Service suspended

If you are reading this, it's because you already know the link to this blog or you have accidently been directed here by an errant search engine. You most certainly haven not arrived at this web address by typing in the URL printed in our weekly parish newsletter. With me ? The URL is no longer on the newsletter and Choirboy is no longer leading the music liturgy at Most Holy Trinity - it's a long story, however, I was reminded this morning after Mass of the following lyrics to a Coldplay number entitled, 'The hardest part' - I thought that they were rather apt.
Bye for now.....

And the hardest part
Was letting go not taking part
That was the hardest part
And the strangest thing
Was waiting for that bell to ring
It was the strangest start...............

Sticking your neb in..........

It was with great disappointment that Choirboy could not connect the phrase 'to stick your neb in' to one of the subjects of the first reading, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia from 605 BC. Shortly before his accession he defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and brought Palestine and Syria into his empire. Judah revolted, with Egyptian assistance, in 596 and 587–586 BC; on both occasions he captured Jerusalem and took many Hebrews into captivity. He largely rebuilt Babylon and constructed the hanging gardens. Whereas a neb is a nose - I am not even going to comment on the slang derivatives for Babylon !
Try as Choirboy might today, he found it difficult to avoid thinking of the Boney M song 'By the rivers of Babylon' as today's psalm was almost word for word transcribed by Boney M into their kitch, top-selling 70 s number above. It would, I think (even for choirboy) have been a bridge too far to have sung the psalm in the style of Boney M - but then again.....
With an enforced move of the organ for reasons that aren't entirely apparrent, Jimmy and Choirboy were left playing at an awkward angle and out of view. C'est la vie. Muscially we manged a joyful Mass despite Choirboy singing the chorus to our Communion hymn at the wrong time and leading everyone astray. However, we survived and I am not sure many people saw the join.

Happy Mother's Day !

Entry Christ be beside me

Kyrie

Alleluia Praise to You, O Christ, our Saviour (V4)

Creed Credo/I believe

Offertory All that I am

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Dying You destroyed our death, rising You restored our life. Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory (repeat) Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory. Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory

Amen: - Amen, Amen, Amen We will sing of Your love forever. We will sing Your praise forever Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen

Agnus Dei (Newquay Mass #3)

Communion Bread of life, hope of the world

Make me a channel

Recessional Freely, freely

Transfiguration

Today we welcomed back Father Mark after his sojourn in New Zealand. We were minus Jimmy who is sunning himself somewhere hot but we did have a chance to have a muscial first at Holy Trinity. Paul has a new mandolin which was used to great effect in our Crede. It adds another dimension to our music liturgy so with a bit of imagination we can find some other opportunities to utilise this new resource. Next week will be different, Choirboy is away, as are Mary and Kath so tomorrow we will construct an all guitar liturgy led by Jimmy and Paul !

Entry Here I am Lord

Kyrie

Alleluia Praise to You, O Christ, our Saviour (V2)

Creed Credo/I believe

Offertory Take our bread

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Dying You destroyed our death, rising You restored our life. Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory (repeat) Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory. Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory

Amen: - Amen, Amen, Amen We will sing of Your love forever. We will sing Your praise forever Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen

Agnus Dei (Newquay Mass #3)
Lamb of God, Lamb of God, You take away, the sin of all the world (repeat)
Have mercy on us, have mercy on us, have mercy on us and grant us Your peace

Communion Bread of life, hope of the world (V1L)

Immortal, invisible

40 days and forty nights

Although Lent isn't specifically a time for being miserable, it helps. At least that was Choirboy's message to the choir in preparation for this 1st Sunday in Lent. Choirboy himself felt fairly miserable as he has a dose of man flu - a good example of this condition can be found here

Today we also said goodbye and thank you to Father Brian who has been standing in for Father Mark while he has been away. Choirboy wishes that he had some of Father Brian's calm and gentle demeanour - he could do with it right now as his eldest has some explaining to do..........nuff said.

