Take up thy cross…

This coming Sunday’s gospel (24th in OT, Year B) sees our Lord counsel us:

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the gospel will save it.”

In honor of this gospel (and that of the very similar Mt. 16) I present my motet, Take Up Thy Cross and Follow Me.

It is conceived in a very simple style, not unlike a responsorial psalm, with a three-part mini motet refrain, and harmonized chant verses. This work is very flexible and is great for modest choirs, requiring only three parts. As a director, I particularly enjoy pieces with refrains since you only have to learn the music once, but you get a lot of mileage for comparably little effort!

Below you can listen with an animated score (and even learn parts!) or just stream the audio with the embedded player.

Please enjoy the score; it’s on the house. There’s also a transposed version for SAMen. Click here for a worship aid graphic for inclusion as a congregational refrain.

If you wish to support this ministry, please consider purchasing this motet for $4.99 to help fund the maintenance of this site.

UPDATE: to hear a live performance of this work, click here.
(NB: it has a rather compressed sound since it was ripped from a YouTube live-stream of Mass.)