We ran over the hymn, psalms, responsory, Nunc dimittis and antiphons for Compline again, including the Salve Regina, that most beautiful anthem in honour of the Virgin.
It was really good to get together and practice the chant!
As will be our schedule, we will meet again at 7.30pm at St Francis next Tuesday, being the 1st Tuesday of the month, and again on the 3rd.
I learnt an interesting thing about ships and sailors too - Len, one of our group, was long in the merchant navy, and he explained that the custom is to salute the quarter deck: why? because of old time there was always a statue of the Blessed Virgin there.
Each day as he sailed on and on to discover the direct route to the Indies - but found America instead - Columbus and his men sang the Salve before her image.
2 comments:
Joshua,
Thank you for the reminder about the devotion of Columbus and his men to Our Lady through singing the Salve Regina every day. We homeschool and our son has been reading about the European explorers, and we have been talking about the missionary impulse of those explorers that is usually totally ignored by most histories and historians. Teaching US history from a Catholic worldview is a major whack on the side of the head!
Separately, the schola I direct is moderately advanced in ability, but we NEVER tire of singing Salve Regina, and always when planning music beyond the propers for a Mass we've been asked to sing, we sing the seasonal Marian antiphon last at Communion, which for much of the year is Salve Regina!
Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genetrix!
Thank you, Patricia: yes, we forget how in every age except our own men and women were driven not just by worldly motives but by their devotion to the Lord.
As for the Salve, who could ever tire of it?
I must admit to my sorrow that, though I pray it daily, I hadn't sung it aloud in some time, and was as ever blown away by its beauty.
By Holy Mary's prayers may we be made worthy of Her Son's promises.
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