Marian Procession After an EF Mass?
  • EvaS
    Posts: 19
    At the parish where I work, we normally have a Marian procession after the principal OF Mass on Rosary Sunday. October 7 is the parish feast day. It falls on a Sunday this year but won't happen again for another 11 years. To celebrate this special day, my pastor and I are thinking of scheduling our once-a-month EF Mass on that Sunday. My questions are:

    1) Is it permissible to replace the dismissal and the Last Gospel with the "Benedicamus Domino", then go into the Marian procession, similar to what one might do on Corpus Christi?

    2) Is it permissible to sing mostly hymns in English during the procession?

    3) What is the best way to conclude the procession?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    The Marian Procession is not liturgical so you would not have the changes at the end of Mass. We usually have a shared lunch after our Sunday Mass and then have a Marian Procession followed by Benediction.

    If you are going to have the procession straight after Mass the celebrant should change into choir dress or put on a cope. If you have a statue you could crown the statue, and if you have a bier you could carry the statue in procession. You can sing hymns in any language you like as it is not liturgical (EF definition), you could sing the Litany of Loretto.

    Conclusion Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament... but you should remove the bier from the sanctuary.

    Here is the large annual procession we have in London http://rosarycrusadeofreparation.blogspot.com
    photo can be found linked from the blog posts...

    Also photos of our Parish May procession here, warning faceache link... you should be able to click through the 5 photographs.
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1206949549414567&set=pb.100002985990125.-2207520000.1532025211.&type=3&theater
    Thanked by 2madorganist EvaS
  • EvaS
    Posts: 19
    Thank you for your response.

    If the Mass was in OF, would it be wrong to go into the Marian procession right after the post-communion prayer, skipping the blessing and dismissal?
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Eva,

    Don't skip the blessing and dismissal, but skip the announcements! I don't know if it violates the rubrics, given how flexible they are, but I tend to think we should finish one liturgical action before beginning another. A case can probably be made for the procession to take place after the Post Communion prayer but before the blessing and dismissal -- which would then take place at the end of the procession.

    Thanked by 1EvaS
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,372
    In OF if part of the Daily Office is joined to Mass, it follows immediately after the post-communion, and the blessing and dismissal comes after the (abbreviated) Office. I agree with CGZ that that would be the natural arrangement for joining a procession to Mass.
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