Hymns at Mass? Is Participation Required?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bben15
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

bben15

Guest
Hello. 🙂 We sing three hymns at Mass: One while processing in, one during the Preparation of the Gifts, and a Recessional Hymn. Is participation in these hymns required? I personally think these hymns distract me from the Mass and God. Can I just remain silent?

God bless you for answering my question. :blessyou:
 
bben15 said:
Hello. 🙂 We sing three hymns at Mass: One while processing in, one during the Preparation of the Gifts, and a Recessional Hymn. Is participation in these hymns required? I personally think these hymns distract me from the Mass and God. Can I just remain silent?

God bless you for answering my question. :blessyou:
Click to expand...
Can you think of the song as an additional prayer, just set to music? That’s how I generally think of hymns and many Christian songs. Of course, I love to sing, but you might think about it that way.

However, at times it does distract me from prayer after Communion when a song is being sung, or even before communion where I’m preparing to receive the Eucharist. But since you are talking of three times not at Communion time, I’d suggest either following along the words as prayer, or humming/listening. With my eyes closed, it makes it seem even more prayer like. 🙂
 
bben15 said:
Hello. 🙂 We sing three hymns at Mass: One while processing in, one during the Preparation of the Gifts, and a Recessional Hymn. Is participation in these hymns required? I personally think these hymns distract me from the Mass and God. Can I just remain silent?

God bless you for answering my question. :blessyou:
Click to expand...
Sometimes I sing. Sometimes I don’t. Here, they do a song in place of that part in the mass…is it the “offeratory”? Anyway, I pay attention to what the priest is trying to say instead of singing. It even feels wrong for me to sing, then.
 
Normally I don’t sing, because I don’t like looking at the hymnal and like watching the procession.
 
I admire people who can carry a tune and participate in the singing. I have stopped singing because the people who sit in front of me turn around and almost ask me to stop. I can take a hint. Participation in the Mass is not about having a beautiful voice. It is singing praises to God. I thought of practicing the most sung hymns at home. Our priest said to fully take part in the liturgy you should sing. I have the song in my heart.
 
I don’t sing. I, too, like the procession, and do not like most of the songs and do not sing well.
 
I love to sing and do a passable job of it. Sunday before last we sang How Great Thou Art during Holy Communion and it moved me to tears. To me singing is praise to God as much as prayer. Occasionally there is a song that is so unfamiliar to me that I can’t sing it so I hum along.
 
bben15 said:
Hello. 🙂 We sing three hymns at Mass: One while processing in, one during the Preparation of the Gifts, and a Recessional Hymn. Is participation in these hymns required? I personally think these hymns distract me from the Mass and God. Can I just remain silent?

God bless you for answering my question. :blessyou:
Click to expand...
I couldn’t sing to save my life. I stand and/or sit there and look pretty and mouth the Gloria and Hosanna.
 
bben15 said:
Hello. 🙂 We sing three hymns at Mass: One while processing in, one during the Preparation of the Gifts, and a Recessional Hymn. Is participation in these hymns required? I personally think these hymns distract me from the Mass and God. Can I just remain silent?

God bless you for answering my question. :blessyou:
Click to expand...
We are encouraged to sing but not required.
 
bben15 said:
Hello. 🙂 We sing three hymns at Mass: One while processing in, one during the Preparation of the Gifts, and a Recessional Hymn. Is participation in these hymns required? I personally think these hymns distract me from the Mass and God. Can I just remain silent?

God bless you for answering my question. :blessyou:
Click to expand...
You don’t have to if you do not want to but hymns are meant to be sung together. The choirs are not performing; it is not a show. I mean that’s the idea. As much as you can be distracted in the mass, it is also meant to be celebrated together. The participation when required is to achieve the objective of the mass. It is not so much of a personal effort, though it is in a way, but more it is corporate. That is where the blessing comes. Hence it is not encouraged, say, to hold hands during the Our Father or moving around to share peace, because this is to be done corporately not personal.

Personally I have no problem with the three hymns (Entrance, Preparation and Recessional) you mentioned. Those moments I am still quite free, so to speak; I am preparing for the mass (Entrance hymn), the Eucharist (Preparation hymn) and joyfully rejoice (Recessional hymn) after the mass is ended. However, since I am usually still immersed in the Holy Communion, and if that is so, I would not participate in the Communion hymn but listening to it as a background music and hymn. I find that very edifying. Sometimes that immersion extended to the Thanksgiving hymn though normally by the time of Thanksgiving hymn, I would be quite awake from my reflection/reveling in the Eucharist that I would be participating in it.

God bless you.
 
bben15 said:
Hello. 🙂 We sing three hymns at Mass: One while processing in, one during the Preparation of the Gifts, and a Recessional Hymn. Is participation in these hymns required? I personally think these hymns distract me from the Mass and God. Can I just remain silent?

God bless you for answering my question. :blessyou:
Click to expand...
At our parish Church there are no hymn sheets or books. The choir sing the entrance hymn, Communion hymn, and then when Mass is ended.
The only singing done by the faithful would be certain prayers during Mass.
 
I do not think that it is required and I am sure it is fine to remain silent. I can not hold a tune but sing softly. I like the suggestion that someone else mentioned to consider it a form of prayer. But if it distracts you from the Mass and God I would just stay silent.🙂
 
thistle said:
At our parish Church there are no hymn sheets or books. The choir sing the entrance hymn, Communion hymn, and then when Mass is ended.
Click to expand...
Pretty much the same thing at Spanish Masses I attend, except the congregation generally claps to the beat.
 
I sing the beautiful, old traditional hymns loudly.
I do not sing contemporary hymns with bad theology and effeminate words.
 
today I felt very sad at Mass. I know this should not be as it is the first Sunday of Advent. but I did not feel like singing. I was perturbed as we had to practice a song we were to sing later. I am not in the choir. I did not know why we had to take time to practice a song. it was on a song sheet, not in a hymnal. I did not feel like praying either. normally, I enjoy participating in the singing, although there are some songs I don’t care for- they are too modern, but today I didn’t participate.
 
You need to practice the song because the majority of people do not read music, they learn by ear, and the more they hear a song, the more likely they are to learn it correctly.

The alternative is to simply do the song in the Mass, and the people won’t know it, and no one will sing other than the few who do know how to read music. Then the song will never get learned correctly because most people won’t be singing.

It’s important that songs be learned correctly, just as it’s important for the priest to speak correct words during his homily.
 
Cat said:
You need to practice the song because the majority of people do not read music, they learn by ear, and the more they hear a song, the more likely they are to learn it correctly.

The alternative is to simply do the song in the Mass, and the people won’t know it, and no one will sing other than the few who do know how to read music. Then the song will never get learned correctly because most people won’t be singing.

It’s important that songs be learned correctly, just as it’s important for the priest to speak correct words during his homily.
Click to expand...
whatever happened to just singing along? when I first became Catholic, there were many songs new to me. I just joined in and sang. there was never a sense I needed to practice the song first.
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
I sing the beautiful, old traditional hymns loudly.
I do not sing contemporary hymns with bad theology and effeminate words.
Click to expand...
I agree. I do not sing them either. Too much damage has been done by the baby food theology presented in so many of those hymns and I will do nothing to further their use. Thankfully, I go to a church whose hymnals consist entirely of traditional hymns and contemporary hymns written by traditional-minded Catholics (so you don’t know they’re only a few years old unless you look at the date the hymn was published).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top