Mayday!

[VML]

It was actually exactly 90 years since the first apparition at Fatima last Sunday, and also 26 years since JP II was shot. Maybe marking the date was not so bizarre.

V

[docmattc]

Maybe marking the date was not so bizarre.

Nothing bizarre about marking the date, but much bizarre about the manner of doing it. As I commented on another thread, this free for all mangling of the liturgy is perhaps why Rome is asking for stricter adherence to the letter of the liturgical law.

[oopsorganist]

We have a had a blip today over no hymns for Our Lady at all in May.

It was a bit of a veiled threat really. Tidings of unrest.

Maybe they are going to stop singing. No, wait, they've already done that during some services and some hymns
.
Easter Sunday Mass was particularly unnerving. 200 people in the church that day with a big and unexpected Baptism, and no one was singing. Really scarey. I kept losing my place reading the music because I thought I was playing in the wrong place, shakey hands etc etc.

It is too late to suggest something after Mass because I don't think it is a good idea for next Sunday. If playing requests of Marian hymns after Mass will make people happy then that is what I will do, but, I suspect it is the old "who chooses the hymns?" problem still festering away.

I have already got myself in the mindset of playing "All that I am" for Offertory forever, until people beg me to stop, which may not happen.
This is not the right frame of mind to be in.

I was told that it is Traditional to sing hymns to Mary during May. Several replies came to mind all of which were undiplomatic. I just said I didn't think it was traditional in the twelfth century. If anyone had mentioned it before I put the hymn numbers up I would probably have done one anyway, just to keep the peace.

Grrr

[asb]

So who's having a Corpus Christi procession and what are you doing for that?

We had one on Sunday afternoon, "thrown together" between the morning Masses by PP and MC (I choose the hymns and settings for Mass, PP chooses for devotional services - to stave off "who chooses the hymns" arguments. This works well in theory, but in practice PP leaves his choices til the last minute)

Began with O Salutaris in church and silent adoration; processed to O Godhead hid and a decade of the Rosary (?? - which didn't happen as PP forgot so it was O Godhead followed by silence) Supposed to have been Sweet Sacrament Divine at temporary outdoor altar followed br reading, followed by homily. Reader forgot about Sweet Sacrament and went straight into reading. After Homily, processed to O bread of heaven, and re-entered church to organ music (Pange Lingua verset by Titelouze) followed by Tantum ergo, Benediction, Divine Praises and Adoremus.

Went better than it deserved with no preparation.

[asb]

I have already got myself in the mindset of playing "All that I am" for Offertory forever, until people beg me to stop, which may not happen.
This is not the right frame of mind to be in.

O well, they might get the rhythm right at "e-ver have" eventually then!
(Well, perhaps yours do anyway. Mine don't!)

[oopsorganist]

Noooooooo,

I've been playing it since Easter. The music in the CFE is a bit more interesting than the arrangement in HON.

It is their favourite. Sometimes they sing it at the beginning of Vigil Mass too. What they really like is "I watch the sunrise". Especially played very slowly after communion or at the end of Mass. I am giving it due consideration.

We did sing a Marian hymn on Whit Sunday.

Anyway there is not much suggested in the HON and CFE for Offertory. Take out All that etc., and In Bread etc. and we are a bit stuck somehow.

[oopsorganist]

Thank you for that explanation and advice.

We have been singing those so long, that and My God Accept My Heart this Day (flat) and Bind us Together, that I have lost the plot.

There will definitely be a collection during whatever.

[asb]

[quote="oopsorganist"]Noooooooo,


We did sing a Marian hymn on Whit Sunday.

quote]


Oh NOOOOOO!!

[gwyn]

"I watch the sunrise". played very slowly after communion

I think I've just had a vision of eternal torment!

[oopsorganist]

That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my organ playing.

[docmattc]

Another way of looking at the Offertory Song is as the liturgical equivalent of the Entr'acte – we've celebrated the Word, the collection is our comfort break and now we're focussing again and ready for the overture to part two. (No, I'm not suggesting there's no link between Word and Table – quite the opposite.) Then the Offertory Song becomes something of a second Gathering Song

Nick, and his hopefully dry washing, are right- our bishops have this to say

The purpose of any music at this point is to accompany the collection, the procession, and the presentation of gifts, particularly when these will occupy a considerable period of time. Sung texts need not speak of bread and wine, nor of offering. Texts expressing joy, praise, community, as well as the spirit of the season, are appropriate

Too often any thing that has the trigger words "bread", "wine" and "gift" is automatically an offertory hymn. Hymn O&N classifies "Gifts of bread and wine" as such. All three trigger here, but the merest glance at the tense in which the song is written makes it obvious that it is a communion hymn.

But we've wandered off topic considerably. Mother of Christ, Star of the Sea, pray for the wanderer, pray for me.

(does that almost bring it back?)

[gwyn]

That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my organ playing.

You're lucky Oops, If I play it it's barely recognisable.

[musicus]

I have split all the Offertory/Preparation of the Gifts discussion off to a new thread. (Thanks for the prompt, docmattc.)

The subject of the present thread is Marian hymns in May.