CNP Feedback -
Communion Antiphons

The "Feedback Box" on the CanticaNOVA Publications website has proven quite effective in promoting communications on a variety of subjects, and expressing concerns of liturgists and musicians. From time to time, we'll compile a few of these questions or comments and put them in public view, with the hope that others with similar concerns may benefit from their content.

Q. Dear CNP:

Thank you for your website. I find your liturgical planning pages very helpful. Can you tell me where the Communion antiphons come from? There are a lot of options and I like having them all in one place, but (if you'll excuse the question) are they all from approved Church documents?

Dee Church Sings

A. Dear Dee:
Thank you for your question about the source (and "orthodoxy") of the Communion antiphon texts and music we present on our Liturgical Planning Pages. Let's look in particular at the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Liturgical texts and Musical suggestions. Here are the liturgical texts as found on the website:

• [from The Roman Missal]
  You have given us, O Lord, bread from heaven,
  endowed with all delights and sweetness in every taste. Wisdom 16:20
  – or –
• [from The Roman Missal]
  I am the bread of life, says the Lord;
  whoever comes to me will not hunger
  and whoever believes in me will not thirst. John 6:35
   
• [from Graduale Romanum, p.319]
  Panem de cælo dedisti nobis, Domine, habentem omne delectamentum, et omnem saporem suavitatis. Wis 16:20
  Psalm 78:1,2,3-4a,4bcd,23,24,25,27,28,29 can also be sung between repetitions of this antiphon.
   
• [from Gregorian Missal, p.521]
  Panem de cælo dedisti nobis, Domine, habentem omne delectamentum, et omnem saporem suavitatis. Wis 16:20
   
• [from Graduale Simplex, pp.215-252]
  Choose one Antiphona ad communionem and Psalmus from any of the eight Masses for Ordinary Time

You can see that the first two listings are Option 1 and Option 2 from The Roman Missal in English.

The next two choices are the Latin original for English Option 1 ("You have given us, O Lord, bread from heaven … "). One comes from the Graduale Romanum and the other from the Gregorian Missal — both of these are official "choir books" of the Roman Rite, containing official Gregorian chant Propers.

The next line references the Graduale Simplex, another official music book of the Church, but one that contains much simpler chant than the Graduale Romanum or the Gregorian Missal. This simplified volume contains eight options for the Propers for Ordinary Time, from which any of them can be selected for any Sunday in Ordinary Time.

All these are listings are official texts of the Church, approved and authorized by the Vatican.

Here are the 12 suggestions we make for music for the Communion Antiphon on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time:

1. Panem de cælo dedisti nobis [Graduale Romanum, p.319]
2. Panem de cælo dedisti nobis [Gregorian Missal, p.521]
3. Panem de cælo dedisti nobis [Communio, p.178 (Richard Rice) CMAA]
4. Choose one Antiphona ad communionem and Psalmus from any of the eight Masses for Ordinary Time [Graduale Simplex, pp.215-252]
5. You gave us bread from heaven [Simple English Propers, p.270 (Adam Bartlett)]
6. You gave us bread from heaven [Choral Communio, p.150 (Richard Rice) Hostia Laudis Co]
7. You gave us bread from heaven [Simple Choral Gradual, p.199 (Richard Rice) CMAA]
8. The Lord says: I am the bread of life [Simple Choral Gradual, p.200 (Richard Rice) CMAA]
9. You have given us, O Lord, bread from heaven [Lumen Christi Missal, p.952 (Adam Bartlett) Illuminare Publications]
10. You gave us bread from heaven [Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons (Andrew Motyka)]
11. You have given us, O Lord, bread from heaven [Saint Meinrad Antiphons for the Church Year, p.67 / Mode 5 (Columba Kelly OSB) OCP]
12. I am the bread of life, says the Lord [Saint Meinrad Antiphons for the Church Year, p.68 / Mode 5 (Columba Kelly OSB) OCP]

Numbers 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11 are various musical settings of English Option 1 from The Roman Missal, from the collections noted. The translations vary slightly because the composers/editors used different sources for their texts [some directly from The Roman Missal, others from different English translations of the Latin text of the Graduale Romanum].

Numbers 8 and 12 are musical settings of English Option 2 from The Roman Missal.

Number 1 gives the music from the Graduale Romanum.

Number 2 gives the music from the Gregorian Missal.

Number 3 is a setting from Communio (Richard Rice) of the exact chant Proper from the Graduale Romanum and the Gregorian Missal, with added psalm verses to extend the singing throughout Communion time.

Number 4 references the choices from the Mass Propers for Ordinary Time in the Graduale Simplex.

All of the texts are from officially approved sources; you can feel confident that by using any of these you are staying squarely within the realm of what the Church intends for music at Communion time.

Gary Penkala
CanticaNOVA Publications
Article written 27 July 2015