Music Notes: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, September 20, 2026 Dr. John Michniewicz

Sunday’s readings show that God’s generosity goes beyond human expectations. In the First Reading, Isaiah 55:6-9, God states that “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.” In the Responsorial Psalm that follows, Psalm 145, the Psalmist also shows God’s generosity, and writes that God is “near to all who call upon him.” The Psalmist tells that the Lord is “slow to anger, and of great kindness” and is “good to all and compassionate toward all his works.” In the Second Reading Paul, writing to the Philippians from prison, shows his confidence and assurance in God’s ultimate goodness and care. He states that whether in life or death “Christ will be magnified in my body.” The Gospel reading, Matthew 20:1-16 shares a parable that also illustrates God’s boundless grace: a landowner hires workers at different hours of the day and pays all the same wage. When questions of fairness arise, the landowner answers: “are you envious because I am generous?” Sunday’s music selections reflect on the sense of thanksgiving for God’s generous grace, the call of the vineyard laborers, evoking the faithful servants, as well as gratitude for God’s generosity and faithfulness.

Sunday’s Entrance Hymn is God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending (Worship Hymnal No. 805). Robert Edwards wrote this text in 1961 while summering with his family in Randolph, New Hampshire. The Hymn Society of America, of which his father was then president, was running a competition for new stewardship hymns, and the Edwards family had been listening to hymn recordings during their time off. One of those recordings used the tune HYFRYDOL, and Edwards has said the melody itself is what pulled the text out of him over about a month. HYFRYDOL was written around 1830 by Rowland Prichard, a Welsh textile worker who composed it before he turned twenty. The tune is most familiar with the texts: Alleluia, Sing to Jesus and Love Divine, All Loves Excelling but is actually a perfect fit as well for Edwards’ hymn lyrics. In this hymn, God’s giving has no limit as understood by human accounting, which echoes perfectly Sunday’s Gospel parable. The hymn highlights the idea that the believer’s response is thankfulness, and to serve God faithfully.

God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending

1. God, whose giving knows no ending, From your rich and endless store:

Nature’s wonder, Jesus’ wisdom, Costly cross, grave’s shattered door, Gifted by you, we turn to you, Off’ring up ourselves in praise; Thankful song shall rise forever, Gracious donor of our days.

1. Skills and time are ours for pressing Toward the goals of Christ, your Son:

All at peace in health and freedom, Races joined, the Church made one. Now direct our daily labor,

Lest we strive for self alone;

Born with talents, make us servants Fit to answer at your throne.

1. Treasure, too, you have entrusted,

Gain through pow’rs your grace conferred; Ours to use for home and kindred,

And to spread the Gospel Word. Open wide our hands in sharing, As we heed Christ’s ageless call, Healing, teaching, and reclaiming, Serving you by loving all.

Sunday’s Presentation Hymn is Called to Labor in God’s Vineyard (Worship Hymnal No. 772). The author, James J. Chepponis (1956–2026), was a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and a prolific liturgical composer, serving as the diocese’s music director and later as music director at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh. His works were sung at papal Masses during the American visits of four Popes.

Chepponis wrote Called to Labor in God’s Vineyard in 2011, setting it to a Dutch tune, IN BABILONE, drawn from a 1710 collection entitled: Oude en Nieuwe Hollantse Boerenlieties en Contredansen (Old and New Dutch Folk Songs and Contra Dances).

Chepponis wrote this text specifically around the image of laborers called into

God’s vineyard, which clearly reflects this Sunday’s Gospel. His text also calls to mind the believer’s thankful and faithful response to God’s generosity, as echoed in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, where Paul speaks of “fruitful labor,” and that believers are to conduct themselves “in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

1. Called to labor in God’s vineyard, Eager to accept the task,

Using every skill and talent, Doing all that God would ask, May we give ourselves completely To the work that is at hand, Offering our willing service

As the stewards of the land.

1. Called to labor in God’s vineyard, Not alone, but joined as one, Sharing common goals and values, Striving till the task is done,

May we work with one another In a just and honest way, Whether hired at dawn or sunset, Not expecting greater pay.

1. Called to labor in God’s vineyard, Help us, Lord, in all we do.

As the vines are heavy-laden, Send more workers called by you. May our work bear fruit eternal And our fervor never cease,

Till at last, the harvest gathered, We may rest and know your peace.

