I’m running this because in conversation on another site, the musical playbook for this weekend became clear:
Opening: “All are Welcome Here”
Offertory: “Here I am, Lord”
Closing: “Sing a New Church”
Others reported “The Summons,” which I confess I’ve never heard.
And what about you?
Boy, that music was terrible. The sad part to me is that the execution was good – well done. Strong voices, good harmonizing and so on. But the Mass part setting was some awful, sing-songy arrangement I had never heard that struck me as sentimental and childish. Immature.  And as for the hymns, well. I don’t mind “Here I am Lord,” but the others are just so terrible and beside the point and even a bit against the point in their Celebration of Us – it really is just too bad that the energy can’t go into more substantive pieces, both musically and lyrically.
Now, I hasten to say that apart from those matters, Mass today resonated, even as I fought distractions – that of the inner critic, and that of the complaining 4-year old as well.  The woman who read the 1 Samuel passage was an older woman whose Alabama accent was strong, but not twangy,  expressive but not overly so.  She told the story – for that is what she was doing – without being overdramatic or didactic. Very effective. The homily, by a visiting priest, was brief and pointed, inviting us to hear Jesus’ invitation to “come and see.” He also alluded to reading Letter from a Birmingham Jail as a seminarian and the impact it had on him.
My son, in Rome, said he heard one of the best homilies he’s ever heard at Santa Susanna Saturday night, preached by a transitional deacon, he said. So, Deacon, if you’re out there…good job!
I do love this Gospel. The simplicity of it: What are you looking for….Come and see.
Darkness, at times, can seem comfortable. I can hide, and spend my life asleep. Yet we are not called to darkness, but to light.
Pope Benedict, Easter Vigil Homily, 2008