Can we choose Marian Hymns for the ‘Offertory’ at Holy Mass?
Painting: The Immaculate Conception, Juan de Juanes (Bocairent, Valencia, 1579)
I had a priest recently mention to me : “In the seminary, they taught us that we cannot choose Marian hymns as an Offertory Hymn for Mass. The focus has to be on Christ”.
As a choir director, I needed to get to the bottom of that statement. Is it really true, that Holy Mother Church teaches that we cannot choose a Marian hymn as an Offertory Hymn for Mass?
Is there anything in the official guidelines for the celebration of the Mass, ie. the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) that says we cannot choose a Marian Hymn? What should we be singing during the Offertory at Mass?
What is the liturgical action and character of the Offertory at Mass?
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM)
Since I am writing this article from my desk in Singapore, let’s take a look at the GIRM for the Archdiocese of Singapore with regards to what it stipulates about the singing at the Offertory.
“74. The procession bringing the gifts is accompanied by the Offertory chant (cf. no. 37b), which continues at least until the gifts have been placed on the altar. The norms on the manner of singing are the same as for the Entrance chant (cf. no. 48). Singing may always accompany the rite at the Offertory, even when there is no procession with the gifts.”
Ok. So there is mention of the Offertory Chant and that the norms are the same as for the Entrance Chant.
So let’s take a look to see what the norms for the Entrance Chant are:
“48. … In the dioceses of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei the options for the Entrance Chant are: (1) the antiphon and psalm from the Graduale Romanum or the Graduale Simplex; or (2) a hymn from another collection of psalms and antiphons, the text of which has been approved by the Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. 55”
The Graduale Romanum
Most people have never heard of the ‘Graduale Romanum’, but it is the first priority, the first choice, as listed in the GIRM, when one is choosing what appropriate liturgical music is to be sung at that point in the Mass.
So what is the ‘Graduale Romanum’?
The Graduale Romanum is the official songbook of the Church, which contains all the Propers to be sung at the Mass.
(You can see a PDF of the full copy of the officially-approved, Graduale Romanum (1974) here, thanks to Corpus Christi Watershed’s fantastic scan of the book)
The Graduale Simplex is the simpler form of this. Both the Graduale Romanum and the Graduale Simplex are the official church music books for the Mass. Indeed, especially for the Novus Ordo. Hence, the 1974 edition of the Graduale Romanum.
What’s so proper about The Propers?
What are Propers you ask? Propers are the sets of scriptural readings that are meant to be sung at every Mass, at the Entrance rite, the Offertory procession and during Communion. The texts are drawn from the Church’s liturgical books of the Graduale Romanum for the specific Sundays and other days of the Church year, as specified in the General Instruction for the Roman Missal at sections 48, 74, and 87.
Singing the Propers allows the people to Sing the Mass, rather than to just sing at Mass.
The sad thing is that the Propers have been ‘usurped’ by the ‘4-hymn sandwich’ ie. most church musicians who have never heard of the Propers (I was once, admittedly, such a musician) will opt for the second option of the GIRM, and choose an Entrance Hymn, an Offertory Hymn, a Communion Hymn and Recessional Hymn, and most of the time, those choices of hymns are based on the musician’s reading of the Gospel and the first and second readings at Mass and their subjective take on what theme to go along with for the choice of hymns.
The problem with choosing hymns instead of abiding with the Propers in the Graduale Romanum, is that one loses a big chunk of scripture that Holy Mother Church has stipulated should be sung at Mass.
This is because every hymn is a distillation of the words of scripture, written to the structure of a hymn, or a song, which by nature of the musical form causes the original words of scripture, to be modified, simplified, or sometimes, interpreted in erroneous ways, depending on how the songwriter goes about taking the words from the bible, to place as lyrics in song form.
The Propers in the Graduale Romanum, on the other hand, are the original words of scripture, unadulterated, unaltered, set to the musical form of chant, which is most suited to carry the words.
Singing the Propers as they are meant to be sung, allows music to truly be the handmaid of the words, and not vice versa as hymns tend to be.
