Alternate Psalms at Sunday Mass?

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Elzee

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Our parish rarely uses the Psalms designated for a particular Sunday Mass. We sing our Psalms and I remember reading on this forum that the response sung by the congregation can vary by liturgical season or be consistent for several weeks -or something to that effect - but I’ve never heard anything about the* actual Psalm sung by the cantor*.

Are there ‘alternate’ Psalms allowed, other than those designated in the Missalette, if they are sung as opposed to read? The Pslam reading for today was a beautiful one that really tied in with the readings, but the one our cantor sung was totally different (I don’t know which one it was) and didn’t tie in with the readings at all. Do other parishes do this? Why? Is it allowed? It’s very frustrating becase we miss out on some beautiful Scripture. Plus, I like to read the Sunday readings before Mass but I never have any idea what Psalm we’re going to sing.
 
As far as I know this is just my personal opinion, but I think it’s incredibly arrogant when Holy Mother Church gives us psalms to use, yet some “music director” things he or she knows better.
 
When I lived in Scranton, the parish I was at used the same Psalm EVERY WEEKEND. It was getting monotonous.

The parish I am at now used the Psalm designated, but uses alternative music found in the hymnal.

PF
 
From the GIRM:
(emphasis mine)

usccb.org/liturgy/current/chapter2.shtml#sect2The Responsorial Psalm
  1. After the first reading comes the responsorial Psalm, which is an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word and holds great liturgical and pastoral importance, because it fosters meditation on the word of God.
The responsorial Psalm should correspond to each reading and should, as a rule, be taken from the Lectionary.

It is preferable that the responsorial Psalm be sung, at least as far as the people’s response is concerned. Hence, the psalmist, or the cantor of the Psalm, sings the verses of the Psalm from the ambo or another suitable place. The entire congregation remains seated and listens but, as a rule, takes part by singing the response, except when the Psalm is sung straight through without a response. In order, however, that the people may be able to sing the Psalm response more readily, texts of some responses and Psalms have been chosen for the various seasons of the year or for the various categories of Saints. These may be used in place of the text corresponding to the reading whenever the Psalm is sung. If the Psalm cannot be sung, then it should be recited in such a way that it is particularly suited to fostering meditation on the word of God.

If the seasonal psalm is used instead of the psalm of the day there may be several reasons. The simplest is just so the people have more opportunity to learn it and sing along.

Also, some music issue services don’t supply psalm settings for every week and there is not always a psalmist available who has the training to chant the psalm.
 
I feel your pain. My parish abuses the liturgy this way also. The music group only knows a short list of psalms to sing, yet insists on ignoring the psalms which are designed to go with the rest of the day’s readings. Today’s psalms were particularly relevant. I am saddened that our music group cannot seem to appreciate this.

They have also discarded the penitential rite so they can sing an excruciatingly long and difficult Gloria. It has been the same painful rendition since I started going there 3 years ago.

This would all be easier to endure if it were not for today’s homily. I was hoping that at least on Respect Life Sunday we would hear some kind of hint that our parish cares at all about the biggest social justice issue of our time; Abortion. Instead, we got the usual discussion about the injustice of the haves v. the have nots.

I too support economic social justice causes, which is not hard to say in Seattle, since it is so PC to do so anyway. I just wish we could hear our pastor say something about the truly most vulnerable social justice victims; the unborn.

Please pray with me that all Roman Catholic churches in America will develop solidarity with the Holy Father and solidarity with the rights of the most vulnerable of our community.
 
SMHW - thanks for the excerpt. It sounds like the Response sung by the congregation can vary by liturgical season and not match up with the lectionary, but the cantor should still sing the pslam for that particular Sunday (i.e. - only the response can vary from the lectionary but still must be approved for the liturgical season.). If this is correct, then our parish is not doing this correctly. *We are missing out on some beautiful psalms…is this worth mentioning to our priest, or should my family just read them ourselves during the week? *
 
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Seattle.RC:
I feel your pain. My parish abuses the liturgy this way also.

The use of seasonal Psalms is **not ** liturgical abuse. As others have said, there is **an approved ** list of Psalms for each season and for Ordinary Time that may be used in place of the Psalm of the day.

