Sung Mattins (Morning Prayer) in the Diocese of Toronto

Keywords: Choral Mattins, Sung Mattins, Matins, Morning Prayer, Diocese of Toronto

Where can you attend Mattins as a principal Sunday service in the Diocese of Toronto? Below are parishes in the Diocese of Toronto that offer Sung Mattins every month. Please contact me with omissions or errors. The time of the service is in brackets. Note that at some parishes, major holy days override Mattins. At St Simon-the-Apostle, for instance, Morning Prayer is occasionally displaced to the third Sunday of the month.

Second, fourth, and fifth Sundays
*Good Shepherd, Weston - (10.30)
*St Olave's, Swansea (10.30)

Second and fourth Sundays
*Christ the King, Etobicoke (10.30)
*Grace Church on-the-Hill (11)
*Little Trinity (aka Trinity East) (10.30)

Second Sundays
*Church of the Resurrection (10.30)
*St Hilda's, Fairbank (10.30)
*St Simon the Apostle (10.30)
*St Stephens, Downsview (10.30)

Patronal Vespers and Benediction of the Holy Family

On Sunday, God willing, I will be at Solemn Vespers and Benediction for the Patronal Festival at Holy Family, Toronto Oratory. Here is what the bulletin promises:

Office Hymn (p. 20): Of the Father’s love begotten
Ps. 110 (p. 33) (Antiphon): Thine is princely rule in the day of
thy power in holy splendour. From the womb before the daystar
have I begotten thee.
Ps. 114/115 (p. 39) (Antiphon): Light is arisen in darkness
unto the righteous of heart; the Lord hath sent deliverance to his
people; he hath commanded his covenant for ever.
Apocalypse Canticle (p. 43) (Tone VI & R. K. Marlow after
Tallis, O nata lux de lumine, 1575) Light hath shined upon us,
for on this day is born a Saviour, alleluia.
Short Responsory: Verbum caro factus est, alleluia. Verbum.
Et habitavit in nobis. Alleluia. Gloria. Verbum. (The Word was
made flesh. Alleluia, alleluia. The Word. And dwelt amongst
us. Alleluia. Glory be. The Word.)
Magnificat (p. 46) (Tone VII with fauxbourdons by P.
Bishop) Tolle puerum et matrem eius, et vade in terram Israel:
defuncti sunt enim, qui quærebant animam pueri. (Take the
child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they
are dead that sought the life of the child.)
Final Antiphon: Alma Redemptoris Mater (Orlandus Lassus)
Organ: Chorale Prelude, “In dir ist Freude” (Orgelbuechlein)
(J. S. Bach)

Extraordinary form (Tridentine/Traditional Latin) Masses in the Archdiocese of Toronto

I intend this to be a definitive list of regular extraordinary form Masses in the city of Toronto. Masses elsewhere in the archdiocese (such as York Region), and those of the SSPX, are excluded without prejudice. Please notify me of any errors or omissions.

Keywords: Indult, Toronto, extraordinary form, Tridentine, traditional Latin Mass, Archdiocese of Toronto, Summorum Pontificum

Sundays
9am Missa Cantata (?) - St Patrick's Church, Schomberg
11.30am Missa Cantata - St Vincent de Paul Church, Toronto Oratory
1pm Missa Cantata - St Theresa Shrine of the Little Flower

Monday to Friday
11.30am Low Mass - Holy Family Church, Toronto Oratory

Saturdays
8.30am Low Mass - Holy Family Church, Toronto Oratory

St Theresa's also has a Low Mass at ten-thirty on First Saturdays, preceded by the Rosary at ten o'clock.

NB: Holy Family does not have a TLM on Sunday, but is interestingly the only parish in the archdiocese with a Latin Mass according to the ordinary form every Sunday (at eleven o'clock). They are also, as far as I know, the only parish with weekly Solemn Vespers and Benediction (five o'clock on Sundays), which is a bilingual service in the ordinary form.

Links:
*Toronto Oratory
*St Theresa's Parish

Christmas Day

High Mass of the Day at St Thomas's, Huron Street. Setting: Missa "Corde natus ex parentis" (Willan) (except Gloria and Credo, de Angelis, and Lord's Prayer, Merbecke).

Entrance Hymn: "O come, all ye faithful"
Sequence: "From east to west" (Christe redemptor)
Offertory: "O little town of Bethlehem" (Forest Green)
During Communion: "Angels from the realms of Glory" (to a tune called Larkin, the first time I have heard it song to anything other than Regent's Square, even though the leaflet indicated that it was sung to the latter at 9.30).
Recessional: "Hark, the herald angels sing"

There was a station at the Crèche afterwards.

Midnight Mass

Choral Eucharist for Christmas at the Church of the Nearest Sunday, at eleven o'clock at night. The Mass was preceded at ten-thirty by Christmas carols.

