This Saturday is the Second Sunday of Advent.
The Church was rearranged last week so that the Choir section is now facing the congregation at a 45-degree angle, eliminating our space issue. Also, the section immediately adjacent to us (on the right side) was merged with our sections, whilst the section to the left of the Sanctuary was also angled outward. The Sanctuary itself was reconfigured with the Alter now in the center and the presider and deacon choirs on the left side, angled towards the center of the room.
Just a quick note that as Father discovered (and we totally forgot about), we won't be using the Gloria until the week of Christmas.
Zach also unexpectedly joined us, cantoring on one of the verses for 'Bring Forth' -- it was nice to have him back again! Jacklyn was also present, soloing the first verse of 'Each Winter'. She's planning to solo on 'O Holy Night', one of our Christmas Eve preludes.
Nice work pulling together all our music before mass, all -- it ended up being pretty crazy, but it all worked. That especially goes for our Meditation, which ended up turning out OK despite its hasty assembly.
After mass, we finalized 'Comfort, Comfort', our opening song this week. We also learned parts for 'O Come, Divine Messiah', our opening in two weeks. Both will be sung a capella in choir parts.
Spontaneously, we found that combining 'Open My Eyes' and 'Open the Eyes of My Heart' creates a fun medley to cover both the Meditation and Communion. Because of this, we're going to swap 'I Will Choose Christ' (our original Communion hymn) for this medley and move 'Hail Mary, Gentle Woman' (our original Offertory hymn) to the beginning of mass as a prelude.
Finally, we played around with Jim's version of 'Go Tell it On the Mountain' for our Christmas Eve mass.
We will be practicing after mass this week. Ginny has dinner covered.
Here are the songs for this week:
Prelude:
GC 782 - Hail Mary, Gentle Woman (Duet - Cris & Ginny)
Gathering:
GC 326 - Comfort, Comfort, O My People
Penitential Rite (Father Charlie):
Psalm (need cantor):
GC 328 - My Soul In Stillness Waits (vs 3-4)
Alleluia (need cantor):
Offertory:
SS 119 - I Will Choose Christ
(originally SS 196 - Open My Eyes)
Communion/ Meditation:
Medley - SS 196, Open My Eyes, and 'Open the Eyes of My Heart'
(Meditation originally GC 782 - Hail Mary, Gentle Women)
'Open the Eyes of My Heart' - Paul Baloche
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart,
I want to see you, I want to see you. (Repeats)
To see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of Your glory;
Lord pour out Your power and love, as we sing "holy, holy, holy."
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart,
I want to see you, I want to see you.
To see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of Your glory;
Lord pour out Your power and love, as we sing "holy, holy, holy,"
Holy, holy, holy,
holy, holy, holy,
holy, holy, holy, I want to see you.
(sections repeat as needed)
Closing:
GC 658 - Bring Forth the Kingdom
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