SUNDAY IV --- NO, WAIT! PRESENTATION OF THE LORD!

You read that right, folks!  This coming Sunday is NOT the Fourth Sunday of the Year.  This Sunday, February 2, is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, a feast that trumps the usually numbered Sunday of the Year.  This is the feast that is also known by many as Candlemas, as the liturgy starts with the Blessing of Candles.  In the traditional (Extraordinary Form, that is, the Roman Missal of 1962) calendar, this Sunday would be known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, though the liturgical pattern and Sacred Scripture is very similar.

After Mass, there will be the Blessing of Throats, a custom in honor of Saint Blaise, whose feast is the next day (February 3).

In terms of music, the beginning of Mass will depend on the priest.  He may opt to do a blessing of candles and process afterwards, or do a simple entrance.  The hymn during said procession (or entrance hymn if simple entrance) is Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates.  Though it seems to be an Advent hymn (and is grouped in sections marked "Advent" in most hymnals that are arranged by season/category), Lift up your heads... includes passages from Psalm 24:7-10, the Responsorial Psalm of the day.

The offertory hymn, In his temple now behold him, is taken from the Gospel reading of the day and is sung to a very familiar tune, the Tantum Ergo set to the tune "St. Thomas" (named aptly after St. Thomas Aquinas, author of the Tantum Ergo and the larger hymn it is excerpted from, Pange Lingua.)

During Communion, the Canticle of Simeon will be sung, using a tone by the French Jesuit Pérè Joseph Gelineau, SJ.  This proclamation made by Simeon is also presented in the day's Gospel.  While this canticle is not contained in the response (Guard us, O Lord, while we sleep, and keep us in peace), it is contained in the verses.  This is known in Latin as Nunc Dimittis and is chanted in the Office of Compline (or "Night Prayer").

While I originally programmed Praise the Lord, ye heavens, adore him as the recessional hymn,  the celebrants of both Masses (Frs. Unsworth and Lemoi, respectively) agreed to bless the throats after Mass, so Praise the Lord... (two verses) will be the meditation hymn instead.  We will disperse with the recessional hymn and postlude this weekend.

That said...

MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

ORDINARY OF THE MASS:

Gloria (if sung) and Memorial Acclamation (We proclaim your death...): Holy Angels Mass (BMP)

Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Mass for Christian Unity (Jan Vermulst)

Dresden Amen

ALLELUIA I for Ordinary Time (BMP)

For listen links to all of the above, the list for Sunday II.

Entrance antiphon: The Lord will come to us with mighty power... (Mode VIII)
Processional hymn: Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates ("Truro") (Listen)
Psalm 24: Who is this King of glory? It is the Lord! (Jon Laird)
Offertory hymn: In his temple now behold him ("St. Thomas") (Listen)
Communion responsory: Canticle of Simeon, R./ Guard us, O Lord, while we sleep, and keep us in peace (response by Guy Weitz and Dom Anthony Gregory Murray, OSB; versicles by Pérè Joseph Gelineau, SJ)
Meditation hymn: Praise the Lord, ye heav'ns, adore him (Listen)

- Anyone recognize the organist in this listen link? LOL!

NO recessional hymn or postlude.  Blessing of Throats after Mass!

Quod scripsi, scripsi!

BMP

SUNDAY III

MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

ORDINARY OF THE MASS:

Gloria (if sung) and Memorial Acclamation (We proclaim your death...): Holy Angels Mass (BMP)

Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Mass for Christian Unity (Jan Vermulst)

Dresden Amen

ALLELUIA I for Ordinary Time (BMP)

For listen links to all of the above, see last Sunday's list.

The rest:

Entrance hymn: Hail to the Lord's anointed ("Ellacombe") 

Psalm 19: R./ Your words, Lord, are spirit and life (BMP) (PDF)

Offertory hymn: Sing to the Lord a joyful song ("Gonfalon Royal") (repeated from last week)

Communion responsory: The Spirit of God (Lucien Deiss, C.S.Sp.) (Listen)

- NOTE: Reviving a lost classic from the French Holy Ghost Father who gave us "All the earth proclaim the Lord" and "Keep in mind".  Matches well with the Alleluia verse for the day.  Many of his responsories and hymns were originally written in French.  However, they were translated into English and Spanish as well.

