Tagged: Holy God We Praise thy Name

Children’s Mass: Memorial of the Guardian Angels – Blue Mass

Prelude: “Introit” by David W McCormick   As a last minute change, this song was moved to the end of Communion, where it worked quite nicely. 
 Entrance Song:  Holy God, We Praise Thy Name (GROSSER GOTT)
 Responsorial Psalm:  Choir: Psalm 25 To You O Lord (Haugen)
 Gospel Acclamation:  Choir: Mass for John Carroll 
 General Intercessions: O God, Hear Us, Hear Our Prayer*
 Preparation of the Gifts:  Choir with Tone Chimes: All Night, All Day (Traditional Spiritual)
 Eucharistic Acclamations: Mass of Joy and Peace (Manolo)
 Lamb of God:  Mass of Joy and Peace (Manolo)
 Communion: One Bread, One Body (Foley)
 Recessional: Bring Forth the Kingdom (Haugen)
*Please, someone, tell me where this is from.  The accompanist has a tattered xerox copy.  They’ve been singing this response for ages.

Music Class Liturgy Prep:

All Night, All Day (Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th)

Singing this song gave a us a chance to address a couple aspects of this particular liturgy:

1) the theme of the mass: Guardian Angels/Blue Mass, our angels in heaven and our angels on earth

2) why we sing a particular song or hymn as the gifts are presented

“All Night, All Day” is an easy, familiar song, that contains the famous “Now I lay me down to sleep” bedtime prayer.

Students, young and old, loved dramatizing the lines of the song with simple, symbolic, repetitive actions.:

Narrators:  “All night, all day”   Lay head on hands as if sleeping, then bring head up and motion with hand to show the sun rising

Angels:  “Angels watching over me, (my Lord)”   Wave big majestic angel wings (Be sure to plug the masculine nature of angels for the boys.)

Praying Children:  “Now I lay me down to sleep”  Kneel with praying hands, head looking down to floor   “Pray the Lord, my soul to keep”   Kneel with praying hands, head looking up to heaven

Scared Children: “Lord, stay with me through the night” Lay head on hands as if sleeping; suddenly awake looking frightened on the word, “night”  “Wake me with the morning light” Smile, looking comforted, on the word, “light”

Once everyone knows their parts, the dramatization can take place while everyone sings the song.  Students from Kindergarten to 5th grade quickly caught onto the song and started chiming in.  You could also practice solo singing by assigning lines of the verses to individual students.

Holy, God We Praise Thy Name (3rd, 4th, 5th)

Ringing a C-4 tone chime on the big beat of this tune was a great motivator to keep everyone singing!

Choir and Tone Chime Ensemble

The choir members rang tone chimes on the I and V chords of “All Night, All Day.”

“Introit” is a wonderful beginning of the year piece for Orff instruments and children’s choir that I collected years ago from an old Choristers Guild magazine.  I have written the composer for permission to publish here.   The piece was a perfect fit for my first-time-ever-in-a-choir students who sang it along with a small tone chime ensemble.