We are well into Passiontide, and we now enter into the most solemn time of the year, Holy Week. The music speaks to this solemnity as only music can and as only the human voice can. The initial theme today is the Kingship of Christ, as He is exalted by the children of the Hebrews in Jerusalem. Soon after, the people of the Holy City will have Him crucified. The Gloria Patri is not sung during Passiontide, but an exception is made during the distribution of palms because this is a glorious time.
The hymns we sang on procession honor Christ, as King. The procession stops outside the door of the church. Some of the men of the Schola are behind the closed door of the church and sing the refrain, Gloria Laus:
All glory, praise, and honor to Thee, Redeemer, King, to whom the lips of children made sweet Hosannas ring.
The Church represents Jerusalem, and Jerusalem represents heaven. The procession may not enter. The Schola sings verses from inside, and the congregation responds with the refrain. When the refrain is being sung for the last time, the Crucifer (cross bearer) taps the door with the foot of the Cross. The gate can now be opened! The procession joyfully enters the church as the Schola sings the Ingrediente:
As the Lord entered the holy city, the children of the Hebrews proclaimed the resurrection of life. Waving their branches of palm, they cried: Hosanna in the highest.
All the joy is short-lived, however. There is no processional hymn. There is no Asperges, as we move immediately from one liturgical function (the procession) to the next (the Mass). There are no prayers at the foot of the altar. The Mass moves very quickly from the Introit to the Gradual, and then immediately to the Tract – one of the longest pieces of the year. It is taken from Psalm 21, which you will hear again on both Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Note, as well, that all of the other propers of Palm Sunday also come from Psalm 21.
The Tract is suitable preparation for what happens next – one of the most extraordinary elements of the Liturgy, the solemn chanting of the Passion. The Passion is unique in that it is the only Gospel that makes use of three voices: The narrator (Chronista); the rabble, and everyone else, including Peter and Pilate (Synagoga); and Our Lord (Christus). The Chronista sings in a normally pitched voice. The Synagoga sings in a horrible and shrill tone, almost a shriek. The Christus (always a priest or deacon) sings in a lower register in a beautiful tone that exudes peace. The Passion concludes with the Chronsita finishing his account in doleful and exquisitely beautiful tones that evoke the great sorrow we feel at the death of Our Lord.
After the longish Offertory antiphon, the Schola sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit.
At the Communion, the choir sang O Vos Omnes, by Tomás Luis da Victoria. The text comes from the Lamentations of Jeremiah which puts these words in the mouth of Our Lord:
O all you who walk by on the road, pay attention and see: if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
Pay attention, all people, and look at my sorrow: if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
We then sang a few verses of the Passiontide hymn, Vexilla Regis.
There was no Last Gospel. As this is the second Sunday of the month, we sang the Anthem of the Holy Name Society as the recessional.