Pastor's Letter-- september 13, 2020

Only a couple more weeks to include yourself as a potential candidate for parish pastoral council. If you want to offer some time once a month to truly helping me think through important decisions and give your feedback on the parish, this is the best way to do it.

You will notice once again some extra singing during Mass by a cantor, similar to what has been done at other times in my four years here (particularly during Advent and Lent last year). Now after the hymns at the beginning of Mass and at communion time we will also have the antiphon from the Missal sung. Each Mass has “proper" antiphons for the entrance, offertory, and communion. These antiphons, usually set to a Gregorian chant melody – whether simple or more complex – are the Church’s official way to set the focus of the Mass, or, you might say, to set our spirits at those moments. The texts of the antiphons always come directly from Scripture and are related to the other readings and prayers for the Mass that particular day. In addition, most of the musical settings (at least in Latin) go back centuries.

One of the things happening in Church music these days is that we are getting back to singing these “proper” antiphons, which are handed on to us by the Tradition of the Church, and were somehow lost in the shuffle during the implementation of the new form of the Roman Missal after the Second Vatican Council. The documents of Vatican II and afterwards never foresaw the disappearance of these antiphons, though they almost entirely fell out of use during the past decades.

The most important guidebook for everything that happens at Mass, both for the priest and the lay faithful, is the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. The Roman Missal is the large maroon book I use at my presider’s chair and at the altar. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) is a whole document placed at the beginning of that book, which outlines and details all the possible scenarios for doing Mass properly. This instruction, and the Roman Missal itself (containing all the prayers), is the reason we can go to Mass anywhere in the world and feel at home. Here is what it says about the entrance antiphon (and similarly for the other "propers”) in GIRM #47-48:

47. When the people are gathered, and as the Priest enters with the Deacon and ministers, the Entrance Chant begins. Its purpose is to open the celebration, foster the unity of those who have been gathered, introduce their thoughts to the mystery of the liturgical time or festivity, and accompany the procession of the Priest and ministers.

48. This chant is sung alternately by the choir and the people or similarly by a cantor and the people, or entirely by the people, or by the choir alone. In the Dioceses of the United States of America, there are four options for the Entrance Chant: (1) the antiphon from the Missal or the antiphon with its Psalm from the Graduale Romanum, as set to music there or in another setting; (2) the antiphon and Psalm of the Graduale Simplex for the liturgical time; (3) a chant from another collection of Psalms and antiphons, approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop, including Psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) another liturgical chant that is suited to the sacred action, the day, or the time of year, similarly approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop. If there is no singing at the Entrance, the antiphon given in the Missal is recited either by the faithful, or by some of them, or by a reader; otherwise, it is recited by the Priest himself, who may even adapt it as an introductory explanation (cf. no. 31).

From my pastoral perspective, these antiphons will be rich nourishment for our souls, especially when we hear them repeated over the years. We need not eliminate edifying hymns at appropriate places in the Mass, but to ignore the antiphons is to lose something spiritually quite rich. It is especially uplifting to think that the saints, including our patroness Thérèse, would have heard most of these antiphons herself when she attended Mass in her family’s parish and her convent in Lisieux. What a treasure to know that we are so deeply connected to our patroness through the gift of the Mass and the patrimony of the church, as well as our grandparents, the other saints, and kings and queens, rich and poor, all around the world. What a large home we find ourselves in!