“In liturgical music, based as it is on biblical faith, there is, therefore, a clear dominance of the Word; this music is a higher form of proclamation.”
– Pope Benedict XVI, Spirit of the Liturgy
“The cosmic character of liturgical music stands in opposition to the two tendencies of the modern age that we have described: music as pure subjectivity, music as the expression of mere will. We sing with the angels. But this cosmic character is grounded ultimately in the ordering of all Christian worship to logos.”
- Pope Benedict XVI, Spirit of the Liturgy
Most proper and to be held with pride of place, as Sacrosanctum Concilium states, is Gregorian Chant.
“116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.”
SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) – Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI (1963)
By the way, if your choir would like to sing the Propers in the Graduale Romanum, as notated in Gregorian Chant, there are many resources to guide you on the proper way to sing these beautiful, ancient Latin chants. You can start off by looking at this site which features the scores and audio demo recordings of the chants used for the 1962 missal https://www.ccwatershed.org/goupil/ Not all the chants that are in the 1974 edition of the Graduale Romanum will be covered, but for those not covered, one can quite simply google.
However, even a simple chant tone sung in the vernacular, is sufficient to carry the words of scripture in a most profound manner such that one sings the scripture ad verbatim, with the full power contained within the Word of God.
There are many resources available to the average choir in order to sing the Propers effectively and simply in the vernacular. You can peruse many of these settings of the Propers in English at these links:
https://www.ccwatershed.org/english/propers/
https://www.ccwatershed.org/2014/12/22/complete-graduale-romanum-english-1984/
Are there Marian Offertory Antiphons?
Ok, now that we’ve established that the first choice of liturgical music at the Offertory, should be the Propers taken from the Graduale Romanum, let us take a closer look to see if any of these Offertory antiphons within the Graduale Romanum (1974) have a Marian character to them.
Voila! The fourth Sunday of Advent has the ‘Ave Maria’ as the Offertory Antiphon. Holy Mother Church has thus deemed that it is appropriate to have a Marian chant sung during the Offertory at Sunday Mass on the 4th Sunday of Advent.
Other occasions where the Offertory Antiphons are dedicated to Mary include the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (Ave, Maria) the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, (Ave Maria…et Benedictus) the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (Assumpta est Maria) and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Beata es, Virgo Maria).
So, there is historical and liturgical evidence that having a Marian Hymn for Offertory is not only approved but stipulated within the songbooks of the Church as the first choice of liturgically appropriate music. The hymns as the second option provided in the GIRM, should thus also follow in the same vein, in choosing a Marian Hymn.
So why is there this misunderstanding that Marian Hymns are to be shunned at the Offertory?
Painting: “Musical Angels" panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, before 1432
Perhaps one can argue that it is only within the context of the stipulated Offertory antiphons that speak of Mary, and only in those particular Sundays where the Marian character is stipulated in the antiphons, that we can choose a hymn about Mary.
If that were true, then the Offertory Hymns every Sunday should follow what is being stipulated in the Graduale Romanum for that particular Sunday.
So let us examine some of the other scriptural references which are present in the Offertory antiphons throughout the liturgical year.
For example, this past Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of the year (Year C), the offertory antiphon says:
“The Lord's right hand has shown strength, the Lord's right hand has exalted me. I shall not die, but live; and I shall declare the works of the Lord.” – Ps 118 (117) : 16-17
If your parish choir chose to sing a hymn in place of the antiphon, how many of you heard a hymn sung by the choir about the ‘Lord’s right hand’ at Mass this past Sunday?
Or the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) where the Offertory antiphon reads:
“Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and we wept, as we remembered you, O Zion.” – Ps 137 (136) : 1
Apart from a contemporary popular song by the group Boney M, titled ‘By the rivers of Babylon’, I don’t think many of us can remember ever hearing a hymn with these words.
