Recording: Not the Fauré you may think…

Here is the tail end of the communion antiphon and  J. Faure’s O Salutaris Hostia during Mass at St Brigid’s, Toryglen yesterday. Experimenting with solo motets duiring covid restrictions on choirs. Excuse the couple of blips- I put the tv monitor in a different place and a glance turned into a search!

Posting the odd mistake is good for efforts to get over one’s self. I’ll get there one day.

 

Exaudi Domine, V Sunday after Pentecost

A great prayer exercise for those involved in sacred music is to meditate on the texts of the propers (the changing prayers of the Mass) using the chant.

The western chant repertoire of the Church is an amalgamation of chants belonging to the different western rites, the final corpus being delineated by Pope Gregory the Great in the late 9th Century- giving it the nickname ‘Gregorian Chant.’ It would be a mistake to think that this is the beginning of the chant repertoire- the same mistake as thinking that the Tridentine Mass originates from the Council of Trent which simply codified and standardised the Latin Rite which can be traced back to the Apostles. Continue reading “Exaudi Domine, V Sunday after Pentecost”

Home Liturgy- Easter Sunday

For Easter Sunday, follow the ideas for a dry Mass as described in my Palm Sunday Post.

Holy water can be sprinkled during the Vidi Aquam.

Find the text here by selecting the correct date and the rubrics from before 1955.

Here is a playlist of all of the chant I have included organ music for before and after as well as the I filli et filliae as an opening hymn and motets for the Offertory and Communion. For the ordinary- Kyrie etc- I have included both the chant Mass for paschaltide and a more festive choral setting so that you can choose which one to use.

The home altar should be decorated in white and gold, candles lit and incense burned if you have some.

 

Tenebrae, Spy Wednesday

Tenebrae on the evening of Spy Wednesday is the anticipated Matins and Lauds of Holy Thursday. A perfect way to take advantage of a lockdown Holy Week.

Or live-stream at 7.30pm here

Booklet available here

The music may not be the same as the recording but you can follow the text if you wish.

The following notes are those of preeminent liturgist, Fr Adrian Fortescue.

Home Liturgy- Holy Saturday

Following my series on how to celebrate the pre-1955 Holy Week liturgy at home, here are some ideas for Holy Thursday.

Booklet

Playlist

Chant

The ceremonies of Holy Saturday are performed on Holy Saturday Morning. Because these are long and because many baptisms were performed after the blessing of the font, I suggest splitting the liturgy in two

  1. In the morning- The Easter Fire-The prayers of the blessing of the font ending with inserting a renewal of baptismal promises and sprinkling of holy water.
  2. After dinner-The Litany of Saints to the end, in the manner of a Dry Mass as explained in previous posts. The prayers of the Mass begin to talk about ‘this sacred night’ and so it makes sense to delay this half until evening- as well as pacing things for your family.

We plan to spend the time in the afternoon making Easter decorations.

Some pointers for adapting the liturgy in the booklet.

Part 1- Morning

  • The liturgical colour is violet
  • We plan to light a fire in a small barbecue that we have in the garden. While we cannot command a blessing in the way a priest can, in the manner I explained for the blessing of palms, we can still ask God to bless things so the Father of the house can pray these prayers without making the sign of the cross etc, simply asking God to bless the fire.
  • For the triple candle I intend to use three blessed dinner candles that we had blessed at Candlemas and will place them in a candelabra that we have on the dining room table, leaving the additional candle holders empty.
  • My wife has made a paschal candle from a pillar candle (also blessed at Candlemas) and we already have incense that has been blessed so that I can insert grains into the Paschal Candle. (Tip- use a pointed tool to make the little holes beforehand!)
  • All chants are in the play list or can be sung using the cant linked above. The exultet is difficult so just listen to it. If you are keen to do it, miss out the bit about being in the order of levites- this is for priests.
  • For the 12 prophesies, you could decide which ones to include. We have a two year old so we will read a few and then finish reading them in our own prayer time later. If you have older children, you can adapt to what you think is best.
  • For the blessing of the font, you could read the prayers and catechise the family on this or simply give an explanation of what would be performed, reminding the family of their baptism and the significance of that sacrament. A simple renewal of baptismal promises can be found here as a way to finish this portion of the liturgy. The liturgy so far is not considered to be in Paschaltide so if you wanted to sing an antiphon, it would be best to stick with Asperges Me for now. Or, you could listen to Palestrina’s setting of the baptism antiphon Sicut Cervus in the playlist.

Part 2- Evening

  • The home altar is dressed in white and the candles are lit
  • Begin at the litany of the saints. This takes the place of the Introit and Kyrie.
  • The Gloria is sung with the ringing of bells. During the Gloria, the purple veils are removed from the sacred images. The character of this liturgy is still one of anticipation as shown by the alleluia mixed with the lenten-style tract.
  • Continue the dry Mass as described before, with a spiritual Communion made.
  • After the spiritual Communion, the shortened form of vespers is prayed as in the booklet.
  • If singing the Ite Missa Est Alleluia, sing Benedicamus Domino Alleluia instead.
  • The last gospel is read as usual.

Once the children are in bed, it is time to decorate the house, prepare the Easter lunch and hide the eggs for the Easter egg hunt!

Home Liturgy – Palm Sunday

We find ourselves in a situation where we need to keep the liturgies of Holy Week at home. This sort of situation is not unprecedented. My thoughts are drawn to the recusant Catholics of the Anglican persecution, the true Church in China and other underground Christians and even His Eminence Cardinal Pell who has been denied the right to offer the Holy Sacrifice for many months.

