How modern or how traditional is my local parish?

[kozlosap]

Our huge Jesuit Parish does not use bells, but they are used at the diocesan parish a few miles away. I was never enamored with the bells, so it’s no big deal to me. The problem our area is experiencing its lack of new/young priests who speak English well enough to have The Mass fully understood. Currently there are only 4 seminarians born in the USA, Canada, Australia or the UK. The remaining 18 are from Mexico where they we recruited by our vocations supervisor. We surely have a few parishes that are primarily Spanish speaking, but the vast majority are English speaking. I went to a funeral mass at one of the parishes that had just installed a new priest from Mexico and it was embarrassing for the poor priest and those attending. After that funeral many from the family had a private conference with the vocations director AND the assistant to the Bishop. They were told that with the shortage of priests, we are to be charitable concerning this issue. It’s no wonder that many are now turning to parishes that are run by religious orders such as the Dominicans, Jesuits and Franciscans since, in most cases, the priests are either native English speakers or have attended grad school where they were taught in English.

I have fond memories of driving my daughter and her best friend to 7:30 am mass where they were alter servers. They had a little check list where they kept track of whose turn it was to ring the bells! That was 20 years ago, but still brings a smile to this old Mom!

 

[OraLabora]

All I am saying is that the priest should obey the rubrics (proper to the rite of the Mass being offered, of course). When the rubrics are obeyed, the priest’s personality is negated entirely because he is not performing a subjective action, but an action prescribed by the Church. He does not have the liberty to let his own personal tastes and style come through. The Church says “read this prayer in this tone, genuflect at this moment, kiss the altar at this moment, make the Sign of the Cross here, etc.” Unless the rubrics allow for the omission or addition and the proper pastoral requirements for such are met, a Catholic should be able to expect uniformity at Masses offered according to the same rite.

Well given that chant is on a relative and not absolute musical scale, it will never be on the same tone. The priests distinctive singing voice and yes, style, will always colour his chanting. Even recto-tono can sound remarkably different from one celebrant to the next. For instance, our abbot, a wonderful organist, has a flat nasal voice, while some of the other priest-monks have quite lovely singing voices. Yes, even following the rubrics and musical notation 100% will produce different “styles”. Always has and always will. At the parish level, a priest that chants and one that doesn’t can still follow the rubrics 100%. Both are definitely different styles but equally valid.

Our schola sang for a while at a particular parish. The pastor followed the rubrics and didn’t sing. While away, he was replaced by a priest of a missionary order who also did not sing, and also followed the rubrics. There reading and speaking styles were completely different. The religious’ movements more measured, his voice quieter. You can’t remove personality and the human element altogether. That’s what comprises “style”.