Lamb Of God

[turtleoompa]

An answer to this question with a reference please.When our choir leads us in Lamb of God I’ve noticed that sometimes they will substitute in the second line, bread of life or prince of peace, instead of Lamb of God. I’ve noticed that our priest always says Lamb of God (regardless of the choir). I feel that the choir is doing something wrong. I thought it should be said 3 times with grant us peace at the end. Please respond.

 

[Phemie]

They’re probably singing the Lamb of God from the Mass of Creation which has a list of tropes as long as my arm.

The rule has been that you say/sing “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us” at least twice but as often as required for the fraction to take place then the last invocation ends with “Grant us peace”. [GIRM 83 The supplication Agnus Dei, is, as a rule, sung by the choir or cantor with the congregation responding; or it is, at least, recited aloud. This invocation accompanies the fraction and, for this reason, may be repeated as many times as necessary until the rite has reached its conclusion, the last time ending with the words dona nobis pacem (grant us peace).]

You couldn’t change it if you were saying it, but some composers took it upon themselves to add tropes.

Even on CAF the anwers weren’t consistent, one priest saying they were allowed one saying they weren’t. At least for the US that was resolved recently with the release of the latest document on music from the USCCB saying that those tropes are OK.

 

[benedictgal]

An answer to this question with a reference please.When our choir leads us in Lamb of God I’ve noticed that sometimes they will substitute in the second line, bread of life or prince of peace, instead of Lamb of God. I’ve noticed that our priest always says Lamb of God (regardless of the choir). I feel that the choir is doing something wrong. I thought it should be said 3 times with grant us peace at the end. Please respond.

You are correct. Unfortunately, the USCCB added some confusion to the whole mess by allowing invocations to be used in the event the fraction rite goes on longer than expected. However, having witnessed various Papal Masses on TV, I’ve not seen the Sistene Chapel Choir (or any Papal Mass choir, for that matter) use invocations other than the Agnus Dei. The normal setting is for the three invocations of the Lamb of God, with two ending with the petition, have mercy on us and the final one with grant us peace.

Now in his second books on the liturgy, A New Song for the Lord: Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today, Pope Benedict XVI said that his brother, famed choirmaster Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, used to extend the Agnus Dei and then use it as a Communion hymn, if I understand him correctly. I present his observation for y’all’s review:

Why the Agnus Dei?
And finally, a word about the Agnus Dei. At the Cathedral of Regensburg it has become customary that after the kiss of peace, the priest and people together recite the threefold Agnus Dei. And then it is continued by the choir during the distribution of Holy Communion. It was, of course, objected that the Agnus Dei belongs to the rite of the breaking of the bread, the fractio panis. From this original function as accompaniment for the time it took for the breaking of the bread, only a completely petrified archaism can conclude that the Agnus Dei may only and exclusively be sung at this point. In actual fact, when the old rites of fractio panis became superfluous because of the new small hosts coming into use during the ninth and tenth centuries, the Agnus Dei indeed became a communion song.

No less an expert than the late J.A. Jungmann points out that already in the early middle ages, only one Agnus Dei was oftentimes sung after the kiss of peace, while the second and third invocations found their place after communion, thus accompanying the distribution of Holy Communion (when it took place).31 And does it not make very good sense to beseech Christ, the Lamb of God, for mercy at the precise moment in which He gives Himself anew as defenseless Lamb into our hands – He Who is the Lamb, sacrificed but also triumphant, the lamb Who bears the key of history (Revelation 5)? And is it not particularly appropriate, at the moment of receiving Holy Communion, to direct our request for peace to Him, the defenseless One Who, as such, was victorious? After all, in the ancient Church “peace” was actually one of the names used to designate the Eucharist, because it flings open the boundaries between heaven and earth, between nations and states, and unites all men in the unity of Christ’s Body.

Please note, however, that he did not even mention the use of alternative invocations. He stuck to the Agnus Dei.