At each Mass, we must choose:
- The Propers
- The Ordinary
- The Credo
- The Hymns
The Propers are generally decided by the feast day, either for the day itself, or for a feast that might have come earlier in the week (and thus solemnized on the following Sunday). This Sunday, we sang the Propers of the Feast, the 10th Sunday after Pentecost.
We have more flexibility in choosing the Ordinary (or the Commons) and the Credo. We chose, once again, Mass IV and Credo IV.
We have the most flexibility when it comes to choosing the hymns. What factors influence our choices? Among the most important considerations are the following:
- The liturgical feast
- The liturgical season
- The readings of the day
Those things are well alluded to, obviously, in the Propers and Commons that we choose, or that are prescribed, for the day. In choosing the hymns, however, we often incline toward another consideration, that of the devotion for the calendar month. These are the traditional devotions assigned to each month:
- January: The Holy Name of Jesus
- February: The Holy Family
- March: St. Joseph
- April: The Blessed Sacrament
- May: The Blessed Virgin
- June: The Sacred Heart
- July: The Precious Blood
- August: The Immaculate Heart
- September: Our Lady of Sorrows and the Holy Cross
- October: The Holy Rosary
- November: The Poor Souls
- December: The Immaculate Conception
As we enter August, we now move from honoring the Precious Blood of Jesus to honoring Our Lady, specifically, in her Immaculate Heart. Our Processional was O Mary of Graces. At the Offertory, we sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit, as is our custom for the time being. At the Communion, in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, the mixed choir again sang Aichinger’s polyphonic mashup, which combines the Communion antiphon (Factus est repente) and the Offertory antiphon (Confirma hoc Deus) from Pentecost Sunday.
There was time also to honor Our Lady with Salve Regina and the exquisite Tota Pulchra es. This hymn, whose sublime words come to us from the fourth century, is taken from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Its title means, Thou art entirely beautiful (O Maria).
At the recessional, we made the obvious choice, Immaculate Mary. And finally, after Mass, as the faithful made their thanksgiving, we sang the Gregorian Ave Maris Stella, with a harmonization written by one of the men of the Schola.