How low is your Low Sunday?

[Gabriel]

I would be interested to learn as a 'snapshot' whether parishes on 2nd Sunday of Easter (last weekend):

• carry on as normal
• offer a 'reduced' service
• have a week off

Though these questions are primarily about musical resources information about other ministries would be interesting.

[HallamPhil]

Everything 'as normal' at St Marie's ... Sung Morning Prayer, Morning Mass with Choir and Evening Mass with Music Group.
I would say that I managed a 'high' throughout but it may be that the intervening 'low' week was responsible for this energy!

[Southern Comfort]

For a number of years was "reduced in service", giving choir (and assembly?!) the week off after Easter. (The same after Christmas.)

However, for the past few years it has been "carry on as normal".

[FrGareth]

In previous years, being the Octave day of Easter, treated like a solemnity with full sung Eucharistic prayer (Mass of Creation) which I will use again on Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity & Corpus Christi.

This year... I was on leave so don't know what the supply priest did but music would have been supported as a normal Sunday.

In previous two years I plugged the message of Divine Mercy, offered to sit in the box after Sunday Mass, and was kept busy for at least 45 minutes each time.

FrGareth

[Peter]

It wasn't planned intentionally as such, but it so happened that all our musicians were away last Sunday apart from me, and as one melody instrument is not enough to support a congregation I led unaccompanied singing of the hymns, Gloria (simpler setting than our normal Easter one), Sanctus etc. The two choir members present did the psalm and when I apologised to one of them for the lack of other resources, she said "Well, we used to call it Low Sunday!" They will be faced with the same problem in a couple of weeks, but won't have the same liturgical justification for the unaccompanied singing.

[keitha]

We had a fairly normal Sunday, with all the usual items being sung. This is not typical - in that I usually have a week away starting on Easter Monday, which means that there is limited singing on Low Sunday (usually hymns only) if I don't get back in time. We have no choir rehearsal in Easter week.

[blackthorn fairy]

Choir and organist (i.e. me) had Low Sunday off. But doesn't always happen like that. Don't know what they did without us.

[contrabordun]

Business pretty much as usual, but no midweek choir practice and no anthem. Choir numbers down due to holidays - some of them are still stranded in Turin thanks to the volcano.

[NorthernTenor]

Odd this year. I found myself in Madrid, and having a busy afternoon and evening in prospect opted for a quiet morning and a visit to the local parish church, rather than the Cathedral. Some unnacompanied singing, but the only performing musicians were those in the recording of the Halleluia chorus that was played over the PA while communion was taken. I don't know whether it was specific to Low Sunday.

[keitha]

The Spanish seem to have a 'thing' about the Hallelujah Chorus - I heard it last year in Seville Cathedral on the feast of the Assumption!

[nazard]

Our Low Sunday is always another Easter, but that is easy because our choir is not up to anything complicated so we just sing popular easter hymns. We always used to do the communion antiphons for Easter Sunday and Low Sunday from the Graduale Romanum, but our new pp won't allow it now.

It always goes down well with the children if you call it "Quasimodo" Sunday. The poor chap doesn't get mentioned very often.

[keitha]

I appreciate that it is not, strictly, 'on topic' - but, Nazard, has you new PP given any reason for this 'ban' - and if so, what is it?

[nazard]

No, he refuses to discuss the subject. He does have a strong fondness for the religious music of the late sixties/early seventies though. He had us do the "Swedish Mass" for Easter. You will find it in the old Celebration Hymn Book, number 370. Just about as seventies as you can get, and not exactly what inspires me to spend hours practising. I did resist the temptation to give it a grandiose organ makeover.