Entry Forty days and forty nights

Kyrie

Alleluia Praise to You, O Christ, our Saviour (V1)

Offertory Gifts of bread and wine

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Dying You destroyed our death, rising You restored our life. Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory (repeat) Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory. Come Lord Jesus come, come again in glory

Amen: - Amen, Amen, Amen We will sing of Your love forever. We will sing Your praise forever Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen

Sign of peace Peace be with you, peace be with you always (x3)

Agnus Dei (Newquay Mass #3)
Lamb of God, Lamb of God, You take away, the sin of all the world (repeat)
Have mercy on us, have mercy on us, have mercy on us and grant us Your peace


Communion Bread of life, hope of the world

Recessional Be not afraid

Anybody there ?

Lent is approaching and today Bishop Christopher reminded us of the three pillars of Lent; fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Bishop Christopher wasn't actually at Holy Trinity but we were treated to a pastoral letter read by Father Brian. You can find the full transcript via the following link: - http://www.plymouth-diocese.org.uk/

Writing this blog is a bit like writing a diary, except that generally we want our diaries to be private - hence the title. The blog is getting very few hits (most of them probably accidental) but I will plough on as, like a diary, it is occasionally useful to reflect on what we have done. Musically today we were short of numbers but it was great to see Derek back.


Entry Lord of all hopefulness

Gloria Gloria

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia

Creed Credo/I believe

Offertory This is my body

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Mem Accl Lord by Your cross

Amen Amen - We lift our hearts

Lamb of God Newquay mass (ii)

Communion Oh the word of my Lord

Ubi caritas

Recessional Freely freely

Healing

At this point in the liturgical year, we have been hearing about Jesus' healing ministry - today it was the healing of a leper. Jesus charged the man to tell nobody about the miracle, but he couldn't help himself. Father Brian contrasted this with our modern day passivity in the face of a secularist onslaught and general rubbishing of our faith. We were urged to be more robust in the face of some of the insults to our beliefs.

Entry Lord of the dance (V1-3)

Gloria Gloria

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia


Creed Credo/I believe

Offertory One bread, one body

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Mem Accl Lord by Your cross

Amen Amen - We lift our hearts

Lamb of God Newquay mass (ii)

Communion Oh the love of my Lord

Lord I am not worthy

Recessional I watch the sunrise

As miserable as sin.........

We were reminded by Father Brian today of some of the difficulties in the Old Testament. This was illustrated by a particularly miserable first reading from the Book of Job. We were also reminded of the Old Testament interpretation of illness and misfortune as punishment for sin/wrong doing. The promise of eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has liberated us from this narrow scriptural view.

Musically today we opted for some traditional hymnody as we have been unable to practice for the last few weeks through a combination of weather and illness. Various musicians and choir members are still absent through illness and we wish them a speedy recovery.

Finally we retired to the hall for an auction of unwanted Christmas presents. After reviewing the items for sale Mrs Choirboy was prompted to ask 'which Christmas ?'

Entry My God accept my heart this day

Gloria Gloria

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia

Offertory All that I am

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Mem Accl Lord by Your cross

Amen Amen - We lift our hearts

Lamb of God Newquay mass (ii)

Communion Lay Your hands

Father in my life

Recessional Oh Lord my God

Authority !

Father Brian reminded us today how we can recognise the authority of Jesus' teaching, illuminating his homily with a story gleaned from the internet. This went well which is something that didn't quite happen to our first hymn as choirboy had inadvertently posted the incorrect number at the front and side of Church. At least we had a full compliment of musicians - one organist, five guitarists, two recorder players and a flautist - which was fantastic. We were also flattered to have thanks from a number of visitors who enjoyed our liturgy.

Entry This is the day

Gloria Gloria

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia

Creed Credo/I believe

Offertory Take our bread

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Mem Accl Lord by Your cross

Amen Amen - We lift our hearts

Lamb of God Newquay mass (ii)

Communion There is a longing

Recessional All the world belongs to You

Jonah

I got this image from here.
Today Father Brian (who is standing in for Father Mark who we hope is enjoying a well deserved break) reminded us of the background to the first reading in which we heard about Jonah's visit to Niniveh. A well crafted sermon was delivered to a rather empty church - half the choir has obviously gone away as well. At any rate our organist Mary was away, so Kath B stepped admirably up to the plate. Paul was recovering from post pantomime celebrations so it was left to Jimmy and choirboy to lead the guitars of Danny and choirboy minor. Choirboy minimus was absent playing rugby so Mrs Choirboy was similarly absent. A conventional music liturgy completed a serene morning.

