The Church Lives

World Youth Day, the Church’s international gathering for young people, has begun in Krakow.  The great festival finds itself in the home city of St John Paul II, whose idea it was in the first place.

I have been watching the opening Mass and wishing I could be there!  All the same, how marvellous to be able to watch it and enjoy the atmosphere live over the Internet.

One thing I am determined to know is the name of the composer of the Mass setting.  (Any information about this will be gratefully received!) [Update here: the composer is Henryk Jan Botor] There is plenty of health in Poland, if they are writing new music like this.  This is the Sanctus:

And here are all the sung parts of the liturgy:

Kyrie Eleison

Gloria

Gospel Acclamation

Sanctus

Agnus Dei

Also worth a listen are the three hymns sung at Communion: the first, the second and the third.

[Update: as far as I have been able to tell, in spite of my appalling ignorance of the Polish language, the hymns at this opening Mass are as follows:

Offertory hymn: 'Wypłyń na głębię' - Jacek Sykulski  - 'Don't be afraid to put out into the deep', which I think are words of St John Paul II (It certainly sounds like him...)

Communion hymn no. 1: 'O panie, tyś moim pasterzem'  - Sr. Imelda (CSSF), J. Kosko.  'The Lord is my Shepherd' - Psalm 23.

Communion hymn no. 2: Witaj, pokarmie - Paweł Bębenek.  Submitted to Google Translate, this comes out as 'Hello, diet'! — so I assume it would be better rendered as 'Hail, our sustenance'...

Communion hymn, no. 3: Skosztujcie i zobaczcie - Fr. Dawid Kusz OP.  'Taste and See', Psalm 98.
Much of the music can also be found here, and the words in the WYD Prayer Book which is downloadable here.

See also this post, which has a little more about the Mass setting, which was composed by Henryk Jan Botor.]

Thus the Church flourishes in the face of those who would destroy her, such as the murderers of père Jacques Hamel, assistant priest of St-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen.  Having served God quietly in Normandy all his long life, he was martyred today as he celebrated Mass.  (Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him; St Stephen, patron of his church and martyr, pray for us; St Denis, patron saint of France and also martyr, pray for France). 

Persecutors seem never to realise how unoriginal their actions are.  The Church, however, which answers a day of bloodshed with a ‘cri vers Dieu’ (a cry to God), fine and majestic music, a three-hundred-thousand-strong gathering of ‘apôtres de la civilisation de l’amour’ (apostles of the civilisation of love) and the unanswerable Eucharist, wins every time.  And endures in Jesus Christ.