There are two Sundays of the Liturgical year that allow for rose-colored vestments. The two Sundays are parallel to one another in that they occur during the midpoints of the seasons of Advent and Lent, the two penitential periods of the year. The third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday, while the fourth Sunday of Lent is termed Laetare Sunday. There are many who know the terms, but few who can explain from where the days derive their names. The answer is to be found in the Gregorian Propers.
In both cases the name comes from the first word of the Introit. The Introit is the entrance chant proscribed by the Church and consequently should be the very first thing that hits the ears of the congregation. It is a sad tragedy that the Introit has been almost universally replaced by an entrance hymn, the very last option allowed for the in General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Virtually nobody knows that the Church’s official music book, the Graduale Romanum, contains specific chants for every Sunday during the liturgical year. The Church has always given pride of place to these chants, yet it is a very rare parish indeed that opts to employ them. In ignoring the Gregorian Propers, the parish is not only turning its back on the liturgical tradition of the Church, but it is also suppressing the intricate connections that the liturgy itself shares with this musical tradition.
We find the case in point in Gaudete and Laetare Sunday. Both words mean “Rejoice” in Latin, and indeed both Sundays call us to pause in the middle of our penance to rejoice in the conquering of sin by the Paschal Mystery. But minus the Introit, which pierces the silence of the Church with the very word "Gaudete!" or "Laetare!", the faithful have little sense of where the titles finds their origin.
This is simply one of a plethora of examples of why we must rescue the Gregorian Propers from the musical iconoclasm that plagued the latter part of the last century. The Church has not tired in its insistence that these Propers should hold pride of place in the Liturgy, something reiterated by the Second Vatican Council. The only question is: when are the local parishes going to start listening to Holy Mother Church?
Because few were privileged enough to hear the Introit this morning, I present it here as my Laetare Sunday gift to you. I have given the musical notation, a live performance within the context of a Mass, and a recorded performance.
“Laetare Ierusalemn: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam!”
“Rejoice Jerusalem: and gather round, all you who love her.”
In England, the 4th Sunday of Lent is referred to as Mothering Sunday, usually secularized as Mother's Day (I understand that in the USA and continental Europe this falls during May). This is because the Introit refers to Jerusalem as a mother: "... ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae." In the Middle Ages it was customary on this Sunday to attend if practicable the mother church of the diocese, i.e. the cathedral.
ReplyDeleteI run a small schola in my parish, and we are on a learning curve. I took the GR Introit and simplified it, keeping the mode and the melodic shape and we sang it in Latin with the verse and the Gloria Patri to accompany the entrance procession - no-one could be in any doubt that this was Laetare Sunday! The Communio "Lutum fecit" is one that the 1974 GR took from the Office and is quite easy to sing so we did that with almost all of the verses. I introduced Mass XVII at the start of Lent and the congregation have picked it up quite well. The PP has recently started celebrating ad orientem so no-one can accuse us of not keeping up with the times. Forward into the first millennium!