So, it seems that at many Sundays throughout the year, the stipulated words of scripture that are meant to be read or sung at Mass, are often not heard. It is a pity that the laity are often deprived of the richness and wisdom of scripture that is meant to feed their faith, and instead fed a form of musical ‘fast-food’ that distils scripture, or replaces the words of scripture with a lighter-fare.
So, it cannot be that Marian Hymns are shunned because the Offertory antiphons are being strictly followed as the guideline as to the choice of music for Mass.
What then can be the reason?
If it sounds like a Marian Hymn and tastes like a Marian Hymn, is it really a Marian Hymn?
Someone suggested to me that perhaps some Marian devotional songs that are chosen are not appropriate for use at Mass.
That may be true. There needs to be a certain level of sacredness, dignity, and a ‘setting apart’ to the music at Mass.
For example, I balked when I heard the music of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ set to Christmas lyrics and used as a Thanksgiving song at a Catholic Church in Malaysia recently during the Christmastide. The choir, accompanied by two acoustic guitarists, sang with much gusto.
Did they not know, that the original song spoke of adultery, lust and sins of the flesh, specifically involving King David?
Pope Benedict chimes in again in his book, The Spirit Of The Liturgy with these wise insights:
“Artistic freedom increasingly asserts its rights, even in the liturgy. Church music and secular music are now each influenced by the other. This is particularly clear in the case of the so-called “parody Masses”, in which the text of the Mass was set to a theme or melody that came from secular music, with the result that anyone hearing it might think he was listening to the latest “hit”.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI holding the Pascal Candle at the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday, April 7, 2012. (photo: Shutterstock)
“It is clear that these opportunities for artistic creativity and the adoption of secular tunes brought danger with them. Music was no longer developing out of prayer, but, with the new demand for artistic autonomy, was now heading away from the liturgy; it was becoming an end in itself, opening the door to new, very different ways of feeling and of experiencing the world. Music was alienating the liturgy from its true nature.”
I have indeed heard my share of so-called ‘Marian’-themed music that have not reflected the character and dignity that should set apart the music used for liturgy.
An example of this is when I once heard the Beatles-song ‘Let it be’ being used for Mass, just because there is a line mentioning ‘Mother Mary’ in there that goes:
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be /
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be /
This inability to see that the character of liturgical music is not the same as what we have in our contemporary pop music, is indeed a profound, unfortunate spiritual blindness.
“The people cannot cope with the invisible, remote, and mysterious God. They want to bring him down into their own world, into what they can see and understand. Worship is no longer going up to God, but drawing God down into one’s own world.” – Pope Benedict, The Spirit of the Liturgy.
From music by Dan Schutte (Mass of Christ The Savior - Glory to God) that evokes the popular music of children’s cartoons (My Little Pony – theme song), to Ernest Sand’s ‘Sing of the Lord’s Goodness’ that takes its cue from Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take 5’ rhythms, music for the Mass has indeed started to sound more like contemporary popular music, especially since the 1970’s.
We have somehow made God into our image. We have, as Pope Benedict rightly observes, made a Golden Calf out of the things we hold dear.
But I digress.
Back to our Marian theme.
So yes, there will always be bad music that is not fitting for the Liturgy, but that is somehow used for Liturgy, for the Mass. Does it mean that we throw out the notion of using Marian hymns, just because of some instances where bad so-called Marian-themed music was used?
That would be the proverbial ‘throwing out the baby with the bathwater’ approach.
Military Strategy
More troubling to me, is that those who would be Our Lord’s closest friends, His chosen band, His priests-to-be, are in some instances, being taught not to give honour to His Mother Mary.
That downplaying of Mary’s role in their priesthood, seems to me, to be the crux of the issue.
Now, just to share, I used to be in the National Cadet Corps when I was in secondary school. To this day, I am amazed that I got the chance to learn how to use and fire an air rifle, a bolt action rifle, and to fire live rounds with the AR-15 by the time I turned 15.
In some way, it’s given me an idea of the soldier mentality.
To those schooled in military strategy, or even to those who regularly watch action movies and superhero movies, we know that once the enemy’s most powerful weapon is destroyed, it’s game over for the enemy and victory soon follows for humanity.
