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.

This is the final Sunday in the season of Epiphanytide. The season of Christmastide ended earlier in the week on February 2nd with the feast of the Purification. This feast occurs precisely 40 days after Christmas because, according to the Mosaic Law, a woman must go to the temple to be purified 40 days after the birth of a son (80 for a daughter).

This is also the feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, Candlemas, and Groundhog Day.

Wait! Groundhog Day? Yes, indeed. And it is not a coincidence. Candle processions on February 2nd were customary in ancient Rome to mark the midpoint between the solstice and the equinox. These were effectively Christianized and associated with the Christian holy day of the Purification and Presentation.

Meanwhile, a folk custom developed throughout Europe of predicting the weather on Candlemas. Generally, if Candlemas were sunny, that would presage a longer winter. The German lore would observe the following.

Sonnt sich der Dachs in der Lichtmeßwoche, so geht er auf vier Wochen wieder zu Loche.

If the badger sunbathes during Candlemas-week, for four more weeks he will be back in his hole.

German immigrants brought the custom into Pennsylvania, though they adopted the indigenous groundhog in place of the badger.

Similar proverbs exist in all European countries and many other countries throughout the world. This is one of several variations from England:

If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come winter, have another flight. If Candlemas bring clouds and rain, Go winter, and come not again.

Every Italian village and town seems to have its own version. One that is common in Rome:

Per la santa Candelora se nevica o se plora dell’inverno semo fora.

For the feast of Candlemas, if it snows or rains, we’re done with winter.

Because Candlemas had occurred earlier in the week, we had the possibility to solemnize the feast and celebrate that Mass in lieu of the Sunday. This would have included the blessing of candles and a candle procession before Mass. We chose not to do so because this was the Sunday on which we also have our Holy Name Society observances. We sang the Mass of the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, the propers of which come from the Third Sunday after Epiphany.

Father was wearing green – an indication that this was an ordinary Sunday, not a feast, and so we sang Mass XI (for Sundays Throughout the Year) and Credo I.

For the processional, we sang God of Mercy and Compassion with a mind toward upcoming Septuagesima and Lent. At the Offertory, we did our usual Stella Coeli Extirpavit.

For the Communion, we did Jesu Dulcis Memoria, and for the recessional, we sang We Stand for God, both in honor of the Holy Name.

Since we had the feast of Saint Blaise earlier in the week, after Mass, Father blessed throats, during which time we sang the Magnificat, and the mixed Choir sang Alma Redemptoris Mater. Normally it is not so fitting to sing this Marian Anthem outside of Christmastide. We did so due to what would take place subsequently, the blessing of candles, which would normally take place on Candlemas. As is done after the blessing, we sang Lumen ad Revelationem Gentium.

Now you know why there exist candle holders like the one shown in the image.

Usually, we have important liturgical reasons for picking what we will sing. Sometimes there are other and lesser motives!

We are presently in the season of Epiphany tide, which occurs within Christmastide. The fourth Sunday after Epiphany is a Second-Class feast. For such a feast, the priest wears green, and typically, we would do Mass XI (for Sundays throughout the Year). Instead, we chose to do Mass VIII (for Second Class Feasts). Why so? Simply because one of the Faithful who has a particular interest in the music graciously requested it! It is certainly fitting, liturgically, and we seldom sing it. It is a very beautiful Mass, but unfortunately, it is badly overdone – in many chapels it seems to be the only Mass that is ever sung. We tend to avoid it.

Typically, we would sing Credo III with Mass VIII, and that is what we had in mind. Which leads to another of the various motives behind what we choose to sing. Even though we had intended to sing Credo III, we ended up singing Credo I. Why so? We messed up and intoned the wrong Credo! The poor congregation were trying to understand why what we were singing did not line up with what was on the hymn board. Mea culpa!

The propers we sang were the same this week as they were last week. We will sing the same ones next week as well. Why is that? Recall from our discussion on the Sundays after Pentecost that the number of Sundays after Epiphany varies from as few as 1 to as many as 6. This year we will have 5. You will also remember that the total number of Sundays after Epiphany and after Pentecost will always total to 29 – and so there will be 24 Sundays after Pentecost this year. This, of course, is due to the fact that the better part of the Liturgical year is based on the date of Easter which can vary by as many as 5 weeks. Thus, the propers for the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany are repeated as many times as necessary just as the propers for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost are repeated as many times as necessary.

The accompanying illustration shows the various possibilities for the number of Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost. Note that this year there will not be a need to move a Mass (readings and propers) from the time after Epiphany to the time after Pentecost.

We moved our habitual Stella Coeli Extirpavit to before Mass to allow us time for a hymn at offertory.

We gave Christmastide one last gasp as the season comes to an end this coming week on the Feast of the Purification – precisely 40 days after Christmas. We sang Good Christian Men Rejoice as the Processional, Puer Natus in Bethlehem at the Communion, and Angels we have Hear on High as the Recessional.

Given that January is the month in honor of the Holy Name of Jesus, at the Offertory, we sang the vespers hymns from the Feast of the Holy Name, Jesu Dulcis Memoria.

As a meditative piece, after the recessional, we sang Alma Redemptoris Mater, the Marian anthem from Compline that is sung during Christmastide.