May
May got off to a bad start, in terms of honoring Our Lady. I had planning on having the choir do the Aichinger “Regina Caeli” as a choral prelude on Sunday and the organ preludes went a bit long and the entire liturgy staff was on edge because we had First Communions and that can sometimes mean liturgical mayhem. It translated into Mass starting a bit early with no prelude.
Then I had the flash – we’ll make it a postlude. Why not? There’s a handful of folks who didn’t leave after communion and didn’t dash out the door that are still in the church by the time we’re done with the last stanza. But the postlude didn’t happen either because the pastor didn’t process out – there were photos to be taken and they had to happen in front of the sanctuary right after Mass. So a postlude would have interrupted the directions: “Katelyn, go stand next to Father.” “Cooper – get back here now!” “Colton, put your white bowtie back on!”
To top it off, I had been at a parish the night before when they had actually done the May crowning at the beginning of Mass. I had never seen that done at Mass before – I’m sure there’s some liturgists out there who would say it’s not appropriate because of it’s devotional nature – but at least the heart is in the right place. The only problem with the May crowning had to do with a miserly approach to the hymns: we did only two verses of “Hail Holy Queen” and the crowners were crowning in silence. Note to the misers: Hymns are prayers. Don’t be stingy. They are not meant to give everyone something to do while there is movement around the church.
This week we’ll do the Jaeggi arrangement of the “Salve Mater” – I promise.