Mother's Day vs. Pentecost support group
  • john m
    Posts: 136
    Okay, here is our chance to vent frustration upon being accosted after Mass this coming weekend by enraged parishioners and/or beleaguered pastors for not singing Marian hymns on the Solemnity of Mother's Day...ermm... I mean the Solemnity of Pentecost.

    ..and a chance to prepare for similar dressing-downs when we get to the Solemnity of Independence Day and the Solemnity of Memorial Day...
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    What's wrong with sticking in a Regina Caeli (maybe once through in Latin and once in English, maybe even accompanied) after communion or after the dismissal? It's still the Easter season, after all. This won't satisfy people who want "On This Day O Beautiful Mother" or some other sentimental hymn, but for them perhaps you could offer to play for a weekday Mass in May in honor of the Blessed Mother?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,610
    We are ending one Mass with Hail, Holy Queen...having a half hour between Masses of Ave Maria's...Schubert, Bach-Gounod, Caccini, Chant..with a May Crowning in the middle, and the next Mass begins with Hail, Holy Queen and we are back into Pentecost again...

    noel at sjnmusic.com
  • john m
    Posts: 136
    incantu

    We are singing exactly that at the end of Vespers. And it happens that the schola for vespers this Sunday consists of all women and mothers setting aside their time from that afternoon, God bless them.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,974
    The pastor will note Mother's Day in his sermon, but we are doing no Marian hymns this year. He states that Pentecost takes precedence over everything else.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I wouldn't mind a Marian hymn after Mass on Pentecost, but I've got too many good hymns to use up a "slot" for a regional custom. I'll take "Come Down, O Love Divine" over ANY Marian hymn any day.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Oh, and I could REALLY live without clapping on Pentecost. My boss is so great in so many ways, but one thing he hasn't moved the congregation past yet is the clapping at Mass.

    "Gee, mom, you raised me, spent hundreds of thousands on my upbringing and education... To thank you, I'll halfheartedly slap my hands together for eight seconds!" "Thanks, Gavin, this is the best mother's day ever!"
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,022
    We sing "Salve Regina" as part of the Prayers after Mass at all Sunday Masses during both May and October. Of course, it's very rare to hear these prayers after the modern Mass - but we do them.

    Our First Communion Class always has its day on Mothers' Day. And the children are invited back to the church after the 11:30 Mass for the May Crowning, which includes an outdoor procession to a raised platform with an altar for the statue of BVM. The first Communicants all have flowers to lay at the altar, and one girl gets to actually crown the statue. Then we have Benediction (with a short adoration), and then it's all over.

    So we observe Mothers' Day in quite a special way - no matter what the Sunday celebration is.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Steve, yes that's great. I've never liked the May crowning done during Mass. It's a beautiful tradition, but it should be done separately.
  • Jscola30
    Posts: 116
    I played at a separate May Crowning outside of Mass for my organ teacher, it was wonderful, it was also combined with short Eucharistic adoration and benediction, as well as a reading and homily, and the music was mostly good (I also stumbled through the Priere a Notre Dame as a prelude).
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    I didn't worry about the conflict, and none arose. We did all our best Pentecost hymns, English and Latin, and no one complained. The priest had the assembly pray over all the mothers - no clapping required.
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