A funny thing happened at Mass last night…

After chanting the Sanctus, the entire assembly remained standing, clearly disoriented.

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth,
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua, Hosanna in excelsis,
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, Hosanna in excelsis.

I almost slammed the kneeler into the shin of the lady next to me. I’ve noticed this before: that whenever the Latin Ordinaries are used, everyone is confused about what to do next. If anything illustrates a lack of continuity in liturgical practice, this is it. Perhaps endless experimentation that leads to separation of the faithful from the native worship of the Latin Rite of the Church is not really a desirable thing.

The singing of the Sanctus is an earthly parallel – and a pretty a good one when done well – to the never-ending heavenly liturgy. From Revelation 4:

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round & within, & day & night never cease to sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was & is & is to come!”

And whenever the living creatures give glory & honor & thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever & ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne & worship him who lives for ever & ever...

Astounding, really, that any Catholic would be confused about this. How long have we been doing this now? I know that new & more faithful (to the Latin) English language translations are on the way, but I wonder why we even need to bother.

Also, it is quite common in parishes to simply recite, “Holy, holy, holy…” whereas we are clearly called - & has been so throughout the nearly 2,000 year tradition of the Church – to sing to Sanctus, & the other Ordinaries. There are dozens of chant arrangements that congregations can sing – I know because we do it every weekend at the Extraordinary Form of Mass (click on the image above for a version we are practicing for Easter).

So, here’s one vote for always singing the Sanctus as Sanctus. And for true & honest participatio actuosa in the liturgy, on earth as it is in heaven.