Ritual Notes. (Corpus Christi)

 (A photo of the procession form a few years ago.)

Music:

Entrance: Alleluia!, sing to Jesus!

Mass setting (Except gloria) Missa de angelis.

Gloria: Missa Secunda, Hans Leo Hassler

Alleluia: Mode 7, graduale simplex.

Credo: Credo III

Offertory: Ave verum corpus,W.A.Mozart,O food of exiles lowly. (Innsbruck.)

Communion: Proper chant, O sacrum convivium, Palestrina

During the procession:

Of the Glorious Body Telling

Fairest Lord Jesus

As thou at thy first eucharist didst pray

To Jesus Christ our sovereign king

Soul of my Saviour

Pange lingua gloriosi

Recessional: Holy God, we praise thy name! (Grosser Gott)

Today was an interesting day. And by 'interesting', I mean "It was nearly 100 degrees and we still did an outdoor procession in the blazing hot sun."

Things went well considering the circumstances. Nine servers who I was counting on didn't show up, which meant some improvising. We ended up with :Crucifer, two acolytes, thurifer, second thurifer, and four torchbearers.
The opening procession went the long way from the sacristy to the sanctuary . I expected the mass to be in English, facing the people, but it was said in Latin, ad orientem. After the collect, the readings (this year is always my favourite year of the lectionary cycle for Corpus Christi.) and the psalm, the sequence Lauda Sion was sung, and then the alleluia.Everything else proceeded as we normally do at solemn mass, including communion at the altar rail. After communion, the torchbearers went to the sacristy. After the ablutions, the thurifers went to the sacristy. After the postcommunion prayer was sung, the celebrant changed to a cope and stole, the torchbearers knelt at the communion rail, and the thurifers had incense laid on and blessed. The celebrant intoned the 'Pange Lingua', and the procession went out and around the neighborhood, with the blessed sacrament under the canopy and two girls scattering rose petals before it. There were three benediction stations, and a fourth at the church.It was kind of fun that the procession passed Holy Cross Baptist church, where some close friends of my family attend. Quite a few of the people stood outside and watched the procession, some took photos. 

Now, thanks to the Wonderful city of Philadelphia, mostly thanks to PGW, there are no corners on any of the blocks near the church. They've been dug up, and the sidewalks cordoned off. Which meant that after the benediction station at the parish school, we had a some trouble trying to get back to the church. After the final benediction and the recessional, I was too busy trying to remove the two extra layers of clothing that the cassock and surplice make to listen to postlude, but I did hear the chamades in the organ chorus and the 32' Double Ophicleide.