Rather than becoming angry and frustrated, let us resign ourselves to the permissive will of God as did Our Lady during the Passion. We should make the most of this opportunity to grow in our understanding and practice of the faith.

Collect for Saturday in Passion Week

We beseech Thee, O Lord, may Thy devoted people grow in the spirit of pious devotion, that learned in the holy rites, they may become the more pleasing to Thy majesty as they abound in spiritual gifts. Through Christ Our Lord…

In the Pearce household, we have greatly benefited from praying in union with livestreamed Masses and we are grateful to all priests who have made the liturgy available to us, especially the FSSP at Livemass.net. For Holy Week, however, we have decided not to livestream Mass but to do what we can to be present to the liturgy in our own home- a time for us to up our ‘Ecclesia Domestica’ game. (For that is our WiFi name after all!)

Being church musicians we are fortunate that we can sing most of the liturgy at home and have chosen (since no permission is required from Rome for a Missa Sicca or ‘Dry Mass‘) that we will celebrate according to the traditional Holy Week liturgy from before the reforms of 1955 which anticipated the promulgation of the Novus Ordo. The timing of these liturgies is more toddler friendly too!

Below I have provided notes on how this can be done at home. Some points to consider:

  1. We don’t have to try to replicate liturgical perfection at home. The point of this is to pray and absorb the theology of the ancient prayers and chants.
  2. This is an example of the maximum that can be done. If your kids get restless, cut things out and read them privately once they are in bed. The point here is to celebrate what we can and not to overdo things and put our families off. Better to do less for the greatest spiritual payoff than to try to do everything and end up with tantrums. It is consistent with my Benedictine spirituality to adapt things to the needs of those participating rather than making unattainable demands.
  3. We don’t allow toys in our home chapel but we do allow anything that we would pack in the Mass bag. Age appropriate books and colouring sheets are a good idea and since the ceremonies are longer than usual, we will allow a little more moving around than at the family rosary each evening.
  4. For those who can’t sing the liturgy, I have compiled playlists. These could even be used outside of the prayer time to keep a recollected atmosphere throughout the day.

Texts for each liturgy can be found here by selecting rubrics pre-1955 and selecting ‘Sancta Missa’ at the top of the page. Another option would be to print the relevant pages from a pre-1955 Missal such as the Fr Lasance Missal.

Palm Sunday

  • Resources: Either sing or listen to chants using playlist here. Chant can be seen and printed here. Generally speaking, chants in Latin, readings and orations in English. Fr Lasance Missal pg388 onwards.
  • Asperges III- Father of the family sprinkles home altar and family with holy water.
  • Antiphon. Hosanna filio David followed by prayer- Deus Quem Diligere
  • Lesson from Exodus 15
  • Ant. In Monte Oliveti
  • Father reads Gospel
  • Always replace Dominus Vobiscum with V. Domine exaudi orationem meam. R. Et clamor meus ad te veniat
  • Father reads through the blessings- Only a priest can command a blessing of an object but we can still pray that God will bless the palms/branches that we have prepared. We also benefit from the rich theology of the ancient prayers.
  • Sing the Sanctus.
  • Sing Pueri Hebraeorum while the Father hands branches to each family member in order.
  • Procession- (The door of the prayer room/chapel is closed when the last person leaves.) The Father can lead with a large crucifix if one is available. Think of a reasonable procession route that includes parts of the house and garden.
  • Sing Gloria, Laus et honor tibi sit during the procession.
  • Return to the prayer room/chapel in time for the ending of the hymn. (If your family is large enough, you could have some inside the chapel as in the rubrics of the missal, if not just continue).
  • The family wait outside the closed door of the chapel/prayer room.
  • The father knocks three times on the closed door with the foot of the large crucifix. (He could just knock if no such crucifix is available.)
  • Sing Ant. Ingrediente upon re-entering the room.
  • N.B. You may decide here to skip to your time of spiritual communion depending on how the kids are doing.

The Missa Sicca proper

  • Follow the missal as is.
  • The reading of the passion.
  • Option 1- Read the full Passion. C-Mother, S- All, + – Father
    OR (if your kids are getting restless by now!)
  • At what would be a low Mass, the Passion is substituted for the Gospel that is read before the blessing of the palms. You may decide that since you already read this earlier, you may omit it and give a summary of the passion in your own words for the benefit of the children.
  • Sing the Credo
  • Sing the offertory
  • After the offertory, select some prayers from offertory of the Mass to prepare for a spiritual communion. (Suggestion- Suscipe Sancta Trinitas, asking God to receive all the Masses throughout the world. The preface could be read and the Sanctus sung. Pater Noster, Agnus Dei, Act of Spiritual Communion, silence.)
  • Finish the prayers of the Mass. End with Benedicamus Domino in place of Ite Missa Est

I will post the same sort of resource for the Sacred Triduum in due course.

Homemade Paschal Candle
Making facemasks for priests and palm crosses for friends

Vespers: Feast of the Holy Family

Today is the feast of the Holy Family. Here is the Immaculate Heart of Mary Schola joined by a few of the monks of Papa Stronsay singing Vespers of this feast day in 2019. You can follow with this booklet. The hymn at 18.02 is particularly beautiful.

The collect of the feast is a mission statement for every family:

COLLECT O Lord Jesus Christ, You sanctified home life with untold virtues by being subject to Mary and Joseph. May they assist us to imitate the example of Your Holy Family, so that we may share with them their eternal happiness; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

Learn about the Three Hearts Devotion Here

Heart of Jesus I adore thee,

Heart of Mary I implore thee,

Heart of Joseph pure and just,

In these Three Hearts I place my trust.