Ask any exorcist, and they will tell you the power of Our Lady and of Our Lady’s name. In fact, one of the most famed exorcists in recent history, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, recounts one of his conversations with the devil in his book ‘The Last Exorcist’:
Father Amorth: "What are the virtues of the Madonna that make you angriest?"
Demon: "She makes me angry because she is the humblest of all creatures, and because I am the proudest; because she is the purest of all creatures, and I am not; because, of all creatures, she is the most obedient to God, and I am a rebel!"
Father Amorth: "Tell me the fourth characteristic of the Madonna that makes you so afraid of her that you are more afraid when I say the Madonna's name than when I say the name of Jesus Christ!"
Demon: "I am more afraid when you say the Madonna's name, because I am more humiliated by being beaten by a simple creature, than by Him..."
"During an exorcism," Father Amorth remembers, "Satan told me, through the possessed person, 'Every Hail Mary of the Rosary is a blow to the head for me; if Christians knew the power of the Rosary, it would be the end of me!'"
Our Church even celebrates, on the 12th of September, the Feast of The Most Holy Name Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Painting: Melanzio Francesco - Madonna del Soccorso, 1509
There is power in the name of Mary. What more in a chant, or sacred Hymn dedicated to Mary?
The Saints show The Way.
There was a period of time when I did not love Mary as I should have. I remember looking with disdain at the old ladies at Mass whenever they would whip out their rosaries and pray during Mass. I could not understand why they were turning their attention to Our Lady, when they should have been focused fully on Our Lord. Or so I thought.
It was only upon the death of Saint John Paul II that I deepened my understanding about Mary’s role in Salvation history.
‘Totus Tuus’. That motto of Pope Saint John Paul II had always been spoken about during his pontificate. But it was only after he died in 2002, that I decided to read up more about the Pope and his motto.
In his book, ‘Crossing The Threshold Of Hope’, Pope Saint John Paul II outlines the reasons for his motto Totus Tuus (“I am completely yours, O Mary”).
He writes : “Totus Tuus. This phrase is not only an expression of piety, or simply an expression of devotion. It is more. During the Second World War, while I was employed as a factory worker, I came to be attracted to Marian devotion. At first, it had seemed to me that I should distance myself a bit from the Marian devotion of my childhood, in order to focus more on Christ. Thanks to Saint Louis of Montfort, I came to understand that true devotion to the Mother of God is actually Christocentric, indeed it is very profoundly rooted in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, and the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption.”
“And so, I rediscovered Marian piety, this time with a deeper understanding. This mature form of devotion to the Mother of God has stayed with me over the years, bearing fruit in the encyclicals Redemptoris Mater and Mulieris Dignitatem.” – Pope Saint John Paul II, Crossing The Threshold Of Hope.
Wow…so even Pope Saint John Paul II was almost sidetracked by the false idea that Marian devotion might lead away from Christ rather than towards Him. Thank God for the writings and teachings of St. Louis De Montfort.
Let’s go to Saint Louis Marie De Montfort himself to see what says, in his pivotal work ‘True Devotion To Mary’:
“The more we honour the Blessed Virgin, the more we honour Jesus Christ, because we honour Mary only that we may the more perfectly honour Jesus, since we go to her only as the way by which we are to find the end we are seeking, which is Jesus.” – Saint Louis De Montfort.
Saint John Bosco himself, an Italian Catholic priest and educator, speaks of the two pillars that we need to have in our spiritual life. The Eucharist and Mary. His priesthood was guided by these two pillars.
Saint Maximillan Kolbe himself understood the Totus Tuus of which Pope Saint John Paul II lived his life, for he too lived this total abandonment to Mary. He understood that in order to be formed into another Christ, indeed, into Christ himself, not just an alter Christus (another Christ) but an ipse Christus (Christ himself), he needed to pour his entire self into the hands, and indeed into the womb of the Immaculate. For she who had already formed Christ in her womb, would form the soul completely entrusted to her, in that same womb underneath the same beating Immaculate Heart…she would form that soul according to the form of Jesus Christ.
