I was struck this week that the weekday mass for Lent has a very similar simplicity to the opening of Lauds.

 

The weekday mass ordinary movements (Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei)  for Lent are the same as the ordinary for the mass for the dead. Made familiar to many of us through use in numerous choral works, this mass consists largely of chanting “by step” rather than “by leap” which is so typical of children’s songs!  

 

What incredible insight and teaching to have the same ordinaries for the Mass for the Dead and the weekday Mass for Lent! Such simple and profound chants, easily chanted by young and old alike, show us again that these chants are for everyone. All of us experience the liturgical seasons just as all of us have or will experience all of the seasons of life. Uniting us through the ordinary of the mass is a perfect way to teach this precept.