December 26th, 2007

CU Special: Lessons and Antiphons

Our 2nd annual Christmas special. Included are readings foretelling Christ’s coming, and some of the ‘O Antiphons’ of Vespers. Enjoy

Fr. Chris | Posted in CU Podcast, specials | 4 Comments »

  • Joe

    thank you ! a prayerful, reflective moment to place this season in perspective. Thank you again.

  • http://catholicboard.com Carson Weber

    Nice.

  • jason

    Speaking of antiphons, can someone explain this to me? It’s confusing… but looks like good news??

    http://thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/2007/12/usccb-petitioning-for-girm-change.html

  • http://fatherryan.tumblr.com Fr. Ryan

    Hey Jason,

    The skinny is that when the New Mass was penned by Bugnini's committee, they made it a point to reject certain elements of the past in favor of inventions of their own. One of the things that they were vehement about was the "graduale." This is a book which indicates which proper chants would be sung at which times for each and every feast in Missal. Because the new missal was to follow an newly invented calendar, the old gradule would suddenly become obsolete, along with many of the proper chants. The new missal and the new calendar then were set up with new Antiphons for the entrance and communion (the old missal has three, entrance, offertory, and communion.) Because these new antiphons were not parallel to the old ones, there aren't Gregorian chants for each and every one…

    Part II, the old Mass had three divisions of celebration, low, sung, and high. Sung and High Masses require that the antiphons be chanted. Low Masses required that they be spoken, but not sung. The New GIRM – also penned by Bugnini – demanded music whenever possible. They argued that every mass should essentially be like a sung or a high Mass in the old rite to better facilitate their understanding of active participation. Because of this, confusion has set in about the role of these antiphons… So – if there is no music at a particular mass – like most daily Masses – then the antiphons should all be said. That much is clear. But if there is music, the GIRM (the general instruction which lays down the liturgical laws for how we do certain things at Holy Mass) says that the first and best choice is to sing the antiphons… But there aren't any official melodies and many of them don't correspond to traditional chant settings. The GIRM says that the last resort should be the choosing of some hymn to replace the antiphon. Of course, this is the most common choice in our nation.

    Lots more to say on the matter, but the long and short is that the US Bishops are looking to get some clarification on exactly how we are to deal with this sticky issue.

    CORRECTION: in Paragraph 2, in blue text above… Sorry. f.rph.