Songs & Updates for Saturday, January 4, 2014

Happy New Year, all!

This Saturday is The Epiphany of the Lord.

We didn't rehearse last week, so I don't have much in the way of updates.

Wednesday is the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation. Masses are being held Tuesday night at 5:30 PM and Wednesday morning at 9 AM. I believe Barb's group is covering the former while Anne's choir is covering the ladder (if anyone wants to join them).

Songs for Saturday, December 28, 2013

Note: not posted or emailed out until after the fact due to an Internet outage at my house.

This final Saturday of the year is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the holiday!

Thank you all for a great Christmas Eve mass on Tuesday, and for all your hard work in putting it together! Things seemed to go very smoothly despite all our concerns with the tight schedule. As some of you know, Karina and I worked the 4 PM Children's mass as well, which ended up being pretty crazy (the Church was well over capacity), but lots of fun.

Songs for Tuesday, December 24, 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL!

As you know, we're covering the 5:30 PM Christmas Eve mass. In addition, I've been helping with the planning and coordination of the 4:00 PM Children's Mass. Karina and I will be staying through for both services. I just wanted to put out a few quick notes before we get too far into the holiday week (usual weekly updates for Saturday mass will be posted later).

Since the four weeks of Advent are behind us, we'll resume singing the Gloria starting this Tuesday. Also, as per Father's memo, there will be no Psalm and we're only to do enough music to 'cover the action'. I believe, however, we're still in need of someone to cover the Alleluia - any takers? I'll cover the Alleluia since I had a chance to learn the Christmas verse at a rehearsal earlier this afternoon.

Songs for Saturday, December 21, 2013

This Saturday is the Fourth (and final) Sunday of Advent.

Since we weren't at mass, I really don't have much in the way of updates, just a few event reminders.

The folks from the 11:00 mass are covering the Community Penance Service this Tuesday, 12/17, at 7 PM. Several of their core group members are out, so feel free to join them in singing.

In addition, the Christmas Tree Decorating Party (also coordinated by the 11:00 group) is being held this Saturday (12/21) at 10 AM. This is a very informal event in which we play/sing Christmas music while the kids decorate the tree. Karina and I are planning to be there, so feel free join in the fun as well.

Songs for Saturday, December 14, 2013

This Saturday is the Third Sunday of Advent.

Nice job at mass last week -- 'Comfort, Comfort' seemed to go fairly well, as did our Communion medley. We once again forgot to sort out the Alleluia and 'Bring Forth' before mass, so we ended up scrambling to figure that out last-minute. With that being said, who would be interested in covering the Alleluia this week and the 'Bring Forth' cantor parts? Michaela has the Psalm covered.

We discussed a few changes to our Christmas Eve mass plans, as per Father's memo from a few weeks ago. Basically, the goal is to keep mass under an hour and only play enough music to 'cover the action'. Of note, we're dropping one of our preludes -- we'll be retaining 'O Holy Night', while getting rid of 'Angles We Have Heard on High'. There will be no Psalm, but we'll be keeping our two planned Communion hymns (on the assumption that there will be wall-to-wall people). Finally, the distribution of oplatki has been moved from Christmas Eve to the Forth Sunday of Advent to save time. Regardless of how we approach this, it's gonna be (very) tight, but we'll give it a shot and hope for the best.

We also reviewed 'O Come, Divine Messiah', our opening on the 22nd that will be sung in parts. We worked on Jim's version of 'Go Tell it on the Mountain' and learned parts for 'Silent Night', both of which are Communion songs for Christmas Eve.

Songs for Saturday, December 7, 2013

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.