MAN, CAN THESE PATIENTS SING!

As I had posted last Sunday, one of the Masses I covered today was at a Catholic nursing facility - Hospice St. Antoine (known more currently as St. Antoine Residence). It turned out the Mass, over everything a Sunday Mass, was announced for a member of the board of directors at the residence (yeah, I got paid). The Most Rev. Louis E. Gelineau, Bishop Emeritus of Providence (and currently the resident chaplain), was the celebrant.

I really like the way this little chapel is set up. OK - the table altar is par for the course. The organ is garbage - it's this little Yamaha thingie with an indented swell manual and a one-octave pedalboard (hint: music normally doesn't happen here). BUT - it's up in a loft, accessible by elevator or stairs. Even nicer is that the Mass is piped into the patient rooms via intercom for those who can't get around at all, and that Holy Communion is also distributed to those rooms.

The topper of my day is that many of the patients SANG everything pertinent to them. They followed out of WLP's Seasonal Missalette (since there was no number board, I announced). Even the Latin Attende, Domine, which I led a cappella - in Latin, was sung well by the people downstairs. It was great!

Now, what about the typical pewsitter with full abilities in a regular parish church? How many of them do you think are willing to join in singing Attende, Domine? In my experience, not many.

One can learn a lot from a convalescent.

Peace,
BMP

MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

Second Sunday of Lent / February 17, 2008

10 AM (Ordinary Form)
Hospice St. Antoine, North Smithfield, RI

This is a Catholic "nursing home" type facility right near the city of Woonsocket. There is Mass weekly, yes. But, from what I've learned, they don't have music very often. What I found that's quite nice there is that the Mass is recorded through the intercom so those patients who can't leave their rooms can at least hear the Mass from their beds.

This is a memorial Mass for someone there, and the family is having a flautist work with me. I did compromise with her on a couple of requests. There were originally five "suggested songs", but I cut it down to two (and she agreed). The reason being - it's still a Sunday Mass, and I emphasized the need for the bulk of any hymns to reflect the Second Sunday of Lent. So, here's what we've got:

The glory of these forty days..."Old Hundredth"
- (I prefer ERHALT UNS, HERR, but since they don't always do music there, I opted for something these elderly patients would most likely pick up quick)
UPDATED 2/13/08: Lord, let your mercy be on us...Proulx/Gelineau
UPDATED 2/13/08: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ...Psalm Tone 2
Attende, Domine...Mode V
Sanctus/Agnus...Vermulst/"People's Mass"
Memorial/Amen...Danish
Panis Angelicus...Franck
J'irai la voir un jour...French
How great thou art..."O Store Gud"

5 PM (Extraordinary Form/Low Mass)
St. Leo the Great Church, Pawtucket, RI

'Tis good, Lord, to be here..."Swabia"
Parce, Domine...Mode I, w/verses of Ps. 50 (51) in Latin to Tonus Peregrinus
Attende, Domine...Mode V
The glory of these forty days..."Old Hundredth"
- (Here the people could have done ERHALT UNS, HERR. However, the hymnal in the pew has OLD HUNDREDTH - it's Gather Apprehensive, the 2004 maroon edition. GIA's had this knack lately for putting too many hymns to the same tunes - actually in every hymnal from the 1994 green edition Gather Apprehensive up to now - and eliminating some mighty fine tunes.)

Peace,
BMP