Author: Paul Cassman

Last Sunday’s rejoicing is done with. The rose vestments from last week give way to violet. We resume and even augment our Lenten austerities. There will be no organ. There will be no flowers on the altar. The statues are draped and hidden to commemorate our Lord’s having had to hide from those who pursued Him. The Alleluia and the Gloria in Excelsis have long since been banished, but now, we also eliminate the joyful Psalm 42 from the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar. The Gloria Patri is also banished from the Liturgy. You will observe that it is conspicuous in its absence from the Asperges, the Introit, and the Lavabo at today’s Mass. We will again sing a Tract in lieu of the Alleluia. Father will sing the Preface of the Holy Cross. We continue with Mass XI as the priest is in violet. Thus begins Passiontide, the last two weeks of Lent.

The prayer, Adoramus Te, Christe, most closely associated with Good Friday, is commonly recited during Passiontide. The choir will sing this prayer at the Offertory. At the Communion, the choir will sing the exquisitely beautiful O vos omnes, and the schola will sing the hymn most closely associated with Passiontide, the Vexilla Regis. This hymn was written by a man who was one of the greatest composers, writers and poets of the 6^th Century, Venantius Fortunatus. He was also a Bishop and is a Saint. He composed the Pange Lingua of Good Friday, and the incomparably beautiful Easter hymn, Salve Festa Dies, which you will certainly hear after all these austerities are done with!The month of April is dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, so we will sing Soul of my Savior at the recessional.

Laetare, Jerusalem! Rejoice, Jerusalem! So starts the Introit for today’s Mass. This Sunday marks the halfway point during lent, and so we are given a wee bit of a respite from Lent’s austerities. We still sing a Tract instead of the banished Alleluia. We will again sing Mass XVII, but the priest is not wearing the typical shade of violet! What is that color? It is rose (never to be called pink), and it is supposed to be a lighter shade of violet. So, still violet, but distinctively different, so as to set this Sunday aside as a day of rejoicing in the heart of the penitential season. Flowers, which are banned from the altar during Lent, are permitted on this day. And the organ, which is likewise banned during Lent, is permitted on this day.

This Sunday is also known as Mothering Sunday. This is owing to the Epistle, in which we are called sons of Mother Jerusalem and of the Free Woman. In Christian Europe, this was Mother’s Day. It still is in several countries. The celebration was brought to the United States in the middle of the last century and secularized, but the idea came from Mothering Sunday in Europe. We will honor Mary in her motherhood by singing Salve Mater. We will also sing a special hymn of rejoicing (Cantate Domino) in honor of the theme of rejoicing on this Sunday.

The feast of the Annunciation was on Monday, and so we will again honor Our Lady’s Annunciation musically. 

We don’t want to forget about St. Joseph on this last Sunday of the month dedicated to him. So we will also honor him with a hymn at the recessional.

Once again, today, there will be no organ. And once again, we will sing a Tract instead of the Alleluia. The priest will again be wearing violet, and as is usually the case when the priest wears violet, we will be singing Mass XVII, for which there is no Gloria.

We are still in the month of Saint Joseph, and we celebrated his feast last week, so we will again honor him. The feast of the Annunciation is tomorrow, and so we will honor Our Lady in her Annunciation as well. It is most fitting to honor her at the Offertory, and reserve the Communion as a time to honor Our Lord. But our selection in honor of Our Lady is a bit too long to sing at the Offertory, and so we will sing our hymn for her at the Communion, and if time allows, also sing a short hymn for Our Lord.

So, today, we honor Our Lord, Our Lady, and Saint Joseph, the Holy Family, the day before that Holy Family became a reality, the day before Our Lord was conceived.

We continue with our practices for Lent. 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 will again be wearing violet, and as is usually the case, we will be singing 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 customarily, here at St. Anthony’s, we sing Kyrie A during Advent, and Kyrie B during Lent.

After the Schola sings the Gregorian Offertory antiphon, the Choir will sing the same words, but in the form of a polyphonic hymn, Meditabor.

We will again honor St. Joseph, and will do so during communion. Note that whether at the Offertory or at the Communion, the proper antiphon is sung before any hymns are sung.

