Society of Saint Gregory

However we generally let a couple happen with no music so that people can hear what is being said to the candidates. Then we mix sung music (simple stuff that unchurched people can join in with) and gentle background playing. It seems to work. If chattering starts we usually stop the music and let ...

Another instance of non-English occurred in the invitation to the last of the ten Solemn Intercessions on Good Friday: Let us pray, dearly beloved, to God the Father almighty, that he may cleanse the world of all errors, banish disease, drive out hunger, unlock prisons, loosen fetters, granting to t...

Like it or not – and you clearly don’t – private Marian devotion was an element of the Faithfull’s experience of Mass. There is a fundamental problem of logic here. What I do privately during an event/occasion doesn't give me the right to homologate it to the event and then say afterwards that it i...

All kinds of other things happened during Mass, too. For example, people often went to confession during it. ...a practice which, incredibly, has been revived by the PP in a parish near me (not mine, DG) for pre-Christmas and pre-Easter. As already said, practice is not always a safe criterion. Mor...

I am open to correction, but I do not think the Hail Mary was ever said publicly during Mass at all — until 1971. For the Hail Mary, you had to have recourse to the Angelus. It was said three times at the end of Low Mass from 1930 until 1965 as part of the prayers for the conversion of Russia. But ...

Q is quite right to point out this anomaly. For the purposes of comparison, I turned up the invitation for the Procession at The Presentation of the Lord (February 2). That too has two possible invitations, the second having words identical to the Easter Vigil second option. Like the Easter Vigil, t...

NorthernTenor wrote:...in the same way that an empty cross in procession on Easter Sunday (and other Sundays) proclaims the Risen Lord.

'Empty cross in procession'? Tell us more, NT. I like the idea, but I've never come across a processional cross in liturgical usage without a figure...

1: can it be the Deacon who does this? Yes, or a cantor (the rubric says so). Traditionally and IMHO preferably the priest as presiding over this special occasion. 2: My shiny new Missal (layman's edition) along with the new Misalettes for the Triduum, shows the Lectionary texts as well, of course,...

Whether a cross has a figure on it or not is at least partly a matter of local culture and usage. 'Croce' in Italian is, in my experience, always a cross with a figure, even though the literal translation is just 'cross'. 'Crocefisso' refers to the figure, not to what in English we call a crucifix. ...

I have examined very carefully the rubrics in the current edition of the Missal, and also the 1988 Instruction, Sollemnitas Paschalis . Both refer to 'Holy Cross' or 'Cross' (with initial capitals). Nowhere do they refer to a figure on it. In the instructions for unveiling, the Missal refers to 'the...

My experience is a combination of both 1 and 2, i.e. procession through the church with three stations (2), but unveiling the cross a little at each station (1). This would seem to be excluded by the rubric that, in the Second Form, 'the priest or deacon receives the unveiled cross... then the proce...

Having played 'Hail Glorious St Patrick' today (see earlier post), I was struck by the fact that, in HON, there is a chorus On Erin's green valleys . When I was a lot younger, the last two lines of each verse were repeated. And a 90 year old Irish lady confirmed to me that this was the practice whe...

This is the official line: The Lord's passion is narrated without candles or incense. ... The greeting before the gospel reading and the signing of the book are omitted. ... At the end the words This is the Gospel of the Lord are said, but the book is not kissed. [Ceremonial of Bishops, 273] This a...

Can anyone tell me more about the structure, role, and way of singing a Responsory? We seem to encounter only a few these days, but there was on on Ash Wednesday, and there is another coming up on Palm Sunday. (I also enjoy the Palestrina setting of the Matins Responsory every year when moonlightin...

Victimae Paschali is such a one-off piece that it is a pity to pretend that it is a normal hymn. Why not have the choir ladies and gents sing it to the traditional chant as a dialogue, coming together for the last verse? Laudate 260 is very serviceable - translation by Peter Scagnelli - though I su...