There is a lovely custom attached to Septuagesima Sunday and Pre-Lent: burying the Alleluia.
At Septuagesima we stop, in the traditional rites, singing an Alleluia after the Gradual and, instead, sing a Tract. The Alleluia isn’t heard in Masses of the Season until after Lent. Because of that – long ago people engaged their imaginations and, from a good Catholic spirit and world view, had a little ceremony to “bury” the Alleluia, or a little scroll or plaque, until it would rise from the dead at Easter.
Will your traditional parish or chapel be doing this on Sunday?
Here is something fun. The wonderful Benedictine Sisters of Gower Abbey in Missouri buried the Alleluia a few years ago and sent photos.
“Here lies Al”
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Well, I’ve heard there was a prayerful word
Before the Gospel often heard
That brings a sense of awe and worship to ya
And its syllables flow off the tongue
It soars to heaven when it’s sung
Of course, I’m speaking of the Alleluia
Alleluia…
Now our faith is strong, but flesh is not
We sin in action, word, and thought
The world, the flesh, the devil all pursue ya
In the penitential time of year
There is a word we will not hear
For Lent we must give up the Alleluia
Alleluia…
So many people think that Lent
Is not a season to repent
But love to flash that ash at all who view ya
You might think fasting is passé
But if you go to Mass and pray,
The faithful won’t be saying Alleluia
Alleluia…
Now the page that it is written on
Is buried ‘neath the church’s lawn
(Bet you don’t know of that tradition, do ya?)
And we wait for Easter, when the word
Is gloriously disinterred
Till then we must refrain from…hmhmhmmhmm
Hmhmhmmhmm…
“Burying the Alleluia.” A delightful custom. I don’t think the Traditional Mass parish I attend will be doing that, but at the Eastern Rite Ukrainian parish I also attend every Sunday, they will be singing the Alleluia all the way through Lent. Before the Passion is read on Good Friday, you hear the Alleluia. It is a different world in the East.
A few years ago Good Friday fell on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation. And my Ukrainians celebrated Mass in the morning, dropped the fasting and abstinence requirement, and then had the Good Friday service as usual in the evening. I have been to Mass on Good Friday — as I said, it is a different world in the East.
I’m pretty sure that the wonderful parish I belong to in Tiverton RI will, if not physically burying the Alleluia, mention its absence during Father’s homily tomorrow.
The other parish I attend when I’m down in central NJ? Pretty sure the usual OF amalgam of OCP show tune hymns, green vestments, and nary a mention of the ‘closer than you think’ season fast upon us.
I’ve never heard of this before, but it sounds like a great way of making the experience of Lent a little more tangible. I’ll make a point of mentioning it to our pastor.
I’ve never heard of this before, but it sounds like a great way of making the experience of Lent a little more tangible. I’ll make a point of mentioning it to our pastor.