Reflections on the Readings and the Music for Sunday Mass
WHAT IS THIS PAGE?
The purpose of this page at our parish website is to set the music ministry of the parish in the context of the parish’s liturgical and spiritual ministries. For each Sunday, I have written a brief reflection on my reading of the Lectionary scriptures for the day. These are the insights I draw on when I select the music for the Sunday celebrations. Following the reflection is a list of the music, along with an explanation of why I chose those particular songs to go with that Sunday’s readings. The page will be changed every two weeks. It will also contain a brief comment about the various musical parts of the mass. Over a period of months, we will therefore work our way through the musical parts of the Mass, so that we can better understand why we sing what we sing, when we sing it. These reflections are archived at
http://www.justpeace.org/reflections.htm .
The Responsorial Psalm
The singing of psalms is a very ancient practice. Indeed, the Book of Psalms in the Bible is a hymnbook, recording the texts of songs sung by the Hebrews in their worship in synagogues and in the Temple. Our modern practice of the "responsorial psalm" – where a psalm is sung alternating between a cantor and the congregation – is directly derived from the ancient Hebrew practice.
In the Latin Tridentine Mass, a psalm was placed between the readings. It was typically sung from the steps of the ambo – the "gradus" – and thus this became known as the Gradual. The gradual was one of the four "proper" chants of the Latin mass. The "proper" was a chant which changed from Sunday to Sunday, based on the liturgical calendar. The "ordinary" was a chant (like the Gloria or the Sanctus) that was always present in the Mass. The other propers were the Introit, the Offertory, and the Communion.
Thus, the responsorial psalm is not just some "music between the readings", but is an integral aspect of the Liturgy of the Word that goes all the way back to the synagogues of ancient Israel. Generally, the responsorial psalm is related to the readings of the day. The ordinary way of proclaiming the psalm is by singing.
For information about liturgical music and arts in Oklahoma, visit the website of the Oklahoma Alliance for Liturgy and the Arts at http://www.liturgyandarts.org