PHOTOS: D. Madison – Candlemas – Purification – Pontifical Mass

A sample of the music.  We had a great choir from Eau Claire.

A few snaps from beautiful Candlemas 2018.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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7 Comments

  1. davidvu999 says:

    Does the Mass begin in purple and then change?

    [Mass begins in white. We did the blessing of the candles in purple, which is a throw back to earlier times.]

  2. Fallibilissimo says:

    The pics and the audio are beautiful! It’s so edifying to see such a beautiful Mass. God Bless you and God Bless Bp Morlino…he seems like such a wonderful man.

  3. Mary Jane says:

    Beautiful photos! The Missa Papae Marcelli by Palestrina is one of my favorites; I like to think of it as the mass that saved polyphony. At the time it was written, melodies for sacred music were often based on (not so great) secular tunes, and the words were often intelligible (not all sacred music had these issues, apparently enough that it was a problem). The issue was discussed at the Council of Trent, and there were discussions as to whether polyphony should be banned from liturgical use altogether (!). The story has it that it was partly due to this mass setting of Palestrina’s that polyphony was saved – this mass setting showed that polyphony was beautiful and had a place in liturgical use, that it could be written well and with the words intelligible and the melodies not based on secular ones.

    Last night at our FSSP parish we had the blessing of candles and a procession; we sang Palestrina’s Missa de Beata Virgine as well as several lovely polyphonic motets (including Guerrero’s Sancta et Immaculata and Senex Puerum Portabat by Victoria).

    Time to take the Christmas decorations down today, much to the kids’ dismay. Hard to believe Lent is almost upon us! Our children tried to convince us they shouldn’t have to go back to school until the liturgical season of Christmas was over….”But mom, dad, it’s still Christmas! No school!” I bet a couple of ’em grow up to be (good Catholic) lawyers. :-P

  4. J Kusske says:

    In St. Paul MN we had a very similar solemn high mass last night at St. Mark’s, with music provided by the St. Agnes Chamber Chorale and schola, and Fr. Bryan Pedersen (an old high school classmate of mine from St. Agnes) as celebrant. We did a full procession around the church by all the faithful minus us up in the choir loft. We sang Victoria’s Missa O Magnum Mysterium, with several motets, and it all went off very well praise God!

  5. Elizabeth D says:

    I wondered about the violet to white change. The choir was really, really good, it was amazing, but I also would have liked more space given to silence. especially during the Eucharistic Prayer but also at other times. I went with 2 people from my Bible study and one commented that he would have liked having a normal Gregorian Gloria and Credo in order to be able to follow it more easily (ie what word are we on now?) and also sing it with the choir, which was also my feeling. I like to sing the Mass parts. And, with the fancy polyphony versions I found that I did not really pay attention to the words (I kind of zoned out and got lost in thought to be honest) when normally I do actually listen and get the meaning out of them. Plainchant is the way it is for a reason that is in service to the text of the Mass or rather to us for listening to the text of the Mass or rather to God Who wants us to listen and pray.

    [It’s hard to listen. Really hard. That’s the key to active participation: active receptivity.]

  6. Sword40 says:

    We had a sung High Mass. My missal says the priest was to use a purple (violet) cope during the candle blessing but he appeared in the gold one.??? (yes, we have the correct colored cope) . whatever the case the Mass was beautiful. Altar boys had some confusion but heck we only do this once a year. Choir was again super.

    [Check the year that your missal was published.]

  7. Semper Gumby says:

    Great photos and choir, thanks also Fr. Z for the other Candlemas posts and poetry.

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