Readings for the Week of April 1, 2012

Readings for the Week of April 1, 2012

Sunday Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Mk 11:1-10 or Jn 12:12-16; Ps 22; Is 50:4-7;

Phil 2:6-11; Mk 14:1--15:47 or 15:1-39

Monday Monday of Holy Week 

Is 42:1-7; Ps 27; Jn 12:1-11

Tuesday Tuesday of Holy Week 

Is 49:1-6; Ps 71; Jn 13:21-33, 36-38

Wednesday Wednesday of Holy Week 

Is 50:4-9a; Ps 69; Mt 26:14-25

Thursday Holy Thursday 

Chrism Mass: Is 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9; Ps 89;

Rv 1:5-8; Lk 4:16-21

Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15

Friday Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord 

Is 52:13--53:12; Ps 31; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9;

Jn 18:1--19:42

Saturday Holy Saturday 

Vigil: Gn 1:1--2:2 or 1:1, 26-31a; Ps 104 or 33; Gn 22:1-18 or 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Ps 16,

Ex 14:15--15:1; Ex 15; Is 54:5-14; Ps 30, Is 55:1-11; Is 12; Bar 3:9-15, 32--4:4; Ps 19; Ez 36:16-17a, 18-28; Ps 42 or Is 12; 2-6 or Ps 51; Rom 6:3-11; Ps 118; Mk 16:1-7

Sunday Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps 118; Col 3:1-4 or

1 Cor 5:6b-8; Jn 20:1-9 or Mk 16:1-7 

A Jesuit Novitiate Visits Saint Mary

Brian Strassberger, 27, a former School of Saint Mary student,  is in his first year as a novitiate on the road to becoming a Jesuit priest. He stopped by our parish last Friday to visit his old home. The place where he made his first communion and had his first school experiences.


The path to Jesuit priesthood has many interesting experiences. Along with the group of novices from his province (located in Louisianna), Brian completed a 30 day silent retreat before beginning a three week pilgrimage that, for him, included coming to Tulsa. He has two years as a novice and another 8 years to become a Jesuit.

When Brian turned eight, his family moved to another state, but Brian continued in Catholic education through college. After finishing school, Brian started to sense a call to be a priest,  but he wasn’t sure.  He volunteered to work with the poor and traveled extensively. He worked with fund raising for awhile. This is when he felt he knew for sure that God wanted him to be a priest.

Brian started his pilgrimage with nothing more than a backpack, a few clothes and a bus ticket to Macon, GA.  No money, phones or computers were allowed during the three weeks.  Novices are to rely totally on God’s providence for their needs during the pilgrimage.

When he first got off the bus in GA,  Brian looked skyward and saw three church steeples and started walking towards one.   After staying awhile in Macon, a priest sent him on to Tampa and from there, Bran went to New Orleans.  I think he came to Tulsa from there.  He walked from the Tulsa bus station and first stopped at Holy Family.  He then walked to the Church of Saint Mary where he was taken in by Father Jack. 

He had a very full Tulsa visit. While he was in Tulsa, he was able to visit with some old friends, see his old neighborhood and childhood house, attend the soup supper and stations, go to a pinewood derby, (Brian is an Eagle Scout and started his scouting career here at Saint Mary.), read at mass,  talk with students at Bishop Kelley and visit with his former Saint Mary school teachers.  Brian had asked St. Katherine Drexel to help him during the pilgrimage. He smiled when he visited our school and saw posters naming her as our March Saint of the Month.

His final Tulsa goal was to eat a burrito at Chipotle’s and get back to the bus station.  He managed to do that.  From there, he was hoping to travel to Iowa and find a way to visit the basilica of St. Francis Xavier.  He had till this Friday to meet his group in Kansas City where they would all share their experiences.

-Story told by Carla Lechner, 

Preschool Director and friend of Brian and his family




To your left is a little video of Brian leaving at the bus station. It was originally meant to be a photo, but we got video instead!

Car Seats Needed

Our Justice and Peace Department has three clients in need of convertible car seats for babies over 20 lbs. Please contact Hilary Elias (918-749-2561) for questions or bring car seats to the Annex office.


Thank you for your generosity!

