White vestments! It’s a feast! Rejoice!
Clearly the theme is Our Lady. This is the month of her Immaculate Heart, and this is among her greatest of feasts. No need to solemnize it; this year, it falls on the Sunday!
Again, a clear choice for the processional was Immaculate Mary.
As for the commons, nothing less than Mass IX, for feasts of the Blessed Virgin (Cum Jubilo) will do. And the Credo that works very nicely with Mass IX is Credo III.
For the last 18 months, at the offertory, we implore Our Lady’s intercession to help end the pestilence of COVID-19. Today, we said, no. We will sing a hymn for our Blessed Lady simply to venerate her and not ask for anything at all. Virgo Dei Genitrix is just so beautiful. We sang that for her.
You will surely have noticed that the prayers that introduced the preface today were different. These tones are called solemnior — the most solemn – and reserved for the more important feasts. And likewise, the melodies of the preface itself were more elaborate and more beautiful – likewise called solemnior. Our visiting priest, Father James Carlisle, has a voice that was designed by God to sing the solemnior preface. He will never miss an opportunity, and we are grateful to hear it – and God is greatly glorified. Few priests sing it and none that I know of sing it as well. Today’s preface, rather than that of the season, was the special preface for Our Lady. This was her day in every way.
Of course, the custom is to sing for Our Lady at the Offertory, and so we did. And, of course, at the Communion, we sing for her Son, Our Blessed Lord. I don’t want to say we “threw him a bone” but we did seek out the shortest possible hymn for the Blessed Eucharist, and so, in honor of the Most Blessed Sacrament, we sang the beautiful and very brief Ave Verum Corpus.
Having thus discharged that responsibility, we once again turned to His Mother. We are sure He did not mind. We sang Victoria’s Ave Maria, which starts, fittingly, with the first notes form the Gregorian (the incipit) and then explodes into four-part polyphony that is so beautiful that we singers must force concentration so as not to be distracted by its beauty.
To conclude the Mass, we sang Hail Holy Queen, in view of Our Lady’s coronation, which took place immediately upon her being assumed into heaven, and which we will celebrate next Sunday.
After the recessional, we did, indeed, once again, implore Our Lady’s intercession to end the current pestilence, and sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit.
To provide something more meditative while the Faithful made their thanksgiving after Mass., we sang the Antiphon before and after a falso bordone arrangement of the Magnificat in which the chanted verses alternate with three-part polyphony, all male voices – tenor, baritone and bass.