Sunday, December 30, 2007

A FRIENDLY REMINDER

brought to you by "O Come, Let Us Adore Him"

For some reason, up in these parts, many parishes still have a tendency of using O come, let us adore him / Venite, Adoremus as a memorial acclamation. Now, I must say that the ditty in question is, well, not really a ditty, but the refrain of a beautifully-written Christmas carol. However, it is NOT a memorial acclamation.

Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.

The "mystery of faith", mysterium fidei, is not the Lord's birth, though we are in the season to celebrate such. The mystery of faith is what we recall every time we come to Mass - the Eucharist, our Lord's Holy Sacrifice of His Body and Blood, his passion, death, and resurrection.

- Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life; Lord Jesus, come in glory.
- When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.
- Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free; you are the Savior of the world.

(and I guess the add-on, Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.)

Don't get me wrong - I love the hymn Adeste Fideles, but in its rightful place.
Peace,
BMP

7 comments:

DominiSumus said...

I have never heard of that before. I guess it must be a Rhode Island thing.

Brian Michael Page said...

Could be. It's been going on since I was a kid, and I was a good ten years or more in the field before I realized how wrong I was. Heck, I was just following everyone else back then. You'll be surprised how many parishes STILL get away with it.

Another one I've heard for the memorial is (blech) "He is Lord"

(He is Lord, he is Lord, he is risen from the dead and he is Lord;
every knee shall bend, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord)
(repeat: blech)

BMP

Brian Michael Page said...

...oh, and this one, at a kiddie Mass I stumbled onto:

"Father, we adore you, lay my life before you, how I love you"
(substitute "Jesus" and "Spirit" for "Father" for repetitions)
(double blech)

BMP

Cathy said...

Never heard of any of that, thank goodness.

Blech is right, Brian.

DominiSumus said...

The charismatic group I used to play for would sing the "He is Lord" for the Memorial acclamation, and I remember a few other strange responses when when I was a kid, but I haven't heard any recently.

Mara Joy said...

I've definitely heard all of those, as well as, "Keep in mind, that Jesus Christ has died for us, and is risen from the dead, he is Lord for all ages."

Scelata said...

These things do tend to be regional, so I always suspect an illicit incident at some diocesan function back in the day is to blame.
In Florida many churches seemed to use the Haugen "We Remember...." and the Deiss (I presume,) referenced by Mara Joy seemed to me to be a mid-western thing.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)