Organ at Benediction during Lent
  • Raphael
    Posts: 10
    I have a question about the use of the organ at Benediction. Is one allowed to play the organ during the Eucharistic blessing? If so, may one play the organ at Benediction during Lent? De Sacra Musica (1958), no. 81 seems to exempt Benediction from the usual restrictions on instrumental music.
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,204
    I wasn't aware that the organ played during the actual blessing with the monstrance or ostensorium. The only thing I've ever done is play three notes on the chimes of the organ when there weren't any altar boys to ring the sanctus bell. But actual music during the blessing? I wouldn't think so, even outside Lent.
  • Raphael
    Posts: 10
    While I don't think I'd play Wagner, this is what I had in mind.
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    This is more of a European custom to have the organ play "gravely and reverently" during the blessing itself. It is lawful. Fr. Fortescue speaks of it but is mute on whether or not it is done during Lent.
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    We have from the seventeenth century some beautiful pieces that would suit this purpose, elevations, by composers such as Frescobaaldi.

    Lent is a gray area, since until after the council, Benediction was not considered to be a liturgical service, strictly speaking; thus it would not have come under the restriction on playing independent organ music during Lent. I should think that such organ playing would be quite rare in present circumstances, although the permission to play the organ gravely and reverently is retained in the most recent edition of Fortescue (2009).
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