01 April 2010

Yes, in case you were wondering,

Divine Service Five modified to fit with the Maundy Thursday liturgy is a beauty. Tonight we had:

Service of Corporate Confession and Absolution (for Maundy Thursday)

Service of the Word
Salutation and Collect
OT Reading
Psalm (sung responsively, choir and congregation)
Epistle
Hymn of the Day: "O Lord, We Praise You"
Gospel
Sermon
Prayer of the Church
Offering

Service of the Sacrament
Preface
Our Father
Words of Our Lord
Sanctus: "Isaiah, Mighty Seer"
Pax
Agnus: "Lamb of God, Pure and Holy"
Distribution with hymns
Post-communion: Mozart's "Ave, Verum Corpus"
Post-communion Collect
Psalm 22 (as the altar is stripped)
Silence (as the people leave - downright painful after the postludes we've been treated to of late...)

I think that's got to be our standard Maundy Thursday. It was perfect. 214 of St. Paul's members gathered for the holy day.

3 comments:

Phillip said...

We sang "Isaiah, Mighty Seer" for the Sanctus as well, Pastor.

We also chanted the Our Father.

Also had the same Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God, Pure and Holy"), but our women's chorus sang Healy Wilan's setting.

We are a bit unorthodox, though, with the Psalm during the Stripping of the Altar. We do parts of 136, rather than 22. Yes, yes, I know that 22 is great and is traditional - but St. Matthew records that "they sang a hymn" and it was was probably one of the Hallel Psalms. Given that 118 is for Easter, we go with a setting of 136, by Marty Haugen, with verses adapted to fit ESV.

The ironic contrast between the celebration of salvation history in the psalm vs. the stripping of the altar provides a poignant reflection of the counterpoint between the song of Jesus' & His disciples and what was then His imminent sacrifice.

The only other difference I see is that we sang "O Lord, We Praise Thee" as our Processional Hymn, and so, having already sung the appointed HOD, sang a Sermon Hymn more tailored to Pastor Rossow's preaching this evening: "When You Woke That Thursday Morning".

The LSB serves us well, indeed!

BTW, what were your communion hymns?

We sang "What Is This Bread?"
and Cheppoinis "Come to the Banquet" (A responsive song with the choir's verses taken from "Draw Near and Take the Body fo the Lord")

William Weedon said...

For distribution, choir sang: "Come, Let Us Eat" and then congregation did "When You Woke," "You Satisfy the Hungry Heart" and "Soul, Adorn Yourself with gladness." We had no entrance hymn.

Phillip said...

Thanks, Pastor.

We sang "When You Woke" as well. For the first time, I might add. A couple of positive comments were received afterwards about that particular hymn.

Interesting you had both that hymn and "You Satisfy the Hungry Heart". Were they both led by organ? Those hymns are both more pianistic, and so it takes some comprehensive musicianship for them to be led well from the organ. Another reason to rejoice in your new organist. :)