A Troped Kyrie?
  • rogue63
    Posts: 410
    Just moved to a new house about a month ago. Normally attend the EF in another county, but we've been to the local OF parish a few times-----5th Sun. of Lent, Holy Thursday, and today. They have, so far, always sung a troped Kyrie. Is this licit? Adding text to the Kyrie-----I don't remember exactly, but something along the lines of "Lord Jesus Christ, Fount of Mercy: Lord have mercy/Lord have mercy. Lord Jesus Christ, Redeemer of all Nations: Christ have mercy/Christ have mercy" etc.

    I'm aware that permission exists in some cases for troping the Agnus Dei, but I'm not aware of such permission for the Kyrie. Anybody that can shed some light here, in terms of documentation about liceity for troping the Kyrie? If I get the chance to strike up a conversation, I'd want to be on firm footing.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    In the text of the Mass, there is one of the options (is it #2?) for the Penitential Rite that appears to encourage this. also the Sarum rite has this sort of thing. It's not part of the Roman Rite as we know it, but it is not liturgically unprecedented. In short, it is not licit but I can't imagine getting very far with that argument if the goal is to stop it.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    If the third form of the Penitential Rite is used (i.e., not the Confiteor or that responsory that nobody ever uses), then tropes are supposed to be inserted. I'm not sure how the rubric is worded in the present Sacramentary, but in the new translation it says, "The Priest, or a Deacon or another minister, then says the following or other invocations with Kyrie, eleison (Lord, have mercy): You were sent to heal the contrite of heart: Lord, have mercy . . . You came to call sinners: Christ, have mercy . . . You are seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us: Lord, have mercy . . . ."

    So this it is licit, and the tropes do not have to be the specific ones given in the missal. Again, this is for form 3 of the Penitential Rite only, which contains a Kyrie within it. It would be incorrect, for example, to say the Confiteor (form 1) and then trope the subsequent Kyrie.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,115
    Yes, it's licit for option C, unlike the Agnus Dei. GIRM 52 permits the use of tropes. They've been in Hymns, Psalms and Spiritual Canticles for decades. The USCCB's guidelines for the printing of liturgical texts also notes: "All three forms of the Act of Penitence must be printed (A, B and C). For Rite C, the three responses (Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy) may be printed without the variable tropes since the Roman Missal provides so many examples."
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