I was putting together the book for Vespers tomorrow which is First Vespers for the Solemnity of the Annunciation. I am using Universalis with the grail Psalms. I got all the way down to the Short Responsory and they have alleluias strewn throughout. What is the deal? Do we sing Alleluias during a solemnity in Lent? Or is this a mistake!
> Do we sing Alleluias during a solemnity in Lent?
Alleluia is never, under any circumstance, sung in the Liturgy during Lent. If it should turn up in any celebration (e.g. in a memory of a saint), it is ommitted. (Liturgical books usually make that explicit in all cases that may show up in practice.)
> As for the antiphons, they have Alleluias only when the Solemnity of the Annuntiation occurs during Easter Season.
Which, by the way, only happens when Easter falls very early, and the Annunciation must be transferred to the Monday after the Sunday in the Octave of Easter!
The booklet our Parish uses for The Stations of the Cross has several Alleluias in the closing prayer about the resurrection. I always thought it would be best to omit that during Lent, but we use it nonetheless. It's a devotion, not liturgy, so I suppose it's acceptable, but it seems very odd and out of place to me.
That is a Western tradition and not an Eastern one... so if you see Alleluias in things from Eastern sources, it is perfectly acceptable. I don't think that's what happened here, but I thought I would say so just in case.
matthewj: Remember that Stations of the Cross were not invented just for use during Lent. As a child in parochial school we used them often as a group devotional. But then we had only 14 of them, without the modern addition of a 15th Station at the Sanctuary reflecting on the Resurrection and including the Apostle's Creed. When we do the Stations on Good Friday, that 15th Station is completely ignored.
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.