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January 28, 2023I spend a fair bit of my time talking with engaged couples about their hopes and dreams for their life together. These wonderful couples range from folks who were widowed after forty-plus years of marriage and are now remarrying, all the way down to couples where one or both spouses were born after the turn of the new millennium. It’s quite the spectrum of experience, and the conversations are always illuminating. But one of the things that these couples universally have to do is negotiate on how they will blend their habits and expectations together in marriage. What type of toothpaste, chunky vs. smooth peanut butter, and which side of the bed each party claims all have to be settled. Life and death matters, these. Similarly, we are at the beginning of an ongoing conversation in ourfamily of parishes about how best to unify some of our practices and traditions to be more visibly one in Christ. And while none of you will ever convince me to switch back to smooth peanut butter, I’d like to use this column to introduce a liturgical music practice that we will be introducing across the board come Lent.
Our family of parishes has some experience across the board with the proper antiphons of the Mass. Our Lady of the Valley was using them at the first Masses I celebrated with you at the OLSH campus in March of last year. Our Lady of the Rosary used them for some time during the pandemic when we were using worship aides. St. James currently uses the Communion antiphon at Mass on Sunday before we transition into the Communion hymn. Additionally, we hear them recited at the beginning of Mass and before Communion when there is no music at daily Masses throughout our family of parishes. These antiphons are prayers that the Church has selected to go along with the prayers and theme of the day. Just as the priest doesn’t make up an opening prayer or a prayer after Communion, neither do we have to choose our own scripture verse to go along with the liturgical action on any given day. These antiphons are a gift from the Church, and they are given preference in the liturgical documents that structure our celebrations.
With that in mind, starting on the first Sunday of Lent, we are planning on introducing the use of the proper antiphons at the beginning of Mass, at the offertory, and before Communion at all the parishes in our family. It is only one step towards growing together as ‘one family,’ and I believe that this will be an important but not terribly disruptive step towards this goal. We will still be using hymns at Mass, but they will happen in conjunction with these beautiful prayers from the scriptures that the Church offers us to help lead us into prayer. There will be further explanation available, for those who are interested, in future communications and in explanations provided at Mass as well.
It is my hope that this practice improves our prayer together and gives us a sense of greater unity in liturgical practices, not only with the other parishes in our family, but with churches throughout the world and throughout the ages.
Prayers always,
Fr. McC
