WHICH MASS WILL WE SAY!?
- Third Sunday after Pentecost
- Sacred Heart
- Saint Anthony
June 13 was the Third Sunday after Pentecost. It was also the Feast of Saint Anthony, but the Sunday takes precedence . The Friday before the Third Sunday was the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and as you will recall, this is one of the feasts that is solemnized by default. Thus, in most places on June 13 the Feast of the Sacred Heart was solemnized.
Ah, but things are not always so simple. Our FSSPX Mission Chapel is named for Saint Anthony of Padua, and so for us, the day, which would normally be a Second Class Feast is elevated to a First Class Feast, and so we chose to celebrate the Mass for the Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua. Frankly, it was a difficult call because when the Feast of the Sacred Heart is solemnized, it is customary to also have Benediction and recite the Act of Reparation before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and to recite or sing the Litany of the Sacred Heart. One of our considerations in the decision was the fact that the Feast of Saint Anthony had not previously fallen on a Sunday since 2010!
Thus, the propers we sang were from the Common of Doctors (In medio). For the Feast, Father wore white vestments and once again, that is a correlated with the commons that we would sing. This would not be a Solemn Feast and so Mass II (for Solemn Feasts) would not have been fitting. We went with Mass IV (for Ordinary Feasts). We paired that with Credo IV.
Naturally, we would want to give our homage to the Sacred Heart as well and so for the Processional, we sang To Christ the Prince of Peace, a hymn very much in keeping with the theme of the Sacred Heart. Among other beautiful phrases, it contains the line:
Deep in His heart for us, the wound of love He bore; that love wherewith He still inflames the hearts that Him adore.
As the Offertory, we again sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit, and we will continue to sing this until we are confident that the current pestilence is behind us.
At the Communion, again, for the Sacred Heart, we sang the sublimely beautiful Lauds Hymn for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Cor Arca.
We concluded with a hymn in honor of the Holy Trinity, O Thou Immortal Holy Light.