I can say for me, because the only parish in my town plays low quality cheesy “hymns” from the abominable Gather, and I feel these are unworthy of so great an act as the Mass. Our choir director agrees but is bullied by some.
How?
I suppose St. AUgustine meant when he said that singing was praying twice that since you put so much energy and devotion into singing, (even if your voice isn´t harmonious) that it´s like elevating your prayer twice to God…
Both are “lifting our minds and hearts to God”
Well said Elizium. This very successfuly articulates what is expected of the congregation. I am fed up with people who say they “prefer to listen to the choir”. Fair enough if the choir is singing a motet or a polyphonic setting, but congregational settings means that we are all supposed to sing. Our parish has the main mass at 10.30pm with the choir where only a few people sing, and another mass with hymns and congregational settings at 12noon where perhaps 5 or 6 people out of 200 or so sing. It is painful to behold the organ trotting out the tunes while none participate.
It’s not a different voice:
This phrase encapsulates perfectly what I see week after week in our churches. I was at a confirmation mass on Saturday night at Westminster Cathedral and the processional hymn was the very beautiful and appropriate “Come Down, O Love Divine” and as I and a few others sang we were surrounded by stony faces simply refusing to make an effort. It is a real mystery to me and I hate it.
This is actually what I do. Not the whole song of course, but I’d rather they just tell me happy birthday than sit through the whole awkward song. That’s just me, though, and I really don’t care how others like it on their own birthday. In most cases I don’t advertise my birthday in the first place because I hate the attention.
This would all be fine, if my question were “is singing different from normal speech?” Obviously it is and I was never questioning that. The question was about how singing = “praying twice.”
If you really can’t sing then you should attempt to show your participation in some way, by, for example, mouthing the words and making some sound. Just like a person who can’t kneel should at least bow, or show some participation in the common gestures.
I came to the Catholic Church from the Anglican Church, where singing is always fulsome, and I too was puzzled and offended by the “stony faces” who left the singing to a small few (including me), who weren’t sure whether we were doing the right thing or not.
Okay, that makes more sense even if “twice” isn’t meant to be taken absolutely literally… Although from the looks of things, apparently that wasn’t even a real quote in the first place. Still, I’d rather just pray twice. I appreciate music in general just as much as the next person, but for me trying to incorporate it with prayer only distracts me from the actual substance of the prayer.So I’m trying to explain to someone who would rather have their friends and relatives just say Happy Birthday than sing it!
It’s praying twice in the same way that singing a Christmas Carol is more moving than saying it!
Look, the music has it’s own form. To play the music requires effort, and the (name removed by moderator)ut of emotion (yes, even Gregorian chant). The effort and the sound when done in the context of prayers (like the office) or liturgy are a prayer. The words sung are also prayer.
If you have kids singing to them is more expressive than talking to them.
We put more of ourselves into singing than saying!
Maybe it’s not twice, maybe it’s only 1.9 times, or 2.345 times depending on the effort expended!
Is this really so weird?So I’m trying to explain to someone who would rather have their friends and relatives just say Happy Birthday than sing it!
I have thought of that and it makes me feel a bit guilty, but some of the lyrics are so inane! Its just too easy to parody them.
Exoflare, here’s my take. I sometimes sit in front of the most tone deaf old lady on earth, and she loves those old hymns, so she belts them out. I imagine that God is really enjoying her joy, and that she is really “praying twice”. Ditto the choir members and parishioners who simply want to praise God with song because they owe Him such extravagant praise.
The saying is very figurative. In a sense, it is right: singing almost always solemnizes an otherwise un-solemn set of words. But if the music has ridiculously cheesy lyrics (which the vast majority of what passes for “Catholic” music nowadays has) or is low-quality, or is performed poorly, then it is the opinion of many that it is better to just not sing at all.
There does seem to be a sub-text that because the “hymn sandwich” is not required then participation is not required. The first part is correct - the hymns are not required. This has been pointed out a number of times in these forums. It’s also not well known - I didn’t know it until I discovered it here. However, the inference that participation is not required is incorrect. If hymns are present, then the congregation should attempt to participate, as stated in the GIRM.
I DON’T have Asperger’s and people STILL look at me funny!