There are several things that are noteworthy about the music for this, the First Sunday of Lent. Probably the most remarkable is the length of the Tract. Sung briskly, it takes almost 13 minutes to complete. There is a similarly long Tract on Palm Sunday, but today’s edges that one out slightly in terms of overall duration. The Tract itself is drawn entirely from Psalm 90. This is the psalm that the devil speciously quotes from when he tempts Our Lord, as recounted in today’s Gospel (which, of course, immediately follows this Tract).

He hath given his angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Another interesting thing about the music today is that all of the propers (Introit, Gradual, Tract, Offertory and Communion) are all drawn from that same Psalm 90. This is one of the very few times throughout the year where all of the propers come from the same psalm. And of course, Psalm 90 also shows up in the Gospel. 

Also noteworthy today, we will begin singing Mass XVII, and the organ will be suppressed for most of Lent. It will make a brief appearance on Laetare Sunday, and again on Holy Thursday.

Quinquagesima Sunday is the last of the three Sundays of the short transitional season of Septuagesima. Ash Wednesday is this week and so begins the penitential season of Lent.

During Lent, we will sing the commons of Mass XVII (seventeen), which is for Advent and Lent. Recall our rule of thumb: If the priest is wearing green, we usually sing Mass XI (eleven), and if the priest is wearing violet, we usually sing Mass XVII. Of course, Septuagesima is the exception to this general rule because the priest is wearing violet but the Liber Usualis prescribes Mass XI (generally, without the Gloria).

The use of the organ is suppressed during Lent, so this Sunday is also noteworthy because it is the last time we will hear the organ (apart from a few exceptions that we will cover when the time comes).

On the first Sunday of every month, the men of our Holy Name Society pay special honor to the Holy Names of God and Jesus by entering the church in procession with the priest and servers, sitting together in the front of the church, and by receiving communion together as a body. To further honor the Holy Names, we will sing Jesu Dulcis Memoria, the 12^th century vespers hymn for the Feast of the Holy Name.Each month of the calendar year has its dedication, and this month is the month of St. Joseph, whose feast day falls on the 19^th. We will honor St. Joseph today with two hymns.

Normally, during the Mass, the Gradual is followed by the Alleluia. But since we are avoiding the word Alleluia during Septuagesima and Lent, in place of the Alleluia, we will sing the Tract. 

Generally speaking, certain melodies are repeated within each Tract, some of which are quite long. And the same melodies are used for the tracts each Sunday. So, the melodies will seem familiar to you, and will evoke Septuagesima Seasons of the past and call to mind the penitential character of the Season.Once again, the priest will be wearing purple, but it’s not yet time for Mass XVII. We will be singing Mass XI, but we will sing it without its Gloria, which is also suppressed during Septuagesima and Lent. Though it is not required, we usually sing Credo I with Mass XI, just because they go together nicely.

The joyful seasons of Christmas and Epiphany are behind us, and we will soon enter the penitential season of Lent. The season of Septuagesima bridges the three weeks between the Epiphany Season and Lent. Dom Guéranger, in The Liturgical Year, tells us how the Church now gives us these three weeks to prepare for “…the solemn warning she is to give us, at the commencement of Lent, by marking our foreheads with ashes.”

We now also leave behind the joyful hymn, the Gloria, and the joyful word, Alleluia. The Gloria will be sung on Holy Thursday, and feast days, but the Alleluia will be strictly avoided until the mass of the Pascal Vigil. So, of course, we will refrain from singing hymns that contain the word Alleluia.

The hymns we choose during Septuagesima will generally have a penitential character, but we still have much to celebrate. So, for example, we will sing Immaculate Mary (with the Lourdes refrain) in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes, which feast we celebrated last week.Recall our rule of thumb that if the priest is wearing green, we will likely sing Mass XI. There is another rule of thumb: If the priest is wearing purple, we will usually sing Mass XVII. But it would be premature to sing Mass XVII during Septuagesima because Mass XVII is to be used for Lent and Advent. The book that gives us much guidance regarding the Liturgy, the Liber Usualis, doesn’t give us an option for the commons, prescribing Mass XI. So, we have the interesting case where the priest is wearing purple, but we are singing Mass XI – and of course, we will sing it without its Gloria.