Christus vincit on Palm Sunday
  • rarty
    Posts: 96
    The 1962 and later missals say that additional songs in honor of Christ the King may be sung during the procession with palms.

    In the 1962 Missal it even specifically mentions the possibility of singing the "hymnus Christus vincit". There are popular settings of the refrain with psalm 116, and those likely work fine, but surely this is a reference to the ancient "Laudes regiae" chant (Parish Book of Chant p. 179).

    Has anyone here used this Christus vincit/Laudes regiae on Palm Sunday? I was looking at it for this year, but some of the wording of the petitions seem oddly incongruous for the occasion. (Mainly those for "tempora bona" and "feliciter").
  • Incardination
    Posts: 832
    Yes. I use the Christus Vincit acclamations frequently for Palm Sunday as well as for Christ the King.

    For the Palm Sunday Procession, I think the key is seeing the juxtaposition within the Liturgy itself of the celebratory aspect of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the one hand (the distribution and procession of palms) contrasted to the focus on the Passion on the other (the following Mass, particularly the Passion, but most of the Propers as well).

    I don't see it as at all incongruous to have a joyful aspect during the procession. The point is the fickle nature of man -- that He receives the opprobrium and scorn of the same people who less than a week earlier were exclaiming "Hosanna!", something that repeats itself over and over for all of us in our own lives to a greater or lesser extent.
    Thanked by 3Carol CHGiffen StimsonInRehab
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    The use of "Christus Vincit" acts something like an aural ikon in this liturgical context. It points to the reality of Christ's kingship, a supernatural reality hidden from natural view as it is not the merely earthly kingship that he was being hailed by the crowds to take up. This King has the Cross as his throne.

    Thanked by 3Carol Incardination CHGiffen
  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    Now these comments are what I was referring to when I wrote recently that I am sometimes spiritually aided and educated by the comments of those in this forum! Thank you gentlemen!
    Thanked by 1Incardination
  • liampmcdonough
    Posts: 297
    I agree that the cry of "feliciter" would carry great symbolical weight on Passion Sunday. It is the ancient Roman cry at the completion of a wedding ceremony. Thus, in the Laudes Regiae, we shout "feliciter" because God has "wedded" and redeemed His Bride the Church. There would be added significance to shout this during the procession of the palms, as Christ arrives at Jerusalem, since this event foreshadows Christ's meeting of His Bride, the New Jerusalem, in Revelation
    Thanked by 1Liam
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    And it may help to remember that the liturgies of Holy Week and the Triduum are not *historical re-enactments*. They are thresholds into mystical reality.
    Thanked by 3PaxMelodious JL CHGiffen
  • rarty
    Posts: 96
    Thanks for the responses, which seem generally right to me...but the chant still sticks out to me from the ~13 chants found in the Gradual (1908/1961/1974), which all straightforwardly reference palms, or the Gospel account of entering Jerusalem, or at least the Gospel cries of "Hosanna" or "Benedictus qui venit..."

    To me, it seems like a fine tone and excellent content for Easter Sunday rather than Palm Sunday. Really, such enormous days can contain many shades of meaning and emotion, so I don't mean to dissuade, I was more curious how much it has caught on in actual use, especially since it was never added to the Gradual and the specific reference isn't in the modern Missal.

    In case it is of interest, I also found tucked away in Laudes Festivae, on this site, another (modern?) version.
    Christus vincit.pdf
    74K
  • ClemensRomanusClemensRomanus
    Posts: 1,023
    We’ve used it, though the last few years the procession route has been shortened and we’ve not managed to get to it.
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