- or anthem: In thee is gladness (Giovanni Giacomo Galstaldi)

Recessional hymn: Rejoice, the Lord is King ("Darwall's 148th")

Quod scripsi, scripsi!
BMP

SUNDAY II

Back to the "green season", those "Sundays of the Year" (literally, "Sundays *through* the Year"), or as the modernists call it, "Ordinary Time" (which is not necessarily ordinary).  Father Bucci more than once has referenced the term "Boring Time" which he had heard in his seminary days. ;)

Because the First Week of "Ordinary Time" started on a Monday (Baptism of the Lord was last Sunday, the final day of the Christmas Season in the Ordinary Form), this Sunday is the Second Sunday of the Year (or "OT", or to some maybe, "BT" lol, or simply "Sunday II").  We'll be seeing Sundays II through VIII in this segment of "OT" as Ash Wednesday doesn't fall until March 5 this year (a result of Easter falling on April 20 this year).

For these next seven Sundays we will be using English sung Mass Ordinaries.

The second verse of our entrance hymn, Songs of thankfulness and praise, references the Gospel of the day, which speaks of the wedding feast at Cana.

Manifest at Jordan's stream, Prophet, priest and King supreme;

And at Cana, wedding guest, In thy Godhead manifest.

Manifest in pow'r divine, Changing water into wine.

Anthems be to thee addressed, God in man made manifest.

Our offertory hymn, Sing to the Lord a joyful song, is new and will be taught approximately five minutes before the start of Mass.

The Communion responsory also echoes the Gospel passage, Fill the jars with water, and bring them to the master of the feast, which is also the assigned Communion proper in the Graduale Romanum for this day.

Without further ado...

MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

ORDINARY OF THE MASS:

Gloria (if sung) and Memorial Acclamation (We proclaim your death...): Holy Angels Mass (BMP) (Listen to Gloria)

Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Mass for Christian Unity (Jan Vermulst) (Listen: Sanctus | Agnus Dei)

Dresden Amen

ALLELUIA I for Ordinary Time (BMP) (Listen)

- This Alleluia setting has been sung before here at Sacred Heart, and has also been used at the Church of St. Stephen Martyr in Washington, DC, the origin of this listen link.

Hymns, etc.

Entrance hymn: Songs of thankfulness and praise ("Salzburg")

Psalm 96: R./ Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations. (Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB)

Offertory hymn: Sing to the Lord a joyful song ("Gonfalon Royal") (Listen)

Music at Communion:

- Responsory: Psalm 66, R./ Fill the jars with water, and bring them to the master of the feast (BMP)

- or anthem: Cantate Domino canticum novum (Vincent d'Indy)

Recessional hymn: Hail to the Lord's Anointed ("Ellacombe") (Listen)

- same tune as "The day of Resurrection" and "Go, make of all disciples"

Quod scripsi, scripsi!
BMP

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

The last day of the Christmas Season!  Then the next day we jump into the First Week of the Year (or "Ordinary Time").  Notice that the First Week of the Year begins on Monday, not on Sunday like the weeks that follow.  Next Sunday will be the Second Sunday, not the First Sunday, of the Year, as the liturgical week begins on Sunday.

This is also the last Sunday of "Mass of the Shepherds" till next Christmas season.  Next Sunday, we will revive "Mass for Christian Unity", which is in English, through the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

MUSIC FOR HOLY MASS

ORDINARY OF THE MASS:
Mass of the Shepherds (Pietro A. Yon) (Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei)
Mortem Tuam... (Memorial)
Dresden Amen

Alleluia "Divinum Mysterium" (BMP) (PDF)

- The Alleluia is adapted from the Mode V hymn tune "Divinum Mysterium", most often sung with the hymn "Of the Father's love begotten".

The rest:

Entrance hymn: On Jordan's bank ("Winchester New") (Listen)

Psalm 104: R./ O bless the Lord, my soul (Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB)

Offertory hymn: When John baptized by Jordan's River ("Rendez à Dieu") (Listen)

- NOTE: Same tune as another hymn we've sung before, "Father, we thank thee who hast planted".

Communion hymn: Let all mortal flesh keep silence ("Picardy") (Listen)

- NOTE: We've sung this hymn a number of times as well over the years.  The listen link given is a gorgeous choral arrangement by Gustav Holst.  Holst is also the composer of the hymntune "Thaxted", part of the "Jupiter" movement of his suite, "The Planets".  "Thaxted" is the tune of a patriotic hymn we often sing, "I vow to thee, my country".

Recessional hymn: Songs of thankfulness and praise ("Salzburg") (Listen)

- NOTE: Same tune as an Easter hymn we often sing, "At the Lamb's High Feast we sing".

Quod scripsi, scripsi!
BMP