Is this valid for the Agnus Dei?

[faithfulservant]

at all our weekend Masses, we always start with Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us and end with Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace…unfortunately, since 8 ciboria are needed to be filled, it takes a while…

so interspersed between are the ad-libs Bread of Life…, Cup of Hope…, Prince of Peace… and a few others that don’t come to mind right now…

my question is… is this practice approved anywhere…and if so, where is the documentation?

 

[Fergal]

From what I remember the Lamb of God should be repeated as often as is necessary to allow the Priest to prepare for Holy Communion.

We have all got used to the 3 times, but it is allowed to be repeated as often as is necessary and no: no new words should be added to the formula.

 

[SMHW]

No it shouldn’t be done.

On a practical level, I know why it is often done. It’s not just to make it ‘less boring’. The cantor is frequently in a better position than other musicians to see when it is time to finish the Lamb of God if more than 3 verses are needed. When the cantor stops singing all those “Bread of Life”, “Prince of Peace”, etc, verses and again sings “Lamb of God” it is a signal to to the other musicians that it is time to sing “Grant us peace” rather than to sing another “Have mercy on us”.

 

[faithfulservant]

smhw, and while i understand what you are saying…and it makes sense… .instead of using the “unapproved” terminology, why can’t the cantor use the right words and use some sort of hand signal for the pianist to indicate when the “grant us peace” part should be sung

i’m happy to hear it’s not suppose to be ad-libbed… but it makes me sad that this is one other thing our church is doing that is liturgically incorrect

 

[Michael_Welter]

I lead music at our parish, and made the mistake once of using Bread of Life for the middle verse. After Mass, the Pastor set me straight. I don’t do that anymore. In fact, the ordinary of the Mass cannot have any words changed. They must be sung, or recited, verbatim.

 

[Elzee]

Hmmm - I never thought of this before…in our church, we alternate the verse of a song with each Lamb of God. So we end up with 3 song verses and and the ‘Lamb of God’ being said 3 times. Is this acceptable? I personally don’t like it, but I thought that when the Lamb of God was sung, you were given a little more ‘flexibility’. Personally, this is one part of the Mass I would really love to always sing in Latin…

 

[faithfulservant]

i have been told the reason is that this is from the marty haugen Mass music… so no wonder… and we always have to have at least one other marty haugen song in the Mass it seems :banghead:

i do long for the good old music of my youth…in the baptist church…at least they were God centered , with wonderful music, and not the progressive pop garbage we are subjected to in our church…and i don’t even go to the life teen Mass… this is standard for all Masses

 

[aaronjmagnan]

I know someone who left his parish because the names of saints recited in the litany of the saints were replaced with the names of the new confirmed Catholic children so as to “make them feel included.” It seems to me that a) repetition is to be seen as emphatic more than “boring.” One may want to become more educated as to the reason for the sacred name repeated; and b) the words placed that are part of the mass are inserted because of devtion toward God based on the inspiration behind the original, and to not focus on the sacrifice, the lamb, that which is wed at the end and sacrificed in the beginning, is to distract from the purpose of the sacrament.

I understand that Jesus is also the bread of life, cup of hope, etc., but he is all these as expressed through his sacrifice as the Lamb of God.

God Bless,
Aaron Magnan