THE WEDNESDAY REPORT: January 21, 2026

Dear Partners in Ministry,

While I hope I'll be on the road to St. Louis for the 2026 Liturgical Composers Forum this Sunday, the weather forecast seems determined to foil the travel plans of every composer east of the Mississipi. If all goes to plan, Mary Hrich will lead from the piano in my stead for our Sunday Masses (I'll be there Saturday), and we won't rehearse the following Thursday, January 28. If I'm stuck in town.... well, we'll shovel that sidewalk when we get to it.

Lent Music Selections

Our music selections for Lent are now available! Generally speaking, it's a simple but powerful season, in which we'll pray for a new openness in heart, mind, and spirit to being Christ for others, especially the poor and most in need. Some musical highlights:

Gathering song for the season: Open My Heart. My first visit to Cleveland came in 2007, when I served as Music Director for a conference of Jesuit higher education institutions at John Carroll. I composed a piece for the daily morning prayer, which centers around the most fundamental rhythm in our lives: the human heartbeat. Each verse is a prayer to be opened anew to God's love and what that love calls us to, followed by a powerful refrain praising God and offering our whole selves to God's service. For our purposes, we'll sing one verse each weekend, followed by a double refrain. I've added a recording from an album I did back in the day to the Music Learning Library sheet (link under Resources below).

Gospel Acclamation and Lamb of God: Mass of Consolation. The Gospel Acclamation we've been singing for our funeral liturgies (and on All Souls this past November) is the slowly sprouting seed of a new setting, Mass of Consolation. The aim here is to create a setting that is easy to jump right into on a first hearing, and that has a more gentle touch than the (rightly) bigger and more exuberant settings we'd use on a Sunday. I've finished up the next movement of this setting, the Lamb of God, and we'll give it a test run over the Lenten season.

Most hymns and songs will be either well-established newer pieces ("These Alone Are Enough," "Bless the Lord") or tried-and-true seasonal favorites ("Wondrous Love," "Seek the Lord," "Change Our Hearts"). The newest pieces will be a third run of Steven Warner's "Christ Has No Body Now But Yours," and the introduction of Grayson Warren Brown's moving meditation, "God Be In My Head."

The link to selections for the whole season is now waiting for you under Resources below.

Committee Idea Suspended; Tomorrow Night's Rehearsal

As I discussed with you this weekend, I've decided to suspend the creation of an advisory committee for now, as it has become clear that we have some important work to do in getting to know each other better and bonding as sections. Thanks to those of you who put forth a nomination!

Tomorrow night, we'll rehearse for about an hour to lock down our remaining music for Ordinary Time, then break into our five sections for an hour of discussion about who you all are and how things are going. Thank you in advance for giving this endeavor your full cooperation.

A Tweak to the Turn-In Tracker: It's a Hand-Out Tracker Too!

Last week, I introduced the Turn-In Tracker, a what-and-when list of music to be returned to our wonderful librarians. After soem positive feedback, and after some thought and tweaking, I've decided to expand this Sheet to include music that is scheduled to be given to you too, so that you and the librarians know what to expect each week.

The same link you received last week now opens the Score Exchange, which is organized by Sundays, and shows both what will be waiting for you that weekend and what you can return. For the next few weeks, I've also included that long list of titles I've requested since last Lent, sorted by library number. Starting today, please look through this list and return any title you see in that first section.

Below all that, you'll see the next few weekends' worth of liturgy. My thought here is that the librarians and I will make sure that all the music listed here is ready for you in the folders in time for the 5:00 pm Mass that Saturday.

Of course, neither this nor any other way of keeping track of scores will work unless it gets read, so please check this regularly and keep up as best you can. If you miss a weekend, just return the listed music when you're back. And, if you're able to sort your stack of turned in scores by library number, that makes life easier for our librarians too!

2026 Resolutions, Part 4: The Journey from JourneySongs

I'm going to wait on the next part of this discussion, as this post is getting quite lengthy, so tune in next month!

