Portsmouth Resident is First American Woman to Publish New Mass Lyrics

“Save us Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection, you have set us free,” are lyrics from “Mass of the New Covenant,” composed by Tiverton teacher and Portsmouth resident Gael Berberick in collaboration with Barney Walker.

Gael is the first woman in America to have her composition, which incorporates the new English translation of the Mass, accepted for publication.

Four years ago, she was approached by liturgical music publisher OCP.

“They asked me to consider the text and write a setting of the acclamations and prayers that were about to change,” she said.

On the First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 27, 2011, the English translation of the Roman Catholic Mass, as well as the music for the liturgy, will change to reflect the original Latin text. 

The “Mass of the New Covenant” features melodies that are ideal for parishes seeking an easy transition to the new Roman missal.

“Our top priority was to create a Mass that would quickly engage the listener’s ear as everyone learns and uses the revised texts,” she said.

Gael began her career in sacred music as a child singing and playing guitar for her home parish, St. Christine’s in Marshfield, MA, where they introduced a Folk Mass.

“That was very radical back then,” said Gael. “After about a year or two singing in the basement, they brought us up to the church. They decided that our music should be heard.”

While in high school, Gael thrived under the tutelage of her music teacher William T. Adams.

“He gave me private music and theory lessons, more advanced than other students,” she said. “He taught me to put music together.”

A cradle Catholic, Gael said that she put her beliefs aside during her college years.

“My complete focus was on becoming a very good musician,” she said.

Gael majored in Music Education and Music Performance at UMass Lowell, where she studied viola with Joseph Pietropaolo, violist for the Boston Symphony.

In 1977, she was offered a scholarship to study music in Communist Poland at the Marie Curie University.

“My parents were so upset that I was going to go to a Communist country,” she said. “I had a little apprehension. I know I was followed by a Polish spy.”

Gael opened herself to the language and assimilated to the culture.

“The spirit of the Polish people kept their faith and beliefs alive,” she said.

She sang on Polish National Radio and performed as a singing guitarist at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw.

Returning to UMass Lowell, Gael was invited to perform on a Boston-based TV program with Isaac Stern in 1980.

“It was the major highlight of my college career,” she said.

The recipient of a music grant, she also studied graduate viola performance at the Chopin Conservatory in Warsaw in 1981.

Gael married in 1983.

“I started having children, and put my music career aside for a few years,” she said.

The couple has four children.

In 1989, Gael walked into St. Ignatius Parish in Fort Leavenworth, KS, and discovered liturgical music.

“It was the most uplifting music I had ever heard in the Catholic Church,” she said. “During the ten years I had lapsed in my faith, several liturgical composers had been writing, assimilating scripture into their texts: Jesuit Dan Schutte, one of the most remarkable living composers; John Foley (‘One Bread One Body’); and Michael Joncas (‘On Eagles Wings’). I had to be a part of this. I wanted to write music for the Catholic Church.”

Gael started writing songs and sending them off to liturgical music publishers, but they were rejected.

In 1993, the family moved to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

“My husband was serving our country, and our whole world changed,” she said. “The day after the Oklahoma City Bombing, I was already booked to go to a sing-along with kids in my daughter’s class. I didn’t have a song to sing, but all of a sudden this beautiful song came.”

When Gael arrived at the school, she asked the teacher if she could sing the song she wrote on the drive there.

“She said to go home and finish the song, and I wrote four verses,” said Gael. “While I was writing, I got a call asking me to put together a prayer service for St. John of God’s Parish in Fort Sill, where I worked as a church musician. The very next day ‘Hope for Peace’ was performed, recorded and started airing on the radio.”

It was the first song she published, and she donated the proceeds from the song, $3,500, to a scholarship for the children of the victims.

“Hope for Peace” is still played regularly on radio stations in the Midwest.

Today, Gael has published over 50 songs with four different publishers, including “Come Follow Me,” “Through the Eyes of Faith,” and “For Your Glory Reigns.”

Currently, she serves as the chorus and orchestra director at , as well as the music liturgist for in Portsmouth.

Gael is the only woman composer in New England featured in the church hymnal “Breaking Bread.”

“I love the gift of music and respect it,” she said. “You don’t make a living doing this kind of work. You have to have some higher calling – a vocation.”

For a preview to the "Mass of the New Covenant", visit www.ocp.org or call 1-800-LITURGY.