Welcome To Tradition

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 customarily, here at St. Anthony’s, we sing Kyrie A during Advent, and Kyrie B during Lent. 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, again, we sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit. It is now two years that we are singing that.

We followed that with the seasonal Marian antiphon, Ave Regina Coelorum.

At the Communion, we first sang Adoramus te Christe, then sang Attende Domine.

We concluded Mass with The Glory of these Forty Days.

All in all, it was a very Lenten day.

There were 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 begin singing Mass XVII for Lent, and the organ will be suppressed until it makes a brief appearance on Laetare Sunday, and again on Holy Thursday. We arbitrarily choose Kyrie B during Lent (and A during Advent). We pair Mass XVII with Credo I.

We sang Blessed Lamb at the processional. This is a thoroughly Lenten piece that speaks to Our Lord’s saving Blood.

At the Offertory, again, we sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit.

At the Communion, we again sang Parce Domine, and included the previously omitted 4th verse, which speaks of the forty-day fast.

We concluded Mass with The Glory of these Forty Days before singing Stabat Mater during the distribution of ashes.

This was Quinquagesima Sunday. Once again, the priest was in violet, and will be until Laetare (Rose) Sunday. The Liber Usualis again calls for Mass XI (without the Gloria, of course). We paired that with Credo I.

Lent begins in 3 days and so, musically, we are setting the mood. We sang Blessed Lamb at the processional. This is a thoroughly Lenten piece that speaks to Our Lord’s saving Blood.

At the Offertory, again, we sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit. It will soon be two years since we first started singing it to ask Our Lady to preserve us from the current pestilence.

At the Communion, we again sang Attende Domine. This is another thoroughly Lenten piece that acknowledges our sinfulness and implores God for his mercy.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

We also sang Virgo Dei Genitrix in honor of Our Lady.

We concluded with God of Mercy and Compassion, again emphasizing our sinfulness and asking God for His mercy.

This was Sexagesima Sunday. The priest is in violet. The Liber Usualis calls for Mass XI (without the Gloria, of course). We paired that with Credo I.

We are nudging closer to Lent. We sang Blessed Lamb at the processional. That is full Lent mode.

At the Offertory, again, we sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit. It will soon be two years since we first started singing it to ask Our Lady to preserve us from the current pestilence.

At the Communion, we again sang Parce Domine, omitting the fourth verse owing to the specific reference to the fasting of Lent. We also sang the seasonal Compline Marian anthem, Ave Regina Coelorum.

We concluded with God of Mercy and Compassion, which has a certain penitential feel to it without being full-on Lenten.

We make our plans, and God makes His. It was God’s plan that our vising priest would have laryngitis for Septuagesima Sunday. Father sheepishly slinked into the Schola practice room before Mass and asked in a whisper if it would be okay if we did not sing that day. It was okay.

I will tell you our considerations, then tell you what we did for the low Mass.

The joyful seasons of Christmas and Epiphany being behind us, we will soon enter the penitential season of Lent. The 3-week season of Septuagesima bridges the gap between the Christmas season and Lent. We now leave behind the joyful 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 Paschal Vigil. So, of course, we will refrain from singing hymns that contain the word Alleluia.

Recall our rule of thumb that if the priest is wearing green, we will often 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 had we sung, we would have sung Mass XI – and of course, we would have sung it without its Gloria. We would have paired Mass XVII with Credo I, as usual. But we didn’t sing the Mass. We did, however, sing hymns.

The hymns we choose during Septuagesima will generally have a penitential character, but we still have much to celebrate. So, as the processional we sang Immaculate Mary (with the Lourdes refrain) in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes, which feast we celebrated last week.

At the Offertory, again, we sang Stella Coeli Extirpavit. It is coming on two years since we first started singing it to ask Our Lady to preserve us from the current pestilence.

At the Communion, we sang Parce Domine, omitting the fourth verse owing to the specific reference to the fasting of Lent. We also sang the seasonal Compline Marian anthem, Ave Regina Coelorum.

We concluded with God of Mercy and Compassion, which has a certain penitential feel to it without being full-on Lenten.