I have several "New Year's Resolutions" for our Music Ministry on my radar, and I'll be sharing these with you over the next several weeks:

The creation of an advisory board for Music Ministry (see WR, Dec 31; nominations are now open)
New online resources for learning music (Music Learning Library; link under "Resources" at the end of this post)
New online resource for keeping track of returned scores (see above!)
Reducing our dependence on the JourneySongs Choir hymnal (February)
A new direction for anthems and meditation pieces for the choir

Peace be with you,
Tony

REHEARSAL AGENDA: January 22

We'll rehearse all together until 8:00, then break off into our vocal sections (see above for more details).

Weekend Repertoire:

JS 30 · Ps 27: The Goodness of the Lord (Soper)
3.062 · Christ Has No Body Now but Yours (Warner)
3.070 · The Blessed and Broken (Ward)
Talkthough/Q&A for Jan 25 repertoire; run parts and clean up by request

THIS WEEK IN LITURGY

JANUARY 25: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

NOTE: Tony out on Sunday; Mary Hrich joins you for the 9 and 11.

READINGS: Read online at usscb.org
Lectionary for Mass: 67
2026 Workbook: p. 52
Breaking Bread 2026: p. 63
Cantors: Tony (5:00); Charlie M (9:00); Mary P (11:00)

MUSIC SELECTIONS:

Gathering: 301 · JS 771 · Our God Is Here (Muglia)
Glory to God: 864 · 1.001 · Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Responsorial Psalm: 745 · JS 30 · Ps 27: The Goodness of the Lord (Soper)
Gospel Acclamation: 927 · JS 264 · Celtic Alleluia (O'Carroll/Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts: 548 · JS 640 · Christ Before Us (SUO GÁN/Whitaker)
Eucharistic Acclamations: 864 · 1.001 · Mass of Creation (Haugen)
- Holy · When We Eat This Bread · Amen
Lamb of God: 930 · 3.090 · Lamb of God (Kendzia)
Communion: 358 · 3.090 · Taste and See (Kendzia)
Sending Forth: 382 · JS 813 · City of God (Schutte)

LOOKING AHEAD

FEBRUARY 1: Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

READINGS: Read online at usscb.org
Lectionary for Mass: 70
2026 Workbook: p. 56
Breaking Bread 2026: p. 65
Cantors: Jack G (5:00); Karin O (9:00); Anthony S (11:00)

MUSIC SELECTIONS:

Gathering: 579 · JS 593 · Lift Up Your Hearts (O’Connor)
Glory to God: 864 · 1.001 · Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Responsorial Psalm: 800 · JS 115 · Ps 145: I Will Praise Your Name/The Hand of the Lord Feeds Us (Soper)
Gospel Acclamation: 927 · JS 264 · Celtic Alleluia (O'Carroll/Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts: 1012 · 3.062 · Christ Has No Body Now but Yours (Warner)
Eucharistic Acclamations: 864 · 1.001 · Mass of Creation (Haugen)
- Holy · When We Eat This Bread · Amen
Lamb of God: 930 · 3.090 · Lamb of God (Kendzia)
Communion: 1026 · 3.070 · The Blessed and Broken (Ward)
Sending Forth: 547 · JS 639 · Earthen Vessels (Foley)

FEBRUARY 8: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

READINGS: Read online at usscb.org
Lectionary for Mass: 73
2026 Workbook: p. 59
Breaking Bread 2026: p. 67
Cantors: David R (5:00); Karin O (9:00); Marie P (11:00)

MUSIC SELECTIONS:

Gathering: 305 · JS 766 · Gather the People (Schutte)
Glory to God: 864 · 1.001 · Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Responsorial Psalm: WA · 2.028 · Psalm 19: Lord, You Have the Words (Ward)
Gospel Acclamation: 927 · JS 264 · Celtic Alleluia (O'Carroll/Walker)
Preparation of the Gifts: 329 · 3.066 · Bread for the World (Farrell)
Eucharistic Acclamations: 864 · 1.001 · Mass of Creation (Haugen)
- Holy · When We Eat This Bread · Amen
Lamb of God: 930 · 3.090 · Lamb of God (Kendzia)
Communion: 1026 · 364 · 3.061 · Take and Eat (Joncas)
Sending Forth: 1024 · 3.071 · Sent Forth as Light (Ward)