MusicNotes Mar 17-18

MusicNotes

March 17-18

  

Prelude- What Wondrous Love is This, American Folk Hymn, arr. Arnold B. Sherman

This lovely setting of the familiar hymn will be presented this week by the MaryRingers, our advanced handbell choir. This piece is meant to set the tone for Mass, as its solemn, meditative mood invites us to bring our hearts closer to God. This piece also helps set the tone for the second half of Lent and the Triduum, during which we will be singing this hymn often. The traditional American hymn, which I will write about more in the next few weeks, tells of the greatest love of all time, God's love for His people, so strong that He gave us his Son that we may have eternal life. Sherman's arrangement invokes a variety of tonal colors, employing chimes and mallets. Arnold Sherman, out of Tyler, Texas, is an accomplished composer and clinician of handbell music.    

Anthem- God So Loved the World, John Stainer (1840-1901)

The text for this anthem comes directly from this weekend's Gospel lesson. This well-known Gospel verse is set very colorfully and dramatically by Stainer for a capella voices. The entire movement (which is an excerpt from Stainer's oratorio, The Crucifixion), is based on the single verse, John 3:16, but uses dynamics and unexpected harmonies to highlight the drama of the text. Stainer, hailed by colleague Sir Arthur Sullivan as a genius, was a well-known British composer and organist at the time and contributed a great deal to Anglican music. However, his music is not often performed today, with exception to The Crucifixion, which Stainer himself called "rubbish." It seems that the world disagreed with him, as this anthem became one of the most popular pieces in the history of sacred choral music. 

Postlude- Kyrie, fugue sur les jeux d'anches (from Messe pour les paroisses), François Couperin (1668-1733)

This French Baroque piece is based on a Kyrie chant tune, and serves to remind us as we leave Mass that we belong to God, and that it is our prayer for Him to come to our hearts, to grant us mercy, and to renew and restore our spirits. The piece comes from his Messe pour les paroisses (Parish Mass), a staple of French Baroque organ repertoire. It is a short fugue, played on the jeux d'anches, or reed stops of the organ, to give it a particular tonal color. Couperin was one of the most important composers of organ and harpsichord music of this period, and he served as organist at the church of St. Gervais in Paris, before becoming organist and court composer for Louis XIV. I studied this particular piece several years ago with organist Marie-Claire Alain, the world's current authority on the performance of French music from this period.   

DID YOU NOTICE?

Some musical changes in Lent-

Instrumental music will not be played during Lent, except for on this Sunday, Laetare Sunday. It is appropriate for instruments to remain silent during Lent, except to accompany singing. For Laetare Sunday (fourth Sunday of Lent), also known as Rose Sunday, instrumental music is acceptable. Laetare comes from the Latin for "rejoice," and is a mid-Lent time of relaxation from the Lenten stricture, as the hope of Easter now comes into sight.

Dialogues/Acclamations/Litanies- English Plainchant and Kyrie orbis factor

To help signal the transition to the new season, we will be singing a different set of Mass parts during Lent (Kyrie, Gospel Acclamation, Holy, Memorial Acclamation, Lamb of God). The words will be the same, but most of the tunes will come from the plainchant found in the new Missal, and, for the Gospel Acclamation, the Gregorian chant tune to the Kyrie orbis factor. The melodies will be simpler and shorter than the ones we were using in the last season, but they will help us focus on the words and remind us to come closer to God; to simplify our lives in ways that allow God to work through us. Chant can sometimes seem foreign to our ears. It sounds very different from every other kind of music we hear on a regular basis, but it also forms the backbone of the history of Catholic music and is an important part of our tradition. When sung with heartfelt joy and reverence, chant can be quite beautiful and powerful, and it can bring us deeper into prayer.

--

Will Buthod

Director of Music

Church of St. Mary

(918) 749 2561, ext 120

1347 E. 49th Pl.

Tulsa, OK 74105

wbuthod@churchofsaintmary.com

Saint Mary Tennis Tournament on April 27, 2012

Register Now to Play or Spectate!