Entry We come to share our story

Gloria Gloria !

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia

Offertory Lord accept the gifts we offer

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Mem Accl Lord by Your cross and resurrection

Amen Amen, we lift our hearts

Lamb of God Newquay mass (ii)

Communion Sweet sacrament divine

Open our eyes to see

Recessional Follow me, follow me

Speak Lord Your Servant is Listening

The reading from Samuel (today's first reading) that includes the text 'Speak Lord Your servant is listening) is one that has a special meaning for choirboy. He wrote a piece of music based on this reading that he has played at Catechetical Cell Group gatherings as well as Holy Trinity. It was also part of the theme of our Plymouth 150 celebrations (www.plymouth150.blogspot.com) and a recording of this song can be heard here (apologies for the slightly flat vocal - I did it in a hurry !)
Today we also said goodbye to Father Mark who is on holiday for the next 6 weeks - we wish a peacful and joyous break from Newquay.

Entry All people that on earth do dwell

Gloria Gloria !

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia

Credo/I believe

Offertory Gifts of bread and wine

Holy Holy Gathering Mass

Mem Accl Lord by Your cross and resurrection

Amen Amen, we lift our hearts

Lamb of God Newquay mass (ii)

Communion Speak Lord to me (chorus, verse, chorus 1 and 2, verse, chorus1 and 2, chorus)

Ch 1 Speak Lord to me
Your servant is listening
Speak Lord to me
Your servant is listening to You

Ch 2 Speak Lord to me, Your servant is listening
Speak Lord to me, Your servant is listening to You
Speak Lord to me - Speak to me Father
Speak Lord to me - Speak to me Spirit
Speak Lord to me - Speak to me Jesus
Open my heart, Fill my soul with love for you

Recessional Here I am Lord

Baptism of Our Lord

Our final Sunday of Christmastide was marked by the return of old friends - Louise and Danny (with his guitar). We were, however, short of two guitarists and two wind players. What we lacked in musicians we made up for in enthusiasm and we managed to co-opt Megan to play recorder so all in all it was a successful and joyful liturgy.

Entry Meekness and majesty

Kyrie Newquay

Gloria Gloria !

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia

Offertory Blessed be God

Holy Holy Newquay Mass #4
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and God of might. Heaven
And earth are full of Your glory, Hosanna, hosanna. Blest is he who comes in Your name, Hosanna, hosanna. Hosanna,
Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna.

Mem Accl When we eat this living bread and when we drink Your saving cup, we proclaim Your death my Lord, until You come in glory. Until You come in glory, until You come in glory.

Lamb of God Newquay Mass #4
Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world, the sin of the world (repeat). Lord have mercy on us and grant us Your
Peace and grant us Your peace.
Amen Amen, Amen, Amen
We will sing of Your love forever. We will sing Your praise forever Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen


Communion Be still for the presence
Father we adore You

Recessional Give me joy in my heart

Happy New Year ?

The epiphany is the celebration of revelation of Christ to the Gentiles. It is a feast full of symbolic significance and is a reminder of the Church's missionary function.

Musically it was one of the those times when things don't go quite as planned. Our final 'hymn', a re-working of My Sweet Lord, was without the necessary electric guitar or clapping. It was seemingly without appreciation in some parts of the congregation. Choirboy does always try and chose music that is appropriate, prayerful but also joyful. I guess sometimes not everyone feels the same !

Entry We three Kings

Gloria: -

Alleluia Plymouth Alleluia

Offertory Take our bread

Holy Holy Newquay Mass #4
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and God of might. Heaven
And earth are full of Your glory, Hosanna, hosanna. Blest is he who comes in Your name, Hosanna, hosanna. Hosanna,
Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna.

Mem Accl When we eat this living bread and when we drink Your saving cup, we proclaim Your death my Lord, until You come in glory. Until You come in glory, until You come in glory.

Lamb of God Newquay Mass #4
Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world, the sin of the world (repeat). Lord have mercy on us and grant us Your
Peace and grant us Your peace.
Amen Amen, Amen, Amen
We will sing of Your love forever. We will sing Your praise forever Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen

Communion Silent Night

Hallelujah

Recessional My Sweet Lord