Common Ground Song 30 ‘Eastertide Gospel Acclamation’
Words / Music: Bernadette Farrell © OCP Publications 
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyLlbGPgkuw  
Featured image: Gospel procession in a church in Prague, © Draceane cc-by-sa-4.0

An ‘Easter gospel acclamation’ is a very niche genre of music. Not all Christian churches have such a thing, mainly Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic ones (and not all of them), and it is very different from a congregational hymn. Its purpose is to heighten the sense of expectation among the congregation as the Gospel book is processed among them to be read, and to allow them to respond to it.

This is built on the theological viewpoint that the Gospels are the most important part of the Bible, as they tell the story of Jesus Christ most directly, and therefore the reading of part of one of them is the most important part of the act of worship. In the context of a Catholic Mass, that should be qualified: the reading of the Gospel is equally important as the actual communion, and is in fact part of the same act of spiritual feeding. For Jesus is the Word of God incarnate. Therefore we hear the Word read and interpreted, and our minds are fed; and we share in eating the bread which ‘is for us the body of Christ’, and our bodies and souls are fed. The two belong together.

For that reason, the words of this acclamation are all about Jesus. To each of twelve ‘titles’ of Jesus (twelve being a very Biblical number) sung by the cantor, the congregation responds with ‘Jesus Christ!’. The editorial note suggests that this cantor-and-response format is not only helpful but essential. At the start and after every four such acclamations is the longer one : ‘Alleluia, alleluia, Jesus risen Lord of Life’. That is what makes it particularly an ‘Easter’ acclamation. It could of course be used at any time of year, though there is a tradition of not having the acclamations in the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent.

As with my last-but-one post (I know that my Redeemer lives), I did not find a YouTube performance that includes both the version as scored in Common Ground, and the words on screen. Linked above is one that is sung as intended with a cantor and choir, but now words; to see the words including the twelve titles of Christ, look at this one which however is sung throughout by a solo voice, somewhat losing the point.