Easter comes but once a year....

[FrGareth]

I have survived Easter! My 3rd as a priest and my first with adult baptisms. Most of what was planned worked very well. But - 2 snags, and would be interested to know how other parishes cope.

ONE - the dunking of the Paschal Candle

Having processed into church, sung the exsultet, experienced all nine readings, and preached, the time came to bless the font. Naturally, being Easter, I was wearing the very best chasuble. The Paschal Candle had been burning for about an hour and a half. So when the time came to lift it out of its socket to dunk the end in the font, molten wax went everywhere - in particular. all over the best lana wool chasuble!

Next year, perhaps I can entrust this to a server - but they will also run the risk of wax. Because the candle is so tall and in a firm and high stand, it is difficult to get it out without jerking it so it wobbles and spills wax. Has anyone mastered this in their parish?


TWO - the Solemn Alleluia

We only sing the Solemn Alleluia once a year. It took me quite a long time to master it in seminary. This year, even with the choir's help for the response, it went wrong - so I said "It's Easter, let's try that again" (it worked OK second time). But how do you get a whole congregation familiar with a once-a-year move-the-same-syllable-all-over-different-notes kind of chant? Has any parish mastered it? How well does your work?

Many thanks! Alleluia, alleluia!

FrGareth

[Southern Comfort]

I have survived Easter!

Bravo!

My 3rd as a priest and my first with adult baptisms. Most of what was planned worked very well. But - 2 snags, and would be interested to know how other parishes cope.

ONE - the dunking of the Paschal Candle

Having processed into church, sung the exsultet, experienced all nine readings, and preached, the time came to bless the font. Naturally, being Easter, I was wearing the very best chasuble. The Paschal Candle had been burning for about an hour and a half. So when the time came to lift it out of its socket to dunk the end in the font, molten wax went everywhere - in particular. all over the best lana wool chasuble!

Next year, perhaps I can entrust this to a server - but they will also run the risk of wax. Because the candle is so tall and in a firm and high stand, it is difficult to get it out without jerking it so it wobbles and spills wax. Has anyone mastered this in their parish?

The best thing is always to get a server to do it. I have seen candles with clear plastic surrounds glued on to the candle, protruding above the tip for some distance. This is an old MC's trick for keeping the candle alight in a high wind outside, and it can help in this scenario, too, protecting the server from a spray of wax. If you have a deacon or assistant priest, you can depute the dunking to him while you pronounce or chant the words.

TWO - the Solemn Alleluia

We only sing the Solemn Alleluia once a year. It took me quite a long time to master it in seminary. This year, even with the choir's help for the response, it went wrong - so I said "It's Easter, let's try that again"

Very good. Introducing the human touch is always a good thing. And congragtulations on mastering a chant which has been the purgatory of priests since 1955 (when the singing was reintroduced: before then, you could recite it. Just imagine!)

But how do you get a whole congregation familiar with a once-a-year move-the-same-syllable-all-over-different-notes kind of chant? Has any parish mastered it? How well does your work?

This sort of thing is embedded into the subconscious of a number of assemblies, but not embedded at all for others. I suggest that you could in fact use it as the Gospel Acclamation or psalm response throughout Eastertide each year, thus reinforcing it in the collective memory. If that does not seem desirable, why not use a different Alleluia? Or, since you can now use an Alleluia Psalm, don't worry about the traditional chant and concentrate on the psalm instead?

The easiest way out, of course, is to allow a cantor to sing the triple Alleluia which, as with the Exsultet, happens in quite a lot of places. Doing this has been known to result, down the line, in candidates for the priesthood!

[Gabriel]

We did sing the Solemn Alleluia for a number of years - about 10 years ago. We used a tone for verses and climbed higher with each repetition of the Alleluia. My memory is that people did join in. I think we gave it up two reasons -it never felt that it was the joyful climax/moment/acclamation which one would hope and I remember it was quite exhausting to sing. Exhausting to both phrase it and give it some oomph!

[Deke]

Southern Comfort wrote "If you have a deacon or assistant priest, you can depute the dunking to him while you pronounce or chant the words."

I wouldn't bother asking a deacon - we're wise to these tricks! We used the MC to transport candle this year, try an assistant priest though they may just fall for it. Also got a cantor to handle the Alleluia in the same way SC mentioned.