For the Second Sunday of Lent, we continue with our Lenten practices. The organ will be silent until Easter – with a couple of noteworthy exceptions, on Laetare Sunday and Holy Thursday. Of course, the Alleluia is suppressed entirely until the Mass of the Pascal Vigil. The priest was again wearing violet, and of course, we sang Mass XVII, which is only used during Advent and Lent. Note that there are two different versions of the Kyrie for Mass XVII. It’s entirely arbitrary, but we chose to sing Kyrie A. We will sing Kyrie B during Advent. With that, we sang Credo I.
The Tract was considerably shorter today than it was last week, and it introduced us to the melodies we will hear again at the afternoon Liturgy of Good Friday.
We sang Blessed Lamb at the processional. This is a thoroughly Lenten piece that speaks to Our Lord’s saving Blood.
At the Offertory, we sang the seasonal Marian antiphon from Compline, Ave Regina Caelorum.
At the Communion, the choir sang Meditabor, a polyphonic setting of the day’s Offertory antiphon. The schola followed that with Attende Domine.
We concluded Mass with The Glory of these Forty Days.
All in all, it was a very Lenten day.