With the celebration of Pentecost recently, the Church has concluded the Season of Easter and we now enter into the Season of Ordinary Time.

“The Easter cycle and Christmas cycle are so rich with religious traditions that the remainder of the year often seems ordinary at first glance. The remaining 33 or 34 weeks are in face called Ordinary Time. This title, however, does not mean that these weeks, and the Sundays around which they revolve, are unimportant. On the contrary, it is during these weeks that the special character of Sunday is experienced. Except for four special devotional feasts of Christ after Pentecost, no special theme “distracts” from the wonder of the original meaning of Sunday as the Lord’s Day.

Very few religious traditions are directly connected with the weeks of Ordinary Time. The traditional color used for liturgical vestments and church decoration is green, the color of hope and life. Other popular religious traditions occur briefly, but they are connected with other special holidays that are independent of the liturgical season, such as Halloween and Thanksgiving.”

~Greg Dues “Catholic Customs & Traditions”

Music Notes:

• Gloria: You’ll notice that the setting is divided into Part I, sung by the cantor, and Part II, sung by the assembly. We are going to try singing this in dialogue between cantor and assembly. If the assembly naturally begins singing the whole thing, that’s fine, we can simply go with it. But let’s give the dialogue approach a try for a couple of weeks and see how it settles.
• Alleluia: This is also written as a dialogue between cantor and assembly. After the short introduction, the final “assembly” Alleluia, the cantor will begin the acclamation a cappella, while the accompanist plays the assembly’s response. This pattern then repeats.
  • N.B. for cantors and accompanists: Please keep this in strict rhythm. Cantors should not wait for the assembly to finish singing before beginning the next Alleluia, and accompanists should not wait for the cantor to finish before playing the assembly’s response. The overlap is part of how the dialogue works.
• Eucharistic Acclamations: We have sung most of these Mass parts before, though the Holy, Holy, Holy will be new to us. It is very similar in style to the rest of the setting, so I have no doubt you’ll pick it up quickly. One small note: please try to sing the first line “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts” in one breath, for the sake of the musical line.

These Mass parts were chosen to preserve the simplicity of the season while also offering a bit of variety from our usual repertoire.

Thank you, as always, for your flexibility and good work!