one of my heros

seriously. and this hardly shows a sliver of his genius

Triduum

I was feeling pretty blah earlier this week, thinking about tonight, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday and all the liturgies that I have to do and the work the choir had to do, and especially about how little sleep I'm going to get on Saturday night! and so I was just sort of wishing that it would just hurry up and be Easter afternoon already!

But during Mass tonight (which was absolutely beautiful, btw, more on that later...) I almost began to cry several times, realizing that this will be my last Holy Week at St. P, and wondering where I will be next year. I honestly have NO idea. It's pretty scary.

I am pretty sure, that never again will I experience another church, where the congregation heartily sings the Latin chants of the Mass, where they sing six verses in latin of the Pange Lingua, where a parish of 500 families can produce a choir that can pull off Durufle's 6-part Ubi Caritas!

I am so blessed. I can't even begin to describe it. But, I will admit, it took work. I had four Holy Week's here before I've felt this way; weeks of anxiety and not-singing-anything-terribly-impressive lol.

Here's the lineup:

Holy Thursday:
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Gloria VIII
Psalm: Our Blessing Cup (a contemporary SSA arrangement)
Gospel Accl: Respond & Acclaim
Washing of Feet: (I wish we had more appropriate music to sing that reflected the proper texts for this time, but unfortunately everything that is in the hymnal of a "servant" character is either extremely trite, or else theologically questionably appropriate.)
Ah,Holy Jesus
Glory Be to Jesus
Offertory: Ubi Caritas (Durufle! woot woot! and they rocked!)
Ordinary: The usual
Communion:
Hoc Corpus
O Domine (Palestrina)
Humbly We Adore (Adoro Te)
Sing My Tongue (6 verses, Latin)

Good Friday
Psalm: Respond & Acclaim
Veneration of the Cross:
Reproaches
Psalm 51- Miserere (4-part chanted setting by some 20th century Italian, can't remember whom, alternating with chant)
Were You There (if needed)
Offertory (or whatever it's called): What Wondrous Love
Communion:
Pater, Si Non
Sing My Tongue (Picardy)

Easter Vigil:
7 Psalms (mix of R & A and CTK Psalms)
Gloria: chant
Psalm/Alleluia: R & A
Litany of the Saints (Becker, with REAL Saint names.)
Vidi Aquam
Offertory: At the Lamb's High Feast
Communion:
Pascha Nostrum
Worthy is the Lamb (Fishel)
Alleluia, Sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
I Know that My Redeemer Lives (Duke Street)

Good Friday

I have always noticed that the Gregorian Missal (Graduale Romanum), from which I base most of the music for Mass, is strangely silent on music at Communion on Good Friday. Since it isn't even a Mass, there isn't a "communion antiphon."
Given that, this year, I was thinking that we would just have silence for Communion, since that seems not only appropriate on Good Friday, but that seems to be what the book is telling me, as well as being a lot easier for the choir to not have to sing for an additional 5-10 minutes!

Then I came across this thread on my favorite forum, which seems to give other sources that do suggest that there is appropriate music.
http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=4574

Sigh, what to do. It's barely a week away! And I have like 2 or 3 choir rehearsals before then (with lots else to learn!)

Either silence will be starkly appropriate, or else 7 minutes of awkwardness. lol.

I almost fell off my chair!

I just got an email from our diocesan worship person regarding music/liturgy for First Communion Masses, and at the bottom it said this:

"Since our parishes use such a variety of hymnals, I do not have a list of music suggestions for Holy Communion. However, I do not recommend the theology found in "Take the Bread, Children" by Herbert Brokering (GIA). ".

woot! finally! something remotely helpful from them!

pontifical (low? solemn? something) Mass!