liturgical music in a rural NH parish

I attended two Sunday morning Masses. The music looked like this:

Entrance (called "Gathering"):
8:30: Dufford "All the Ends of the Earth"
10:00: Lift High the Cross (accompanied on the piano)

Opening prayer: sung

Resp. psalm: Cooney "Here I Am, Lord" (that's Cooney, not Schutte)

Alleluia: Celtic Alleluia

Offertory (called "Preparation"): Haas "You Are Mine"

Sn/MA/GA/Ag: Mass of Creation
"Jesus, Bread of Life" was the incipit for the 2nd of 3 iterations of the LoG

Communion: Behold the Lamb

Recessional: Sing of the Lord's Goodness


I think this is a "poster-child" for stereotypical American Catholic liturgical music. (Everything but the sung opening prayer.) The organ was a really crappy Allen digital thing, so I shed no tears over not hearing it very much. (The accompanist couldn't play it well enough to do the hymn, apparently.)

The congregation sang ok - most folks did not sing, but that's typical everywhere, so hey.

I avoid "You Are Mine". Enough people in a choir know it that they want to sing it, which necessitates rehearsing each verse because they're all slightly different. Then someone says, "can we run this whole song just once". Before you know it, 15 minutes of rehearsal time are gone that could have been spent developing the choir musically rather than teaching them congregational music.

I use "Behold the Lamb". It's simple and straightforward enough to be taught to folks who don't know it in about 5 minutes. And it's well-known enough that I usually have to spend little, if any, time on it.

Cooney "Here I Am" is not too bad. I'd use it outside the Liturgy of the Word, but I'd still probably use it. It's a good text for themes of mission. The accompaniment is very piano-ish, but it could reduce fine for the organ.

The Dufford is a little kitschy, I think.

"Sing of the Lord's Goodness" is fun, I think, but not consistent with an environment that Western culture connotes as sacred and awesome.