Thursday, 22 August 2013, began with Morning Prayer led by the French-speaking group.\u00a0 Our initial music was \u201cVous, qui \u00eates entr\u00e9s dans le Myst\u00e8re,\u201d the Refrain sung SATB with a soloist singing the three verses whose text was grafted by Philippe Goeseels with music provided by Grazia Previdi.\u00a0 My translation of the text of the Refrain: \u201cYou, who have entered into the Mystery of Jesus, of the Friend, of the Messiah, have become responsible for your brothers [and sisters], servants and shepherds of his sheep.\u201d\u00a0 The verses are beautifully structured to an abba rhyme scheme in French that my slavishly literal translation cannot hope to reproduce: \u201c1. Who is he, according to you, this Jesus? \/ Who is he, according to you, this Son of Man? \/ Jeremiah or John the Baptist in person? \/ Is he the prophet who is to come to you?\u201d \u201c2. The questions assail you and yet \/ The Holy Spirit reveals his message to you \/ and the Father breathes in you the response: \/ \u2018He is the Christ, the Son of the living God!\u2019\u201d \u201c3. You could loosen or take your place\/ as Living Stones of the Church. \/ The power of Evil is overcome \/ and of the Kingdom, you receive the keys.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 16: 15-17 was proclaimed in French as the Gospel reading, followed by a time of reflection during which we heard an improvised keyboard composition.\u00a0 A simple French collect concluded the prayer. (It should be clear that there was a direct connection between our opening music, inspired by Matthew 16:13-20, and the Gospel proclamation.)<\/p>\n
Fr. Aidan Peter Rossiter, CJ, offered a very passionate address in \u201cSacrosanctum Concilium? We\u2019ve Only Scratched the Surface! Pastoral Reflections on SC 50 years on.\u201d\u00a0 He articulated his fundamental stance at the very beginning of his talk: \u201cMy basic position is that we have only just scratched the surface of the immense pastoral implications for the liturgy in the life of the Church that arise out of the dogmatic and prophetic constitutions of the Second Vatican Council especially Sacrosanctum Concilium and Lumen Gentium. \u00a0A radical \u2013 not revolutionary \u2013 agenda was placed before us and we need to use our history to realize that agenda.\u201d\u00a0 To that end Fr. Rossiter examined: 1) The new English translation of the third post-Vatican II edition of the Missale Romanum as a point of departure; 2) celebrating who we are as the baptized and redeemed; 3) how SC\u2019s ecclesiology begs a new ecclesiastical mind set; 4) issues of leadership and formation; and 5) music and the arts in worship.\u00a0 Extensive discussion of Fr. Rossiter\u2019s paper followed in individual language groups.<\/p>\n
After the UL General Assembly in which present and future directions for the organization were give a vigorous airing by the formal members, the entire group re-gathered to discuss the central issues raised by the week\u2019s presentations.\u00a0 Two of three articulated issues were highlighted: 1) the role of music in establishing or furthering liturgical hospitality; 2) what role music might play in liturgical formation for clergy and laity.<\/p>\n
The group who had presented a workshop on Belgian liturgical music on Tuesday prepared and led Evening Prayer.\u00a0 It began by choral singing by the assembly in the style of Andre Gouzes of a series of versicles and responses in French as an invitatory: \u201cLord, listen to my call. \/ Let my prayer come before you like incense \/ And my hands like an evening offering. \/ Give glory to the Father all-powerful, \/ To his Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, \/ To the Spirit who lives in our hearts\u00a0 \/ For the ages of ages. Amen!\u201d\u00a0 We then sang another hymn by Philippe Goeseels and Grazia Previdi based on John 15:9-17, \u201cAimez-vous les uns les autres\u201d (\u201cLove one another\u201d), marked by solo voices singing the words of Jesus with assembly inserting \u201cAimez-vous\u2026\u201d regularly into these texts.\u00a0 Luke 10:21-24 was proclaimed in French, after which we sang a Refrain (SATB)\/verse (soloist) setting of Psalm 137: \u201cDe tout mon coeur, je te rends gr\u00e2ce, Seigneur, \u00e9ternel est ton amour\u201d (\u201cWith all my heart, I give you thanks, Lord; eternal is your love\u201d).\u00a0 Individuals speaking in their native languages offered various prayers of petition, after each of which we sang \u201cDona nobis pacem cordium\u201d (\u201cGrant us peace of heart\u201d); this time of petitionary prayer was concluded with chanting the Lord\u2019s Prayer in Latin.\u00a0 We then sang a setting of the Magnificat with the assembly proffering \u201cMagnificat anima mea Dominum\u201d and vocalizing under the verses of the Mary\u2019s Canticle sung in French, German, Italian, an Eastern European language, and English by solo cantors.<\/p>\n
After dinner, the day concluded with two short rehearsals of the music for Morning Prayer and the Departure Prayer for tomorrow.\u00a0 By this stage many of us were quite tired, but making plans for the next UL meeting as well as setting up networking on various projects until the next general meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fr. Aidan Peter Rossiter, CJ, offered a very passionate address in \u201cSacrosanctum Concilium? We\u2019ve Only Scratched the Surface! Pastoral Reflections on SC 50 years on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[11,20],"tags":[2335],"class_list":["post-21183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conferences-workshops-meetings","category-music-general","tag-universa-laus"],"yoast_head":"\n