As is tradition in our parish, our final Corpus Christi Mass ended with a Solemn Procession that makes three stops before returning to the church. The last stop was the west end of our cemetery, a clearing overlooking the fair city of Boulder, CO, where I lead a chant of the Divine Praises before ending the procession. This year, in my script-following fervor, I inadvertently started the Divine Praises before our Celebrant could present the Blessed Sacrament, and he quickly cut me off before I could go any further, although I think he was a little louder than he wanted to be.
Yesterday I ascended to the ambo after the Epistle and got ready to sing the Sequence . . . meanwhile my organist starts to play the Alleluia. So I wave him off, and he yells out, "What?" Me: "Sequence." Him: "WHAT?" Me: SEQUENCE!
Titters ensued, but I sang it anyway. Well . . . the short version. But at least it was in Latin.
Reminds me of the (apocryphal?) story of the late Theodore Marier, who, while in the choir loft at Solemn Mass on the First Sunday in Advent, had just finished conducting the Kyrie when he heard the priest at the altar intone the Gloria. When the choir failed to respond, the priest repeated his intonatio: "Gloria in excelsis Deo." Finally Marier's voice echoed back from the choir loft (in the ferial tone): "In tempore Adventus 'Gloria' non di- / ci-tur!"
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