External Solemnities between Two Churches
  • FSSPmusic
    Posts: 217
    In a single parish with five Sunday Masses at two different churches, all according to the 1962 Roman Missal, what is the best practice for observing external solemnities? How many Masses of the solemnity should be offered, and how many of the Sunday? We have three such Sundays in a row in the United States: Corpus Christi June 19, Sacred Heart June 26, and Ss. Peter & Paul July 3. This is new territory for us this year with the acquisition of a second church and help would be appreciated!
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  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    An external Solemnity would be only 2 low Masses or one Sung Mass and one low Mass. The other Masses being of the Sunday (General Rubrics of the Missal 356-361).

    The practice at Westminster Cathedral was the conventual Mass could be of the Sunday or the external Solemnity. So you could have the Asperges at the external Solemnity, although the rubrics suggest otherwise.

    I would be tempted to have say 1 Ext. Sol. at each church with the other Masses being of the Sunday. Perhaps have the Ext. Sol. sung at one church and low at the other.
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  • FSSPmusic
    Posts: 217
    Thank you! I consulted one of our former priests, who is considered a liturgical expert, and he said that we may have two external solemnity Masses per church, but the Corpus Christi Mass must be followed by the procession. He also directed me to a paragraph in the FSSP Ordo, citing S.R.C. decrees that if the principal Mass is usually a sung Mass, it must be of the external solemnity rather than the Sunday.
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  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    The Rubrics for Corpus Christi (found in the Missal after the Feast), suggest that two Votive Masses of the Solemnity can take part during the week following the Feast, these must have the procession so would need to be sung. I have been reading the excerpts from the LMS ordo...
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  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,159
    Must Corpus Christi processional music always be liturgical music, and so be Latin hymns?

    Not unrelated: how can very small schola (two, or three if we're lucky) make a dignified procession with chant? Ideas and experiences welcome.

    (I find religious processions here in English Canada rather lack lustre musically, because there is so little culture of common singing, especially outdoors.)

    (Perhaps this is a new thread.)
  • FSSPmusic
    Posts: 217
    15. In sacred processions conducted according to the liturgical books, only the language prescribed or permitted by these books should be used. In other processions, held as private devotions, the language more suited to the faithful may be used. (De musica sacra et sacra liturgia)
    21. In processions outside the church the Ordinary may give permission for a band, provided no profane pieces be executed. (Tra le sollecitudini)
    Although only Latin may be used for the Corpus Christi procession, there is no stipulation that only Gregorian chant may be sung. Your congregation probably at least knows a "metrical" Tantum ergo, O salutaris, and perhaps Panis angelicus in which they could participate. I share your concerns about outdoor processions with a small schola. And here in Phoenix, it is already miserably hot even with the procession scheduled following the first Mass of the day!
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  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    @Andrew The Corpus Christi procession is Liturgical, so musical choices are somewhat limited. The way round this is to have a Blessed Sacrament procession, where you can sing English songs etc.

    Here in England our Parish has a EF Corpus Christi procession and a Blessed Sacrament procession.
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  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,159
    @tomjaw , it it takes place on Corpus Christi , Mass having been celebrated , what makes a procession be non-liturgical ?
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,960
    We had a bagpipe last year. It's not really our culture, being that it's an Irish-American attempt at being generically Celtic, in a parish that wound up being mostly German in the end, before white flight took its toll. But it was very cool, and I'd be down with an Italian brass band if I were in Italy, like the ICRSP had for the Immacolata procession in Rome a few years ago.

    The rubrics of external solemnities are messy, because they were totally rewritten in 1960.

    I would add one thing, however: the procession on Thursday is done at the mother church, then rotated between parishes during the octave, or otherwise, they each have their own. So even though the octave was abolished, there's no reason not to have special eucharistic devotions on other days, if possible, albeit with less solemnity; the procession of the octave day does not feature the special vesture of the clergy, doesn't travel as far, and may or may not have stations. That might solve the problem.

    tomjaw: there should have been a second Mass in the case of a cathedral; the parishes could do as they saw fit. We're correctly following the rubrics, sort of, by doing our best; Mass is on Thursday, and Sunday will be that of Sunday within the octave, followed by the procession, since it can follow Mass or Vespers during the octave.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    @Andrew Well if you have the Mass you are supposed to have the procession that follows seamlessly afterwards... So say you processed around the church once, and then had benediction etc. If you happened to have another procession starting say 30min later it would be a non Liturgical procession. Our N.O. Blessed Sacrament procession usually takes place a week or two after Corpus Christi. This takes place in the afternoon long after the last Mass has finished, so is non Liturgical and we can sing English songs / hymns.

    @MatthewRoth I am told that Westminster Cathedral would have up to 3 Sung Masses on days when they had multiple Feasts to celebrate.
    A few years ago we started having a short procession around the church after the Mass on Corpus Christi, We have also had a longer procession on the Saturday... On Sunday we have Mass within the Octave (we cannot have a procession as a low Mass takes place after our sung Mass). The main Deanery procession that we hold is a Blessed Sacrament procession so is non-Liturgical, and usually occurs outside the octave.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,960
    Rubrically, there were supposed to be two Masses, that of the solemnity after None, as far as I know without the sprinkling, and without commemorating the Sunday celebrated at the earlier Mass following Terce.

    The same would be true of penitential ferial days, just with the necessary rubrical changes, and there’d be no sprinkling at Terce unless the bishop celebrated, in which case he receives holy water. (Also, even more rarely would be the replacement of the Mass of the day with something else entirely; a Requiem Mass is a good example.)
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