Readings for the Week of March 25, 2012

Readings for the Week of March 25, 2012

Sunday Fifth Sunday of Lent 

Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51; Heb 5:7-9; Jn 12:20-33 or Ez 37:12-14; Rom 8:8-11 or Jn 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

Monday The Annunciation of the Lord 

Is 7:10-14, 8:10; Ps 40; Heb 10:4-10; Lk 1:26-38

Tuesday Nm 21:4-9; Ps 102; Jn 8:21-30

Wednesday Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95; Dn 3; Jn 8:31-42

Thursday Gn 17:3-9; Ps 105; Jn 8:51-59

Friday Jer 20:10-13; Ps 18; Jn 10:31-42

Saturday Ez 37:21-28; Jer 31; Jn 11:45-56

Sunday Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Mk 11:1-10 or Jn 12:12-16; Ps 22; Is 50:4-7;

Phil 2:6-11; Mk 14:1--15:47 or 15:1-39

MusicNotes Mar 10-11

MusicNotes

March 10-11

  

Psalm- Psalm 19:8-11, Anglican chant, William Buthod, John Blow (1649-1708)

The Psalm for this weekend will be responsively sung by the choir at the 10:30 mass. This response to the first reading comes from Anglican chant, a 16^th century tradition that was based on Latin plainchant. Anglican psalms, usually sung antiphonally by two choirs, added harmony to un-metrical texts, and followed the natural rhythm of the spoken words. I wrote and added a simple melody for the refrain to encourage your vocal participation, but we invite you to also follow along with the text of the verses in your Worship hymnal as we all respond to the word of God together.      

Anthem- Who Will Keep God's Lambs?, Antonín Dvořák (b. 1841-1904), arr. Greg Gilpin

The elementary vocal choir will present the anthem during the preparation of the gifts at the 10:30 mass. This piece uses a familiar melody from Dvořák's 9^th Symphony, the "New World," and the text, referencing the twenty-third psalm, pleads with us to rededicate ourselves to God. This week, as we see Jesus' ministry continuing to Jerusalem, where He calls us to re-examine ourselves, we hear the song asking us if we will feed, lead, love, and protect the fold of God. Jesus is calling us not only to be blessed by the inheritance of God, but also to be His disciples, to show God's care through our treatment of each other. Dvořák was one of the most important composers of the late romantic period, and the melody used in this anthem comes from his most popular piece. Greg Gilpin is a well-known, ASCAP award-winning choral composer and arranger living in Indianapolis, with hundreds of publications to his credit.

Anthem- Seek to Serve, Lloyd Pfautsch (1921-2003)

The St. Mary's Choir will present this piece during communion. Just as this weekend's Gospel calls us to open our hearts to better serve Christ, this short musical prayer asks God to work through us. It is a prayer for the will to serve, to be vessels for God's love and for His word. The simple, unison melody comes from a 12^th-century Gregorian chant, the Kyrie from the Missa IX, Cum jubilo. The composer maintains the sparse, meditative texture of the early chant, while accompanying it with minimal but poignant harmonies. Selecting this piece also serves to maintain the musical tone already set for Lent this year, which includes chant and chant-based music every week (see musical changes below). One of the most respected university choral conductors and teachers in the country, Lloyd Pfautsch served as Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Choral Activities at Southern Methodist University from 1958-1992 and also directed the Dallas Civic Chorus for twenty-five years. His music was widely published and is still regularly performed all around the country.   

DID YOU NOTICE?

Some musical changes in Lent-

Instrumental music will not be played during Lent, except for on Laetare Sunday. It is appropriate for instruments to remain silent during Lent, except to accompany singing. For Laetare Sunday (fourth Sunday of Lent), also known as Rose Sunday, instrumental music is acceptable. Laetare comes from the Latin for "rejoice," and is a mid-Lent time of relaxation from the Lenten stricture, as the hope of Easter now comes into sight.

Dialogues/Acclamations/Litanies- English Plainchant and Kyrie orbis factor

To help signal the transition to the new season, we will be singing a different set of mass parts during Lent (Kyrie, Gospel Acclamation, Holy, Memorial Acclamation, Lamb of God). The words will be the same, but most of the tunes will come from the plainchant found in the new Missal, and, for the Gospel Acclamation, the Gregorian chant tune to the Kyrie orbis factor. The melodies will be simpler and shorter than the ones we were using in the last season, but they will help us focus on the words and remind us to come closer to God; to simplify our lives in ways that allow God to work through us. Chant can sometimes seem foreign to our ears. It sounds very different from every other kind of music we hear on a regular basis, but it also forms the backbone of the history of Catholic music, and is an important part of our tradition. When sung with heartfelt joy and reverence, chant can be quite beautiful and powerful, and it can bring us deeper into prayer.

--

Will Buthod

Director of Music

Church of St. Mary

(918) 749 2561, ext 120

1347 E. 49th Pl.

Tulsa, OK 74105

wbuthod@churchofsaintmary.com