Third Sunday of Lent: Why we sing what we sing

With an interesting difference, this was a typical Sunday of Lent. The priest was again wearing violet, and of course, we sang Mass XVII, which is only used during Advent and Lent. With that, we sang Credo I.

Because it is Lent, the Mass calls for a Tract rather than an Alleluia.

This was the second Sunday of the month when the men of the Holy Name Society have their Sunday observances and corporate Communion. The Holy Name men processed in ahead of visiting priest and son of Saint Anthony’s, Father John Graziano, as we sang The Glory of These Forty Days.

At the Offertory, we sang the seasonal Marian antiphon from Compline, Ave Regina Caelorum.

At the Communion, in honor of the Holy Name, we sang Jesu Dulcis Memoria. We followed that with the Lenten piece, Attende Domine.

The interesting difference today was that we held a ceremony immediately after Mass to install the newly elected officers of the Holy Name Society. The ceremony began immediately after the Last Gospel as the faithful sang the great classic hymn patterned after the Te DeumHoly God, We Praise Thy Name, with its very clear reference to the Holy Name of God.

During the hymn, the newly elected officers proceeded from the back of the chapel behind their banner. Once they arrived at the front, father intoned the Veni Creator Spiritus, rather a standard for such ceremonies. After the installation of the officers, we recited the Holy Name Pledge, then sang the Holy Name Anthem as a recessional.

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