From a priest…
QUAERITUR:
Our Canadian Ordo says we may use the sequence Victimae paschale laudes on this coming Second Sunday of Easter, which sequence I dearly love.
Such was not the case in the Missal of St Pius V, including St John XXIII’s 1962 version.
Such was not the case?, in Blessed Paul VI’s missal.
Was there a change in the 2002 Missale romanum? Can you or one of your readers see what the Roman Ordo says?
I would be grateful if you would be so kind as to help me, and I thank you for your wonderful apostolic blog. May God reward you, especially for helping souls to get to confession.
I don’t happen to have a copy of the Roman Ordo for the Novus Ordo.
Can anyone help?
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In the 1962 Missal, the Easter Octave ended at the end of the office of None on Easter Saturday, while in the Novo Ordo Missal, it ends on the end of second vespers of the Second Sunday of Easter. The Sequence is only used during the Octave.
Strike my previous comments. I misread that the author was referring to the Second Sunday of Easter.
My Daily Roman Missal (Scepter 1994 Edition) indicates that the Sequence May be used on the Second Sunday.
For what it’s worth, I don’t see any mention of this in the Ordo for the United States published by Paulist Press.
Whups, looked at the wrong Sunday, it is mentioned as optional for Second Sunday of Easter.
Don’t have the Roman Order, but the Paulist Press Ordo for 2015 in the U.S. says on page 93 that the Victimæ paschali “is optional on the other days of the octave” and has Seq in italics (which indicates and option) on the SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER on page 99. The Ordo from my religious order, which is prepared from the Roman Ordo first, says “sequentia ad libitum”… I have a confrere stationed in Rome right now… If this inquiry doesn’t get answered by someone shortly, I will ask him to look…
Ordo missae celebrandae et divini officii persolvendi secundum Calendarium Romanum Generale (2014-2015, LEV) clearly states for the 12th of April 2015:
Doninica II Paschae seu De Divina Misericordia. De ea.
Missa dominicae, Gloria, *sequentia ad libitum*, Credo, praefatio paschalis I. […]
I suspect the information allowing the Sequence is incorrect.
The word “sequence” seems to only appear once in the English language Roman Missal, GIRM 64.
“64. The Sequence which, except on Easter Sunday and on Pentecost Day, is optional, is sung before the Alleluia.”
The bishops of England and Wales in their online Ordo note the sequence on each day through Saturday of the Octave, but not on the Sunday. However, the 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy) is also most certainly without any doubt at all the Octave Day of Easter Sunday, firmly within the octave of the revised calendar, so if the sequence may be sung on any day of the octave then it would follow it could be sung on the Sunday. “The first eight days of the Easter Season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as Solemnities of the Lord. (General Norms for Liturgical Year and Calendar, 24)”
The question then becomes, where are the instructions pertaining to the sequences? Are those found in the Lectionary (which apparently contains the approved text of the sequences), or in some other book? The annual editions of the ordo seem to contain enough… irregularities… at times to make a more definitive (and less transient) source preferable it would seem.
As far as I know the Sequence is not sung on Low Sunday in the EF but may be sung on Low Sunday in the OF. Singing it before the Alleluia makes no sense historically; it’s just that in the Novus Ordo lectionary the Alleluia and its Lenten equivalent are seen as ‘Gospel acclamations’. If, however, the Graduale Propers are used in place of the lectionary ones the traditional order of Gradual – Alleluia – Sequence is maintained. (Or on Low Sunday 1st Alleluia – 2nd Alleluia – Sequence.)
Since the Sequence in this case ends with an “Alleluia” it seems it could be interpreted to mean that alleluia is sung after the sequence, which may well be the source of all this confusion about the order of the sequence and alleluia. (Oddly the Ordo Cantus Missa indicates the “Amen” before that Alleluia is to be omitted, which seems rather odd in itself.)
While the Sequence is certain associated with the Gospel procession, there is no particular reason that the procession can not be timed to coincide with the sequence in either ordering. However, it is especially strange to sing the sequence which ends with alleluia and then proceed to sing another different alleluia. More sensible it seems to sing the alleluia and verse, then the sequence which concludes with its own alleluia (and if the choir accidentally includes the Amen it is unlikely anyone will be writing to the bishop to complain).
Stephen, the Ordinary Form rubrics direct the Sequence to be sung before the Alleluia and its verse, which is ahistorical and well, silly.