The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

This Sunday we will have our first a cappella Mass at the Greencroft. Wallace Hornady will be back in two weeks, and David Heetderks — our substitute organist — isn’t able to join us this week.

Here are the hymns we‘ll sing together:

PROCESSIONAL HYMN:
Now that the daylight fills the sky (#159, HERR JESU CHRIST)

COMMUNION HYMNS:
Sion, praise thy Saviour (#193, LAUDA SION)
Very Bread, good Shepherd (#194, BONE PASTOR)
Lord, for ever at thy side (#451)

CLOSING HYMN:
Go forward, Christian soldier (#553)

One of the cantatas that J. S. Bach composed for use on this Sunday is BWV 94, Was frag ich nach der Welt (“What do I ask for from the world.” You can read more about it here.

On that page, you’ll learn (among other things) that Bach used the same melody in four of the eight movements of the cantata. That tune may be familiar to some in the congregation; it’s in our Hymnal at #14, sung to a Christmas text that begins “Now yield we thanks and praise.”

During the Offertory this Sunday members of our choir will join me in singing a hymn that uses the same melody. Here’s the text we’ll sing:

O God, my faithful God, true fountain ever flowing,

without whom nothing is, all perfect gifts bestowing:

give me a healthy frame, and may I have within

a conscience free from blame, a soul unstained by sin.

Give me the strength to do with ready heart and willing

whatever you command, my calling here fulfilling

to do it when I ought, with all my might and bless

whatever I have wrought, for you must give success.

Keep me from saying words that later need recalling;

guard me, lest idle speech may from my lips be falling;

but when, within my place, I must and ought to speak,

then to my words give grace, lest I offend the weak.

When dangers gather round, oh, keep me calm and fearless;

help me to bear the cross when life seems dark and cheerless;

help me, as you have taught, to love both great and small,

and, by your Spirit’s might, to live at peace with all.

In some years in the past, the choir has on the Ninth Sunday after Trinity sung a setting of the Offertory proper by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. You an learn more about that motet — Justitiae Domini rectae — here.