**This is my frustration with Mass, in general. There are way too many priests who simply don’t know how to organize and deliver a good Mass. They don’t get it. Horrible music and ineffectual sermons dominate most neighborhood, parish Masses where I live. It’s very frustrating. As a retired military guy, I expect those in charge to be inspiring and organized. **
If you read back to the first page and look at my post, you will see that I thoroughly understand that Mass is not a “show.” Please, don’t everyone accuse me of worldliness or “Protestantism.”
However, KingAlfred, to a certain extent, I agree with you. In our parish, which is very large and wealthy, the Masses are generally quite bland. I think we could do better when it comes to music. I think that the talents and gifts in our parish of around 7000 people are under-utilized and that rather than striving for “excellence” in our Masses, we are content if there is an instrumentalist and a cantor, and neither really has to be competent, just willing.
I know that there are many people in our parish who are professional or semi-professional musicians who never participate in the Masses, and I believe it’s because no one “organizes” the music. Musicians generally don’t step up unless they are invited.
Our Music Director resigned a year ago (to take the job at the Cathedral), and since then, we have had an organist who just plays the organ. He doesn’t organize the “music program” at the parish. He has no idea of the talent that is not being used.
The music is appropriate. That’s about it. And that’s OK, right? After all, the Mass is not a performance.
But surely, SURELY, we could give better to Jesus.
We wouldn’t settle for “appropriate” when it comes to charitable outreach. Our parish tries to out-do ourselves every year when it comes to helping the poor and giving until it hurts to provide for those in need. It’s delightful to be part of such a generous parish.
And our parish school works very hard to be at the top academically and in the arts and sports. We wouldn’t settle for “average” or “meets expectations” at the school. We want to be outstanding!
So why are we settling for “average” and “OK” and “rubrical” when it comes to music?!
Jesus tells the parable of the talents, how some people use their talents and there is an increase. But one person buried his one talent in the ground. I think that’s what is happening at our parish.
I think our dear pastor, who is an excellent manager of this large, wealthy parish, is trying very hard to strike a balance in the parish. He would like to have excellent music. But he does not want to create a “showplace.”
There are churches in our city that are showplaces. A few blocks down the road from our parish is the large Willow Creek spinoff megachurch, which attracts over 10,000 people to worship services every Sunday. Even more come during the 15 services on Christmas weekend. The music can only be described as “spectacular.” The musicians are professionals. There are no volunteers. They are paid professionals, and they are extremely good.
A few miles away from our parish are two other smaller Protestant churches that are not megachurches, but they have around 5000 members. The music is provided by the laypeople, but it is extremely good. Many of the best professional musicians in our city attend these Protestant churches and voluntarily provide the music, so they attract a large number of non-Christian people, which is good, because they get to hear the Gospel and are challenged to follow Jesus.
I think that our good pastor knows that our parish will never “compete” with these places, and so in his attempt to avoid making a competition out of the music, he is willing to settle for what we have and not ask for anything better.
I agree with him, but I also think that it’s sad to not utilize the musicians in the parish who are willing to serve the church with their God-given talents. I see nothing wrong or inappropriate or outside-the-rubrics or irreverent about attempting to have the very best music that we are capable of having.
When my family and I agreed to provide the music for one of the Christmas Eve Vigil Masses, we went all out. For the prelude, we did several pieces. My younger daughter sang “He Shall Feed His Flock” and “Come Unto Me” from Handel’s Messiah. Both of my daughters did “O Holy Night” in French followed by English, in two parts. Then the whole family sang a Mozart “Alleluia.”
People clapped for this prelude. I warned the girls that there would be applause. I know that some of you find this inappropriate. Well, so do I. But when people are starving for good music, they WILL applaud when they get it, just as a person starving for food will sigh and cheer when the food is finally brought to him.
We did not do the Creation Mass parts, as these are done every week. Instead, we used Mass parts from several Masses, the ones that are actually pretty and melodic. The girls cantored them in parts, with descants.
The girls cantored the hymns (Christmas carols) in parts. And my younger daughter sang a Communion Meditation, a song that I wrote. It went perfectly with the priest’s homily. It sounded like his homily, but set to music!
And I played a magnificant Christmas medley as a Postlude.
After Mass, people told us that they didn’t expect to hear good music.
What?! Not expect to hear good music at Mass on the night before the celebration of the Lord’s birth?!
That’s sad, don’t you think? I don’t expect to hear good music during a weekday Mass. But on Christmas Eve, surely we should try to at least imitate the angels, who SANG in honor of the Nativity!
Anyway, I think that it’s difficult for Catholic priests to find balance between making the Mass a “show” and keeping the Mass a heavenly liturgy.
if you are paying attention, and your heart is where it should be, you will have no problem. My friend told me a Protestant gathering is one of the most boring things she sits through.