Some Easter Vigil Questions

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smndtupidisaftr

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I posted this earlier in another thread, but it was kind of lost in the torrent of posts. I’ll skip everything else I said in that post and get straight to my two questions:
  1. youtube.com/watch?v=4KtN2IDGYl8
    The third reading was sung (and this video is not from the liturgy that I attended but another that sounds very similar, just ignore the dancing and clapping and the fact that the lights are on and then it sounds like the liturgy I attended) in this manner. Searching on Youtube I found additional videos and apparently this composition is very common. I just want to know your thoughts on it and whether this is standard.
  2. Blessing of the Holy Water. I was reading in my missallette but never heard the words spoken that I saw in there. Additionally, the Holy Water font was already open upon entering the church. Isn’t this one of the few Masses where it is supposed to be closed? So with these two things in mind, could the blessing have been done before Mass and is it valid, and furthermore, were the Baptisms performed at that Mass then valid?
Thanks for your time.
 
Singing/chanting the reading is rare, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with it.

liturgical dance is unfortunate… I have heard Pope Benedict say that it shouldn’t be done. It takes peoples focus off of the liturgy and onto the performers.

I would say that if you walk into a church and see the alter to the side like that, the first thing you should do is walk out and call the bishop…
 
sllhouette said:
Singing/chanting the reading is rare, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with it.

liturgical dance is unfortunate… I have heard Pope Benedict say that it shouldn’t be done. It takes peoples focus off of the liturgy and onto the performers.

I would say that if you walk into a church and see the alter to the side like that, the first thing you should do is walk out and call the bishop…
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Well luckily this was not the liturgy that I attended, as at seeing the liturgical dance and the clapping I probably would have walked out or prayed for an exceeding amount of patience. At the service I attended I just tried to keep focus on the readings and the content of the liturgy rather than the way that it was performed (which was very difficult for me at times).
 
Dancing is not a form of expression for the Christian liturgy. In about the third century, there was an attempt in certain Gnostic-Docetic circles to introduce it into the liturgy. For these people, the Crucifixion was only an appearance. Before the Passion, Christ had abandoned the body that in any case he had never really assumed. Dancing could take the place of the liturgy of the Cross, because, after all, the Cross was only an appearance. The cultic dances of the different religions have different purposes—incantation, imitative magic, mystical ecstasy— none of which is compatible with the essential purpose of the liturgy of the “reasonable sacrifice”. It is totally absurd to try to make the liturgy “attractive” by introducing dancing pantomimes (wherever possible performed by professional dance troupes), which frequently (and rightly, from the professionals’ point of view) end with applause. Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attractiveness fades quickly—it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation. I myself have experienced the replacing of the penitential rite by a dance performance, which, needless to say, received a round of applause. Could there be anything farther removed from true penitence? Liturgy can only attract people when it looks, not at itself, but at God, when it allows him to enter and act. Then something truly unique happens, beyond competition, and people have a sense that more has taken place than a recreational activity. None of the Christian rites includes dancing. [The Spirit of the Liturgy, (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000), p. 198]
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  1. Yeah, there is usually always water in the baptismal font, so the water would be already blessed. As for it being open, it is supposed to be open for those being baptized.
 
BGR_15 said:
  1. Yeah, there is usually always water in the baptismal font, so the water would be already blessed. As for it being open, it is supposed to be open for those being baptized.
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But it is supposed to be blessed at the Easter Vigil, which is what has me worried about that water.
 
At my parish we’ve always had the holy water bowls empty at the start of the Vigil, and the only water is at the font (which is unblessed and in the sanctuary). After the water is blessed during the Mass, the servers then go around and fill all the holy water bowls.

As for the 3rd reading, I’ve never been to a Mass where it was sung, so I don’t know if its common, or hippie.
 
smndtupidisaftr said:
But it is supposed to be blessed at the Easter Vigil, which is what has me worried about that water.
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Although it can be blessed during the Easter Vigil, it is not a requirement. Holy water can be blessed anytime. I’ve only been to two vigils. My first they didn’t do it, this year they did (at a different parish).

Believe it or not, in extreme cases, the water doesn’t even have to blessed to perform a baptism.
 
