Using Ave Maris Stella as a Magnificat Antiphon?
  • veromaryveromary
    Posts: 162
    I'm embarking on a Louis de Montfort 33 day Marian Consecration. The first 12 days ask for the recitation of Veni Creator, Ave Maris Stella and the Magnificat. I'd like to sing them, but I had a crazy idea to interleave the Ave Maris Stella as an Antiphon with the Magnificat.

    Ave maris stella, dei mater alma, atque semper Virgo, felix caeli porta.
    Magnificat anima mea Dominum, et exsultavit spiritus meus, in Deo salutari meo.
    Sumens illud ave, ...

    Then I started to wonder if this was a good idea.

    I can just use another antiphon with the Magnificat - like the "Quae est ista" for the Legion of Mary daily Magnificat, which I'm also supposed to be praying - do I pray that twice then? or can once do double duty?

    Is there any historical precedent for this hymn/canticle mish-mash? Or better to keep them separate, as the antiphon should be smaller than the canticle, otherwise the mind is switching between two big things.

    I tried googling the answer, but it's a hard question to hit via google.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Veromary,

    I'm not sure about the specific answer to your question, but there is a sort of precedent in various psalms. Take the history of God liberating Israel from Egypt, interspersed with "quoniam in aeternum misericordia ejus." I say this might be a kind of precedent because the uninterspersed text is elsewhere in the Office.
    Thanked by 1veromary
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    Usually Hymns are sung complete with no interruption to the text (unless you count the French Organ alternating an interruption) In Vespers the Magnificat has an Antiphon at the beginning and the end. But we sometime sing it at Communion in Masses of Our Lady, interleaving it with the Beata Viscera, as you would with a psalm: COM, Verse 1, COM, Verse 2 etc. see attached.

    Of course there is this, Eastertide Prose made up of 2 Sequences (Laudes Salvatori, Victimae Paschali Laudes) and 1 Antiphon (Regina Caeli). http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Laudes_Salvatori_(Heinrich_Isaac)
    Beata + Mag 1D.pdf
    155K
    Thanked by 2veromary CHGiffen
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    As an aside, GS authorised the use of the Magnificat to substitute for the GR Communion. And did so before the new Missal.
    Thanked by 2veromary CHGiffen
  • Chrism
    Posts: 872
    do I pray that twice then? or can once do double duty?


    Not sure if you're asking if a Legion of Mary member who wants to do the Montfortian consecration can combine the Magnificat from his daily Catena with the Magnificat of the consecration program and just say one Magnificat per day?

    Despite the fact that the Legion is based on Montfort's spirituality, it would still be a doubling of intention on the same prayer, because the Catena is promised to be offered for the Legion and the consecration prayers are prescribed in order to be offered for the person being consecrated. So it would be like a priest agreeing to say Mass for one person and then agreeing later to say the same Mass for another person. (The Legion regards some of its prayers as double-able, but not the Catena, see for example pp. 96-97 of the Legion Handbook, which implies that someone bound to the Office, and who as part of which would normally say a Magnificat every evening, would nonetheless be expected to add a Catena to their daily prayers, viz. "Consideration will show how little this membership would add on to their existing obligations — no more, indeed, than the Catena, the Legion prayer, and some invocations: a matter of some minutes only.")

    With that said, the prescribed Consecration prayers and readings are strenuous, especially in this modern age, and the first 12 days are *not* the hardest part (at least, if you are using the original method; some more recent books shorten things up a bit). A priest once mentioned that the important thing is to finish the Consecration, even if some of the recommended prayers along the way get unsaid. The devil hates the consecration and tries to dissuade people from undertaking it. Hope this helps!
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen veromary
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