“In her womb the soul must be regenerated according to the form of Jesus Christ.”
“Through the Immaculate, we can become great saints, and what is more, in an easy way.”
– Saint Maximillan Kolbe
The Offering of our very selves at the Offertory
And so, what is the Offertory at Mass, but the offering of our lives, the total gift of our very selves, to God? And what better way to offer ourselves than to offer ourselves through the hands of Mary?
For in doing so, we are but following in the footsteps of God the Father.
Saint Louis Marie-De Montfort writes in his treatise on True Devotion to Mary :
“16. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-begotten to the world. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found grace before God (Lk 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues. The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her.”
“The Son of God became man for our salvation, but it was in Mary and by Mary. God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary; but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of His court.”
Just as one doesn’t approach a King without seeking permission, or by going through the trusted Queen, we please Our Lord with our humility when we give ourselves to Him through her. And Mary, being Jesus’ mother, knows exactly how and when to present our gifts to Him, in the best way possible, for she knows the heart of her Son.
She can dress our gift up, in a way that is more pleasing to Him.
Don’t we do that for our children too? We frame their scraps of paper, their little pieces of artwork upon our walls, so as to beautify their artwork and dignify it and give it a place of honour in our homes?
To Sing of Her Praises
How apt it is then to sing of Mary at the Offertory, and at Mass, for it was she who offered the very Body and Blood of her Humanity, without which we would not have the Body and Blood of Our Lord in the Eucharist!
Even that little drop of water that is poured into the chalice at the Offertory? Without her help at the Wedding of Cana, without her pleading “They have no wine”, where would we be?
She in fact, is the only one who can truly say, along with our Lord, “This is my Body, This is my Blood”.
She is the one whose name is invoked in the Eucharistic Prayers. Dare we give her honour at one part of the Mass, and decline to name or acknowledge her in another part of the Mass? I suppose that is the division within ourselves, which we, as Fallen Man are so inclined towards.
And so, Mary stands by the Cross.
She carries the infant Jesus at the altar of every Mass, for as the words of consecration are spoken by the priest and the priest holds Our Lord aloft, holds His Body in his priestly hands, it behooves him to remember that it was She who first held Him in her virginal womb. She who first held that Infant’s hand, that little Infant’s body. She, who cradled His Body, when His broken Body and pierced Heart was taken down from the wood of the Cross.
Mary is present at every point in the Holy Mass. She is there with her Fiat from the very beginning, singing with the angels at the Gloria, walking into the church with the Priest and the altar servers as she walked with Joseph so long ago into the Temple at the Presentation of Our Lord. She is there as He lays there upon the Paten as He did in that manger in Bethlehem.
She is there, Mater Dolorosa, at the foot of the Cross with the Beloved Disciple, with the sword piercing Her Immaculate Heart, as the priest, holds up His Body and Blood and offers it to the Father, and then together with John the Baptist and all the saints and the angels exclaim : “Behold the Lamb of God! Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world! Happy are those called to the Supper of the Lamb”.
The Church is the Bride of Christ. Mary is the bride par excellence. Her DNA is everywhere in the Holy Mass. Should we deny lisping a simple Ave Maria at the Offertory to sing her praises?
And so I leave you with the words of Fr. Frederick Faber, the writer of such beautiful hymns as ‘Jesus My Lord My God, My All’ and one of the translators of St. Louis De Montfort’s Treatise on ‘True Devotion to Mary’.
“Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them” – Fr. Frederick Faber, preface to ‘True Devotion to Mary’
Let us then not be afraid to sing the praises of Mary, for it was Our Lord who first sang her praise in giving Her to us when He proclaimed from the pulpit of the Cross: ‘Behold Thy Mother!’
May Saint John Paul II intercede for us as we strive to make that sweet motto of his our own too.
‘Totus Tuus. I am completely yours, O Mary!’
