A record of random relevant reflections by Paul Rex;
routinely those that relate to the real renewal of the Catholic Church.
- From the axiom: "Lex Orandi Lex Credendi", or "The Rule of Prayer is the Rule of Belief"
No, carols of any season are not particularly appropriate to the liturgy. However, if Matins is not celebrated before Christmas Mass at Midnight, and folks show up a half-hour early to get a seat, that is a great time to use to sing carols, perhaps in alternation with chants or other pieces the choir has prepared for use at another time in the season. In fact, this can be a time of transition: the O antiphons or their hymnized version "Veni, veni Emmanuel" before Christmas Eve Mass and macaronic carols and "Adeste fideles" to introduce a Christmas Mass that uses Latin phrases.
Now there are carols, and then there are hymns, and then there are psalms. Joy to the World, as a psalm paraphrase, is liturgically preferable to "O little town of Bethlehem" -- while at the same time the five verses of this prayer for peace would have been especially poignant this year:
3.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long:
Beneath the Angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the Angels sing!
5.
For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendours fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the Angels sing.
- E.H. Sears
The Christmas hymns of the modern liturgy are: "Christe, Redemptor omnium," "Candor aeternae Deitatis alme," and "A solis ortus cardine." The traditional sequence is "Laetabundus." And of course they have all been translated into English.
No, carols of any season are not particularly appropriate to the liturgy. However, if Matins is not celebrated before Christmas Mass at Midnight, and folks show up a half-hour early to get a seat, that is a great time to use to sing carols, perhaps in alternation with chants or other pieces the choir has prepared for use at another time in the season. In fact, this can be a time of transition: the O antiphons or their hymnized version "Veni, veni Emmanuel" before Christmas Eve Mass and macaronic carols and "Adeste fideles" to introduce a Christmas Mass that uses Latin phrases.
Now there are carols, and then there are hymns, and then there are psalms. Joy to the World, as a psalm paraphrase, is liturgically preferable to "O little town of Bethlehem" -- while at the same time the five verses of this prayer for peace would have been especially poignant this year:
3.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long:
Beneath the Angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the Angels sing!
5.
For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendours fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the Angels sing.
- E.H. Sears
The Christmas hymns of the modern liturgy are: "Christe, Redemptor omnium," "Candor aeternae Deitatis alme," and "A solis ortus cardine." The traditional sequence is "Laetabundus." And of course they have all been translated into English.
Apologies, corrigendum:
Sears' song is, of course, "It came upon the midnight clear."