"No Greater Love"

Matt Reichert, Fr. Michael Joncas, and Zack Stachowski (July, 2018)

We’re welcoming Fr. Michael Joncas back to speak about another one of his best-loved compositions: “No Greater Love.” While many know this popular song, not everyone knows that it was composed as part of a full Mass setting. So, there are a lot of layers to today’s episode: orchestral Mass settings, setting Scripture to music, using chant-like melodies, the effect of changes to the Mass translation, and what it means to compose “theatrical” liturgical music. We’ll discuss all of these with Fr. Michael, and explore them further with additional choices in the Open Your Hymnal Playlist.

So, please open your hymnal to "No Greater Love."

Episode links

For more information about Fr. Michael Joncas and his other compositions, visit his composer pages at GIA, OCP, and WLP. You can also visit his faculty page at the University of St. Thomas.

You can purchase a copy of the score and a copy of the song recording for "No Greater Love” from GIA Publications. You can also purchase the other song recordings you heard in this episode: Instrumental arrangement of “Gloria from Mass of Light” (David Haas),” At Dawn" (Steve Petrunak), "What is This Place" (Oosterhuis), "Live on in My Love" (Tom Franzak), "Mary’s Song" (Fr. Michael Joncas), and "Heart of a Shepherd" (Rory Cooney). 

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