There’s two ways to look at your situation today. Either the congregation walked out (which the priest does, too, by the way) OR the musical director was prolonging the song – you have to decide.
Songs, indeed, teach us of our faith. But, today, being Palm Sunday, with the reading of the passion of our Lord, the Mass was already a big prolonged. Really, Catholics are generally conditioned for the Mass to conclude within an hour.
My parish is composed of the merger of two churches. For a while, I was attending Mass on both Saturday and Sunday, with the same priest celebrant. In the one church, the 60-minute (unofficial) rule was followed, but the (what I call) excess singing in the other church led to the Mass concluding in 75 minutes. Now, there, in that second church, there’s a special pamphlet printed for each weekend Mass.
The reason why that second Mass extended to 75 minutes was, as I later calculated from the pamphlet, due to singing of about 75 stanzas and choruses. I have a weak voice, and I can’t even hold out for all that long. This has to due totally to the discretion of the music director (same priest, 60 minutes versus 75 minutes).
The Mass is a ritual, to be sure, but it is a very dramatic one, if you’re really “into” it, if you’re “into” what every part of it represents. I AM “into” it and I don’t get overly concerned about these variable and non-essential aspects of it. By the end of Mass, I am in an “overload” condition. I don’t think I need all six verses of a song along with the chorus repeated after each one. I’m not a slave to that.
Perhaps you could teach us something about your Baptist church experience, so we can learn from it. I like Protestant hymns, well, the traditional ones.
There’s another level to the conversation – how hard is it to sing the Catholic hymns? In this one church that I belonged to, this lady soprano couldn’t even hit the high notes,much less the rest of us. In the more than 50 years since the Second Vatican Council, which ushered in the English form of the Mass in the U.S., I don’t think that the music has really matured to a great level that it eventually will get to.
If you can watch the Mass on EWTN, you will see that there are almost standard melodies for certain parts of the Mass – which standardization is not at all required ! It is simply the decision of “somebody” (who I will not mention) who LIKES IT THAT WAY.
I suspect that what you experienced is the result of a number of factors that I have listed above. What is variable from one Catholic church to another, is what the priest does who leaves before everybody else? Does he stand there greeting everybody? Or, as some priests in nearby churches do, they go back to their little room and just take off their vestments – in one case the priest even closes the door to that room, so as to conceal his rudeness towards the parishioners (which is my opinion – I can’t say which is worse, disrobing in sight of or out of the sight of the departing parishioners – WHAT’S HIS HURRY?)
Your question involves Catholic culture at various levels. And, it involves spirituality of the individual and collective members of a parish. If you have the opportunity, there is usually a lot more relaxed progression of the Mass on weekdays. And, to be frank, you have to look around for priest who encourages the appropriate spirituality. See my next post.
