Society of Saint Gregory

Wonder why they've only published the chant in Latin! Because it doesn't exist in any other form. This is the chant, minus Solesmes rhythmic signs, that was sung at the end of every High Mass up to 1964, when Mass was still predominantly in Latin. It was never sung in the vernacular. It started lif...

Dom Paul Gunter OSB, up to now Secretary of the Liturgy Office and well known to SSG members, has just been elected Abbot of Douai. Prayers for him as he transitions out of his parish and his national responsibilities to the task of shepherding his community.

Menevia was originally part of Cardiff, so the infant returns to its mother, in a sense. There have been rumours for a while now that Menevia was not financially viable. Perhaps not having to find its own episcopal expenses will help. The installation in Cardiff is announced for 20 June. Nothing has...

One of the sacrifices that organists are called upon to make to fulfil their ministerial role during the distribution of Communion is being unable to receive Communion themselves. It goes with the territory. Sometimes it arises from a lack of thoughtfulness on the part of the ministers, who overlook...

GIRM 86: While the Priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion Chant is begun, its purpose being to express the spiritual union of the communicants by means of the unity of their voices, to show gladness of heart, and to bring out more clearly the ‘communitarian’ character of the procession to ...

Hope the Triduum was a blessed time for you all, even if a multitude of things went wrong?were disorganized/chaotic.

You survived, and your communities certainly benefitted from your ministry!

Now relax, and enjoy Eastertide!

Although in most things Paul Turner is good value, here I think he falls into the trap of trying to defend the indefensible. He might at least have criticised the completely gratuitous Sign of the Cross at the beginning of the Easter Vigil instead of using it to bolster his rather weak argument.

The same rubric was in the 1969 Missale Romanum and people ignored it then, so why not now? It's not the only error of judgement in the Third Edition of the Roman Missal by a long way. In my experience of Easter Vigils, not only has the Exsultet been sung by candlelight but the readings have also fa...

Has anyone else had to accompany the missal tone for the Exsultet because the priest who insisted on sing it (the long version at that) was so musically challenged that he was likely to set off somewhere in the alto register and end up like a Russian contra bass? Yes, but only when the priest himse...

One PP once asked for a version with responses that he'd heard elsewhere (can't remember who it was by) IIRC there was an instruction in it that the cantor raised an arm when they reached the phrase that the assembly were supposed to repeat. I seem to remember that it went quite well, although I wa...

Interesting that it contained a reference to the "Extraordinary Form", which some traditionalists interpreted to mean that this term was still acceptable. The truth is more prosaic. Large parts of this lengthy document were drafted before Traditionis Custodes was issued, and this remaining...

VML mentions singing the Exsultet as a woman. Brava! This is one area where clericalism has once again reared its head in recent years. Deacons feel, or are told by priests, that they should be singing it, even if they are completely incapable of it. The chant version, particularly as messed up in t...

One thing that kept our young families away was that the toilets were closed. Since they were reopened, the young familes have come back — not yet in the previous numbers but certainly noticeable. Liturgy of the Word for Children started again at the beginning of Advent.

But now congregations are singing again, even more strongly than before the pandemic began. This includes many from other countries who love singing even more than we do!

They can be read, or replaced with silence. Don't think it's a good idea to add yet more readings to a liturgy already heavily laden with them. I would consider going down the route of singing each psalm so that it sounds different. For example (1) sung a cappella, (2) [Canticle of Moses], sung acc...