Hymns During Distribution of Communion

[alexl437]

My OF parish nearly always has hymns sung during the distribution of Communion, as does most other OF parishes that I’ve visited. However, whilst flicking through the General Instruction of the Roman Missal for Dioceses in England, Wales and Scotland, I noticed the following statement: 87. In the dioceses of England and Wales singing at Communion may be chosen from
among the following: the antiphon from the Graduale Romanum, with or without the
Psalm, or the antiphon with Psalm from the Graduale Simplex, or some other suitable
liturgical chant approved by the Conference of Bishops of England and Wales. This is
sung either by the choir alone or by the choir or a cantor with the people.
However, if there is no singing, the antiphon given in the Missal may be recited either
by the faithful, or by some of them, or by a reader; otherwise, it is recited by the Priest
himself after he has received Communion and before he distributes Communion to the
faithful.

I was very surprised that singing from the hymnal during the distribution of communion isn’t actually allowed, yet most parishes seem oblivious. That being said, I am one who never sings at this time anyway in favour of silent prayer.

Anyway, thoughts?

 

[MrsGT]

I’ve not been baptised or received communion yet so it gives me something to do while everyone is away (unless I’m moving to let people in and out of the pews) but the majority of people are either in the queue to receive communion or praying after so it seems like an odd time to sing?

 

[commenter]

My preference is no singing during this time. It is fine to have a quiet instrument in the background, with a soft, slow hymn.

At the campus ministry I used to attend they would fill this “empty space” with a song or meditation lamenting heartless middle class Christians who go to communion then ignore the plight of the poor, since Equality is what communion is supposed to be about.

 

[Loud-living-dogma]

I believe the sentence that allows this is here:

1. In the dioceses of England and Wales singing at Communion may be chosen from
   among the following: the antiphon from the Graduale Romanum, with or without the
   Psalm, or the antiphon with Psalm from the Graduale Simplex, or some other suitable
   liturgical chant approved by the Conference of Bishops of England and Wales.

In the US, “chant” is taken to mean “song” or “hymn”, and usually a hymn from the hymnal is sung. I suspect the same is true on your side of the pond.

 

[Mintaka]

Cantus is a song or a chant. If your hymnal got approved by the bishops, a song from it is legal for that purpose.

 

[ZMystiCat]

I personally like the singing of hymns. There’s about 4-5 songs that my parish uses, and all of them have lyrics that help with meditating on what is going on. They also tend to be very mellow and somber so as not to disturb those praying, and as someone who does pray for a little bit after getting back to my pew, I find it actually helps.