Installation Mass of a Pastor?
  • lmassery
    Posts: 424
    Any recommendations for what to program for an installation Mass for our new pastor next month? Are there any propers? If not, suggestions are welcome. Thanks
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,115
    The installation of a pastor is really a canonical act that happens to occur within a liturgical context, rather than a liturgical act. The main thing is the reading of the instrument of appointment and profession of faith by the pastor.

    But the liturgy is not *about* that or about the pastor; there's a temptation to make this echo the ordination of a bishop, which it is most definitely is not - there is no sacramental conferral.

    There is an order for the installation in an appendix to the Book of Blessings (interestingly, it's NOT in the Book of Rites - it's not only not a sacrament, it's not even a sacramental, nor does it even rank with something like the institution of an acolyte or reader, or the blessing of an abbot, et cet.).
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    So, counselor, what you're saying is "What are the propers and readings for the day and date in question?"
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,115
    Charles

    I believe that's so, but I am not 100% sure. I believe the propers of the day can't be displaced (in my experience, they are not displaced), but since I don't have a copy of the Book of Blessings at my disposal, I am not sure if there is any hint of an indication to the contrary. (I mean, if a nuptial Mass on a Sunday must use the propers of the Sunday, why on earth would a non-sacramental like this thing get greater precedence?) The only thing that might alter that would be if the installation were done in the context of a votive Mass, but then you're stuck with the propers for the votive, right?

    Please, no Ecce Sacerdo Magnus for the pastor....
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Or "Hail, Holy Queen?"
    Not even a smidgeon of "Zadok the Priest?"
    How 'bout the opening of "Also sprach Zarathustra?"
    None of these.....?
    Maybe Kathy can pen something along the lines of "Chant our new priest into being..."?
    The horror, the hor-ror...

    I'll be here all week. Bada boom.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,115
    Charles

    I'm thinking more the last movement of Mahler's Second Symphony. Maybe with the finale to Bruckner's Eighth for a postlude.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,198
    The finale to Bruckner's Fifth is a much better choice - double four-part fugue (two four-part fugues at once), one of the subjects being very chorale-like, the other angular and full of energy - the master's contrapuntal masterpiece!
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,115
    Ah, but in the finale to the Eighth, you can hear the hooves and almost smell the snorts of the Horses of the Apocalypse about to come to legacy staff at the parish....
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    "Dixit Dominus" from Solemn Vespers of a Confessor by Mozart makes a very effective Offertory especially with its "Tu es sacerdos in aeternum" (Thou art a priest forever) text.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,198
    True, Liam ... especially at the beginning ... and towards the end, in the coda, Anton brings back the Wagnerian-inspired theme of the first movement (together with the principal themes of the middle movements): da-daahhhhhh-da-daaah-da-dahhh-d-d-dahhhhh. "Wer meines Speeres Spitze fürchtet durchschreitet das Feuer nie!"
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,092
    For the installation of a pastor? contrafacta of football songs. ...he's going to get kicked around quite a bit. Pastoral sensitivity will take into account local fans and longstanding rivalries.
  • The Thurifer
    Posts: 12
    I'd recommend something from Die Walküre ... particularly if any unveiled wonders (i.e. disobedient religious) are soon to be dismissed from the RE staff.
Add a Comment