At the 11:30 Mass, the Choir will sing the famous anthem by Martin Shaw, With a Voice of Singing, composed in 1923. Martin Shaw studied with the influential English composer Charles Villiers Stanford, and spent his career close to Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, and John Ireland, with whom he shared both friendships and a commitment to reforming English church music. The text is adapted from

Isaiah 48:20, “with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob,” and the anthem has become one of the most performed selections in the sacred choral repertoire, with a fanfare-like opening and upward modulations that build toward its close. Shaw wrote it early in a long run of published anthems that stayed in active use for the rest of the twentieth century. The text echoes the declaration of God’s redeeming generosity.

With a Voice of Singing

With a voice of singing declare ye this, and let it be heard, Alleluia! Utter it even unto the ends of the earth.

The Lord hath delivered His people, Alleluia! O be joyful in God, all ye lands,

O sing praises to the honor of His name, make His praise to be glorious With a voice of singing, declare ye this, and let it be heard, Alleluia!

The Communion Meditation features 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord), written by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin in 2011. The text draws on Psalm 103, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” and it has been one of the most widely sung contemporary songs of the past fifteen years. The text echoes the themes of God’s goodness, generosity, grace, and faithfulness found throughout this Sunday’s scriptural readings.

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)

Refrain: Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul; worship His holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul; I’ll worship Your holy name.

1. The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning; it’s time to sing Your song again. Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes. Refrain

I’ll worship Your holy name, I’ll worship Your holy name.

1. You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger. Your name is great and Your heart is kind. For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing; ten thousand reasons for my heart to find. Refrain, I’ll worship your holy name, Refrain.
2. And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come; still my soul will sing Your praise unending, ten thousand years, and then forevermore! Refrain

During the Communion Meditation at the 11:30 Mass, the Choir will sing Ecce Fidelis Servus, a motet by the celebrated French composer Gabriel Fauré. This piece is drawn from Fauré’s Opus 54, edited and given an English text by Richard Proulx.

The text comes from Luke 12:42, “who then is the faithful and prudent steward,” which is Jesus’s own question about servants entrusted with a household’s care. That text is not from this Sunday’s readings, but similarly highlights the theme of Sunday’s Gospel parable: both passages revolve around a master’s interactions with laborers, contrasting human concepts of earned wages with the abundant generosity of a gracious master.

Behold the faithful and wise servant, Whom the Lord has set over His household. The just man shall blossom like the lily,

And he shall flourish forever before the Lord.

Sunday’s Final Hymn is Now Thank We All Our God (Worship Hymnal No. 637). The text was written by Martin Rinkart, a pastor in Eilenburg, Saxony, during the Thirty Years’ War, a period in which Rinkart is said to have buried thousands of parishioners, including his own wife, during a plague that struck the town. The tune, NUN DANKET, was composed by Johann Crüger and published in 1647.

Now Thank We All Our God gives thanks for “wondrous things,” moves through a prayer to be kept in God’s grace and guided “when perplexed,” and closes with a doxology praising God.

The hymn’s closing line, that God’s goodness “was, is now, and shall be evermore,” echoes the first reading and the Gospel: God’s generosity does not depend on or reflect what humans may expect.

1. Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done,

in whom his world rejoices; who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

1. O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts

and blessed peace to cheer us, to keep us in his grace,

and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills

of this world in the next.

1. All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,

the Son and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven the one eternal God,

whom heaven and earth adore; for thus it was, is now,

and shall be evermore.

Sources:

Roman Catholic Lectionary for Mass, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A: Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a; Matthew 20:1-16a

Hymnary.org, “God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending” (text and tune data, multiple hymnal entries)

Wikipedia, “Hyfrydol”

hymnsforworship.org, background on Robert L. Edwards and the writing of “God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending”

Saint John’s University Archives and Special Collections (csbsju.libraryhost.com), catalog entries for “Ecce fidelis servus = Behold all faithful servants” and for Richard Proulx’s works, including A Community Mass-era materials

Hymnary.org, “Called to Labor in God’s Vineyard,” text by James J. Chepponis, tune IN BABILONE

GIA Publications (giamusic.com), product listings and background for Michel Guimont’s Lectionary psalm settings

martinshawmusic.com, biography and works list for Martin Shaw, including “With a Voice of Singing”

fpcraleigh.org and stretta-music.fi, background notes on “With a Voice of Singing”

Hymnary.org and standard hymnal reference sources for “Now Thank We All Our God,” Martin Rinkart, and Johann Crüger