For example, the following Psalms are approved for Ordinary Time (that is, they are approved to be sung instead of the Psalm of the day):

Psalm 19
Psalm 27
Psalm 34
Psalm 63
Psalm 95
Psalm 100
Psalm 103
Psalm 145

'thann
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Elzee:
It sounds like the Response sung by the congregation can vary by liturgical season and not match up with the lectionary, but the cantor should still sing the pslam for that particular Sunday (i.e. - only the response can vary from the lectionary but still must be approved for the liturgical season.)
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The GIRM says that "texts of some responses and Psalms have been chosen for the various seasons of the year".
This indicates that the both psalm and response may be from the seasonal choice. This makes sense because the response is designed to tie in with the psalm. Usually the response is a line from the psalm itself.

The Psalm response of the day is something of a “Theme” for the other readings and for the Mass itself. I know that our music director struggles with the problem of chosing between the psalm of the day and chosing a seasonal psalm that the people all know. As I’ve stated before, sometimes he just can’t find a musical setting for a given Sunday. Now he does know how to chant but he’s not there for every Mass and when he is, he is directing the choir. (We have a VERY well trained choir but I can’t imagine us chanting without someone directing. We manage to mess up singing “And also with you,” without direction.)
 
It seems to me that the portion of the GIRM mentioned above says that we should be singing the Psalm that is given for that Sunday.

In my parish I cannot see any connection with the Psalm chosen to " the various seasons of the year or for the various categories of Saints. "
It just seems to be something the cantor decided to use. I could be wrong, but I am going to bring it up to my pastor.

My wife and I are always frustraded by this. I love the responsorial psalms, and they can be sung.
 
I don’t see how that portion of the GIRM suggests that the psalm of the day is preferable to a seasonal psalm.

It says that while it is typical to take the psalm from the one in the lectionary, the importance of singing the psalm makes using a seaonal psalm a good alternate choice. In other words, it is better to sing a seasonal psalm than to recite or listen to a psalm of the day.

It would be nice if all cantors/psalmists could sing an appropriate psalm of the day but for various reasons that is not the case. If the psalmist can’t sing it, chances are the people in the pews can’t manage it either.

The point of using a seasonal psalm is to enable the congregation to sing the response. Since it is often the same from week to week, the people have a better chance to learn it.

As 'thann posted, during Ordinary Time, it is absolutely okay to sing Psalm 19, Psalm 27, Psalm 34, Psalm 63, Psalm 95, Psalm 100, Psalm 103, or Psalm 145 rather than the psalm of the day. There are other seasonal psalms that are used in Advent, Lent, Christmas, etc… If a parish is trying to emphasis a certain ‘theme’ for, say Lent, they may chose to use an appropriate seasonal psalm that supports that theme.

Now what some parishes do is to use one of the OCP or GIA songs which are based on the seasonal psalm. The problem is that some of those songs are only loose adaptations of the psalm and should not be used as a psalm. Others are faithful to the text. The back of OCP music issue books has an index which cross-references the psalms with the songs.
 
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SMHW:
It says that while it is typical to take the psalm from the one in the lectionary, the importance of singing the psalm makes using a seaonal psalm a good alternate choice. In other words, it is better to sing a seasonal psalm than to recite or listen to a psalm of the day.

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My parish doesn’t even use a season psalm. It uses songs written by Joe Sacred Songwriter, nothing by King David.
 
One parish I go to always sings a different psalm and antiphon and it drives me nuts because I like to follow along in the missalette. I think the cantor only knows a few songs so she sings the ones she knows best. In another parish they always follow the missalette, which I like. I realize alternate psalms can be used because it says so in the missalette. (e.g. it will say psalms x,y, or z can be used in place of the one in the book).
 
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thann:
The use of seasonal Psalms is **not ** liturgical abuse. As others have said, there is **an approved ** list of Psalms for each season and for Ordinary Time that may be used in place of the Psalm of the day.

For example, the following Psalms are approved for Ordinary Time (that is, they are approved to be sung instead of the Psalm of the day):

Psalm 19
Psalm 27
Psalm 34
Psalm 63
Psalm 95
Psalm 100
Psalm 103
Psalm 145

'thann
Click to expand...
How can I find out what alternate psalms are approved for each liturgical season? Is there a list somewhere?
 
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