehow has even less chords than the original.

The sheet music is available to purchase at Willow.

I made a new backing:

1 I am the Bread of life.
He who comes to me shall not hunger;
He who believes in me shall not thirst.
No one can come to me
Unless the Father draw him.

Refrain

And I will raise him up,
And I will raise him up,
And I will raise him up on the last day.

2 The bread that I will give
Is my flesh for the life of the world,
And he who eats of this bread,
He shall live for ever,
He shall live for ever.

Refrain

3 Unless you eat
Of the flesh of the Son of Man
And drink of his blood,
And drink of his blood,
You shall not have life within you.

Refrain

4 I am the Resurrection,
I am the life,
He who believes in me
Even if he die,
He shall live for ever.

Refrain

5 Yes, Lord, I believe
That you are the Christ,
The Son of God
Who have come
Into the world.

Refrain

A talented choir can get away with it.

I was looking for a case of this crashing and burning but this one is still good:

Chris Brunelle is superman:

I suppose no-one would be silly enough to put a failed attempt at this one on You-Tube, but believe me it is an accident waiting to happen without some very fine voices involved.