Marian pieces during Holy Mass
  • jdambuul
    Posts: 17
    I am not an expert in Liturgy. For the month of May , we would like to sing a hymn to our Lady. I gathered from another discussion that it is best to not sing Marian pieces during Holy Mass.... but to sing a Marian hymn/piece for recessional is OK. What is the reasoning behind this and is there a church document that addresses this issue?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Well, I'm not sure where this idea comes from that you can sing a Marian hymn during Mass. Why not after communion? Ave Maria, Alma Redemptoris, etc.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,819
    jdambuul:

    Here's a good piece on this.

    http://www.canticanova.com/articles/feedback/arte31.htm

    (Also, remember, when you honor Our Mother, you honor Her Son.)
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I fought a battle over a Marian hymn at offertory on Sunday. Keep in mind that ANY hymn is REPLACING the proper antiphon that the CHURCH HERSELF demands we use! So it's no light matter! I judged it theologically inappropriate to replace "Ascendit Deus" or whatever the proper offertory was with a Marian hymn, even though Sunday was the parish May Crowning. As for the closing hymn, it's a matter of what you think you need to do. For Pentecost, I definitely won't, because there's just too many good pentecost hymns to sing! For Trinity, I may use a Marian hymn after Mass because there just aren't a lot of great Trinity hymns my congregation sings.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,819
    Yes, Gavin, I know what you mean. Often people will want to 'throw' a Marian hymn into 'every slot' just because it is the month of May. I always encourage them to come to Saturday Mass, as the church has set aside those days almost exclusively for her.

    "On any Saturday during Ordinary Time (when no other obligatory celebration occurs), a Mass of the Blessed Virgin may be celebrated. Marian hymns should definitely be sung at all these liturgies, anywhere during the liturgy, but especially as the Opening Hymn"
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    I once had an experience with a priest from the "spirit of Vat 2" mold that absolute forbade the use of Marian hymns, saying that the Mass is about Jesus, not Mary. I asked him if he was a Lutheran earlier in life. He was not amused. In any case, we did an entire Immaculate Conception Mass w/o a Marian hymn. How sad..
  • jdambuul
    Posts: 17
    I see that there is some healthy disagreement about this issue. There is another discussion in this forum about Marian antiphons at/in Mass and that is where I gathered that we shouldn't sing a Marian hymn except for a recessional.

    We sing the Offertory antiphon after we sing some selected hymn. So why not sing a Marian hymn before the offertory antiphon? Is after communion a better time for a Marian hymn?

    I found the article referenced above to be helpful. Thank you
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    From what I can tell, the Marian hymn as recessional is a vestige of singing the Proper Marian antiphon (or always Salve Regina) at the end of low Mass. If the feast day is Marian, the Mass Propers (of OF and EF) provide plenty of Marian material, so I can't see where it would be inappropriate to sing a Marian hymn in the place of Assumpta est Maria. It may be the lesser option, but not inappropriate.
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