Hymn: "While shepherds watched" (Winchester Old)
Choir: I sing the birth (Michael Praetorius arr Philip Moore)
Hymn: "In the bleak mid-winter" (Cranham)
Choir: Wexford Carol (arr. John Rutter)
Hymn: "O little town of Bethlehem" (Forest Green)
Choir Wassail Carol (William Mathias)
Hymn: "See amid the winter's snow" (See amid the winter's snow)

Pontifical Eucharist followed. After "O come all ye faithful" and the lighting of the Christ candle was sung Joy to the world. The retired archbishop who was celebrating did so, bizarrely, in a cope. Ironically, earlier in the day, I was speaking on the phone to an Apprentice who told me that his parish priest would be celebrating Midnight Mass in a cope and told him it would never happen in Canada! The deacon wore cassock-alb and stole and the subdeacon wore cassock and surplice.

The setting was Missa Brevis (Piccolomini-messe) by Mozart, and even the Gloria was sung by the choir to this setting. The crèche, sadly, was not blessed.

"Good Christians all, rejoice" (In dulci jubilo) was the gradual hymn. There was no confession and absolution. The Lord's Prayer, at least, was sung congregationally to Merbecke. At the Fraction, and Invitation to Communion from the New Zealand Prayer Book, based on the Prayer Book words of administration, was said in lieu of the Prayer of Humble Access. Communion hymn (by the choir): "All my heart this night rejoices" (Bonn).

We sang "Silent Night" before the Blessing, which came from Common Worship, then the recessional followed to "Hark, the herald angels sing".

Fast living

I've been up since five o'clock this morning. It's always nice when I get up before 8 on a Sunday morning, not only because I then have ample time to prepare for my Communion, but also because I can eat breakfast, since I typically attend Mass at eleven, and observe the three-hour fast before Mass.

In this time of Advent, when we are trying to dodge the commercialism of the season and engage with solemnity in the coming of Christ (even if not in the same penitential manner as in Lent), it's particularly appropriate to think of our disciplines. Here is what the Saint Augustine Prayer Book, by the Order of the Holy Cross, has to say about the Eucharistic fast.

The fast before Communion is not primarily an act of penance, but one of homage to our Lord, in order to receive the Blessed Sacrament as the first food of the day. It is normally a strict fast from both food and drink from midnight. At the Midnight Mass of Christmas it is natural and reverent, though not of obligation, to fast for some hours beforehand. No fast before Communion is required of those in danger of death. (And this is held to justify some relaxation in the case of those on active duty in the armed forces, for whom the fast from midnight may, if necessary, be replaced, according to widespread practice, by one of two to four hours, under the authority of Chaplains or others ministering to those involved.) Liquid food may be allowed to those seriously ill, or to those bed-ridden for over a month, but in such cases, no one should presume to "dispense himself," for the Priest who dispenses the Sacrament is the guardian of the Church's requirements, from whom a formal dispensation should ordinarily be sought.

Since the eucharistic fast is not penitential, it is not understood to prohibit smoking. However, common sense and good manners ought to regulate those things which do not fall within the formal regulations of the Church, such as smoking, the use of lipstick, propriety of dress, and personal cleanliness.

There is no law of the Catholic Church as to what hours of the day or night the Eucharist is to be celebrated. The law concerns only the fast before Communion, and thus the hour for celebration must be set according to the ability of the Celebrant and Communicants to fast from midnight previous to reception. Hence there is no justification for celebrating the Eucharist in the afternoon or evening, except those unusual circumstances indicated above, which may, by permission from the proper superior authority, excuse from the normal observance of the fast, namely, imminence of death or danger thereof, or absolute impossibility of normal reception of the Holy Communion.

Upcoming liturgical events

Here's what I'm up to in the near future:

December 24 (Christmas Eve) - Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nearest Sunday
December 25 (Christmas Day) - High Mass of the Day at St Thomas's, Huron Street
December 30 - High Mass at the Cathedral Church of St James
December 31 (New Year's Eve) - Sung Mass at St Matthias, Bellwoods

January 7 (Julian Christmas) - Divine Liturgy at Holy Trinity Church
January 13 (Baptism of Christ) - Sung Latin Mass (Ordinary form) at Holy Family, King Street, Toronto Oratory; Sung Eucharist and Ordination of Priests at the Church of the Redeemer

February 2 (Purification of the BVM) - Sung Eucharist and Ordination to the Episcopate at the Cathedral
February 6 (Ash Wednesday) - Choral Eucharist at the Church of the Nearest Sunday
February 10 - Choral Mattins at St Olave's, Swansea
February 17 - Sung Eucharist and Ordination to the Priesthood at St John's Convent