Q: I have two questions about “The Announcement of Easter and Movable Feasts” (Appendix I) chant that is available for Epiphany Mass:
1) The rubric in the Missal indicates that “a Deacon or cantor” may make this announcement after the Gospel. The Paulist Ordo (page 29 of the 2022 edition) indicates that the presider may also chant it, but I don’t see such an indication in the rubric. Intuitively, I don’t know why the presider (or concelebrating priest or priest in choir, for that matter) could not do so, except for the fact that the rubric does not indicate it. How much weight should we give the Ordo here?
2) For the Masses of the Epiphany, the rubric for the Announcement is only present for Mass During the Day, not for the Vigil Mass. Is this to be read as indicating that the Announcement may not be chanted during the Vigil? If so, why.
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A: The new Italian missal says that the announcement is made by a deacon, a priest or another appropriate minister.
In the absence of a deacon, a presider or concelebrant takes on the deacon’s functions because a priest is an ordained deacon too. The same argument could be made for the absence of a cantor.
Regarding the Vigil—that is my understanding, that the table is not to be sung at the Vigil Mass because the Vigil suggests that it is not yet Epiphany, even though the Mass fulfills the canonical obligation to participate in the Epiphany. The antiphons and prayers of the Vigil have an anticipatory feel to them, even though the readings are the same.
The Vigil Mass is new to the third edition of the Roman Missal. So is the table of liturgical days—so the notation restricting it to Epiphany Day looks deliberate.