In the EF Solemn Mass (and this is usually done in high Masses as well), the readings are chanted. It is quite beautiful and extremely solemn and un-theatrical. However, I don’t see the point in singing a random reading, even if it be of special mention, unless the Gospel is also sung. Unfortunately there are no pertinent rubrics so this is basically unregulated. However, liturgical dance is completely inappropriate.
 
Chant is fine, but I thought it sounded like a campy setting.
 
smndtupidisaftr said:
  1. youtube.com/watch?v=4KtN2IDGYl8
    The third reading was sung (and this video is not from the liturgy that I attended but another that sounds very similar, just ignore the dancing and clapping and the fact that the lights are on and then it sounds like the liturgy I attended) in this manner. Searching on Youtube I found additional videos and apparently this composition is very common. I just want to know your thoughts on it and whether this is standard.
Click to expand...
Just a side note: technically all lights should come on after the 3rd “Lumen Christi/Light of Christ” declaration.
But, yes, the readings can be chanted/sung.

And, I know its bad but, I couldn’t stop laughing at the dancer in that video…
  1. Blessing of the Holy Water. I was reading in my missallette but never heard the words spoken that I saw in there. Additionally, the Holy Water font was already open upon entering the church. Isn’t this one of the few Masses where it is supposed to be closed?
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The priest may have simply cut the prayer of blessing down to just a few words or he might have blessed it before the mass. Its illicit but the water would still be considered blessed.
So with these two things in mind, could the blessing have been done before Mass and is it valid, and furthermore, were the Baptisms performed at that Mass then valid?
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yes, its all valid. 👍
 
  1. Blessing of the Holy Water. I was reading in my missallette but never heard the words spoken that I saw in there. Additionally, the Holy Water font was already open upon entering the church. Isn’t this one of the few Masses where it is supposed to be closed? So with these two things in mind, could the blessing have been done before Mass and is it valid, and furthermore, were the Baptisms performed at that Mass then valid?
There are three options (which might explain the variance from what you read in print), but all call for the Blessing of Water. One if there are to be baptisms, Another if the font is to be blessed, but no baptisms. There is a thrid consideration that blesses water even if the font is not to be blessed (p. 379, RM).

When yous say the Holy Water font was open, do you mean the baptismal font?
 
Regarding when the lights are to be turned on during the Vigil, Most of my experience has been that they are not turned on until the Gloria. That was my experience in my growing up parish, the parish I am currently a member of, and at Magdalen College which I always thought to be the truest example of how the liturgy is to be carried out. I noticed at the Vatican the lights come on before the exultet.
 
ChiTownCelt said:
  1. Blessing of the Holy Water. I was reading in my missallette but never heard the words spoken that I saw in there. Additionally, the Holy Water font was already open upon entering the church. Isn’t this one of the few Masses where it is supposed to be closed? So with these two things in mind, could the blessing have been done before Mass and is it valid, and furthermore, were the Baptisms performed at that Mass then valid?
There are three options (which might explain the variance from what you read in print), but all call for the Blessing of Water. One if there are to be baptisms, Another if the font is to be blessed, but no baptisms. There is a thrid consideration that blesses water even if the font is not to be blessed (p. 379, RM).

When yous say the Holy Water font was open, do you mean the baptismal font?
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Yes, which is also the only place in the church to get Holy Water.
 
Justin1224 said:
Regarding when the lights are to be turned on during the Vigil, Most of my experience has been that they are not turned on until the Gloria. That was my experience in my growing up parish, the parish I am currently a member of, and at Magdalen College which I always thought to be the truest example of how the liturgy is to be carried out. I noticed at the Vatican the lights come on before the exultet.
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The lights coming on before the exultet is what is actually called for in the Roman Missal.
 
NewEnglandPriest said:
The lights coming on before the exultet is what is actually called for in the Roman Missal.
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We always did the “gradually getting brighter” (darkness to minimal lighting for lectors to full lighting at Gloria) until this year, when the revised Missal made it clear that the lights were to come on at the Exultet. The Paschal Candle hitting the candle stand was the signal to the “light guy.”
 
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