{"id":88964,"date":"2017-10-30T10:45:35","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T17:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=88964"},"modified":"2017-10-28T13:59:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T20:59:34","slug":"chants-of-the-masses-of-all-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/chants-of-the-masses-of-all-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"Chants of the Masses of All Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"

C<\/span>an we talk about Gregorian chant? Because All Souls Day – coming up on November 2nd – has some doozies. I confess that I was a fan of chant long before I was a Catholic. In part, God used the beauty of this kind of music to draw me to Him.<\/p>\n

Specific chants are prescribed for each Mass in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite. Each day’s Mass has its own chants. Some of the texts are printed directly in the Roman Missal<\/em>, but most are collected in a liturgical book called the Graduale Romanum<\/a><\/em>. There are dozens of English versions of these available for the Ordinary Form if you don’t like the Latin.<\/p>\n

\"plainchant\"<\/a>Mind you, in the Ordinary Form, it’s perfectly legitimate to replace them with hymns or other songs, and this is often what you get. I recently had a discussion on Facebook with some folks who prefer the “five-hymn” sandwich approach to the Mass, using bouncy uptempo songs they say are more “joyful” than the antiphons. <\/p>\n

Of course, it was exactly these sorts of songs that helped convince me in my teenage years that the Catholic Church offered nothing of weight or substance. In my head, I continue to associate these kinds of songs with sloppy, irreverent liturgy, and sloppier catechesis. <\/p>\n

There are still songs I can\u2019t hear without immediately thinking of the guitar-strumming Deacon Dieter from my high school. For those of us in my school seeking a deeper spirituality, this was all just saccharine and fluff.<\/p>\n

The church asks us to sing these antiphons. They are printed directly in the Roman Missal<\/em>. In my head, skipping them or replacing them is just one step removed from replacing the responsorial Psalm\u2026 or the readings.<\/p>\n

Again, others have different opinions, and there are certainly legitimate reasons for having those opinions. However, at least in the case of the antiphons, the instructions are very clear. They are meant to be as much part of the readings of the Mass as the responsorial Psalm.<\/p>\n

Regardless of practice, it is clearly the preference to use the assigned chants.<\/p>\n

Usually, these take the form of an antiphon (or chorus, really) with verses from the psalms or sometimes elsewhere in scripture. <\/p>\n

They occur at the following places in the Mass:<\/p>\n