Usually, we have important liturgical reasons for picking what we will sing. Sometimes there are other and lesser motives!
We are presently in the season of Epiphany tide, which occurs within Christmastide. The fourth Sunday after Epiphany is a Second-Class feast. For such a feast, the priest wears green, and typically, we would do Mass XI (for Sundays throughout the Year). Instead, we chose to do Mass VIII (for Second Class Feasts). Why so? Simply because one of the Faithful who has a particular interest in the music graciously requested it! It is certainly fitting, liturgically, and we seldom sing it. It is a very beautiful Mass, but unfortunately, it is badly overdone – in many chapels it seems to be the only Mass that is ever sung. We tend to avoid it.
Typically, we would sing Credo III with Mass VIII, and that is what we had in mind. Which leads to another of the various motives behind what we choose to sing. Even though we had intended to sing Credo III, we ended up singing Credo I. Why so? We messed up and intoned the wrong Credo! The poor congregation were trying to understand why what we were singing did not line up with what was on the hymn board. Mea culpa!
The propers we sang were the same this week as they were last week. We will sing the same ones next week as well. Why is that? Recall from our discussion on the Sundays after Pentecost that the number of Sundays after Epiphany varies from as few as 1 to as many as 6. This year we will have 5. You will also remember that the total number of Sundays after Epiphany and after Pentecost will always total to 29 – and so there will be 24 Sundays after Pentecost this year. This, of course, is due to the fact that the better part of the Liturgical year is based on the date of Easter which can vary by as many as 5 weeks. Thus, the propers for the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany are repeated as many times as necessary just as the propers for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost are repeated as many times as necessary.
The accompanying illustration shows the various possibilities for the number of Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost. Note that this year there will not be a need to move a Mass (readings and propers) from the time after Epiphany to the time after Pentecost.
We moved our habitual Stella Coeli Extirpavit to before Mass to allow us time for a hymn at offertory.
We gave Christmastide one last gasp as the season comes to an end this coming week on the Feast of the Purification – precisely 40 days after Christmas. We sang Good Christian Men Rejoice as the Processional, Puer Natus in Bethlehem at the Communion, and Angels we have Hear on High as the Recessional.
Given that January is the month in honor of the Holy Name of Jesus, at the Offertory, we sang the vespers hymns from the Feast of the Holy Name, Jesu Dulcis Memoria.
As a meditative piece, after the recessional, we sang Alma Redemptoris Mater, the Marian anthem from Compline that is sung during Christmastide.