I hope everybody involved in liturgy will do a little soul-searching

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snarflemike

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My wife received an email from a friend of hers. She’s not some kind of liturgical activist or traddie, but she is a lifelong Catholic. She wrote this, unprompted, about her many years of experience with Catholic liturgy.

"It was quite a jolt to find out it was not the case when we left the cocoon and went off to the parishes! Terrible jolt and disenchantment was pretty much what we got everywhere! Sadly going from the sublime to the ridiculous! Very few of the deprived faithful ever get to hear or experience it as it’s supposed to be done. "

We have another friend who used to teach RCIA to young professionals. She said the most frightening experience she had with each class was when they went off together to attend their first Mass, and discovered that the reality of parish liturgical life bore almost no resemblance to the lofty Catholic teaching.

I could certainly go on with further examples. Far too many Catholics in far too many parishes are not being well served in their liturgical lives. I hope some of you will re-dedicate yourselves to more beautiful and worthy liturgies, for the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.

If you think everything is excellent at your parish, then either your parish is truly blessed, or you might want to reconsider. In a sense, everybody involved in liturgy is a shepherd, and they all owe the sheep their best.
 
snarflemike said:
about her many years of experience with Catholic liturgy.

"It was quite a jolt to find out it was not the case when we left the cocoon and went off to the parishes! Terrible jolt and disenchantment was pretty much what we got everywhere!
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I am having trouble understand what this means.

Did she change parishes? Not attend mass for a while? Why the “jolt?”
 
Your post is interesting. I think there is a little something missing from where you started the quote in the second paragraph. Maybe your wife’s friend went from a good music experience (perhaps a cathedral?) to an average American parish?

I believe that it comes down to pastors and bishops. They allow or even instruct the music directors to put out non-liturgical music. The music directors often don’t know better. Catholic schools don’t teach the kids anything about real Catholic music.
It’s unfortunate but can be improved with a bit of effort, but it has to come from the pastors, or even the bishops, I believe.
 
Yes, to clarify, the friend got married (decades ago) and went from a situation where the liturgy was celebrated well, to many parishes in different parts of the country where it was not.
 
on_the_hill said:
I’m confused. What’s the point of the OP?
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From the OP: “Far too many Catholics in far too many parishes are not being well served in their liturgical lives. I hope some of you will re-dedicate yourselves to more beautiful and worthy liturgies, for the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.”
 
Going out on a limb that perhaps this person came from a parish with either very talented dedicated volunteers or well paid professionals in the music ministry to a place where neither the bench nor the pockets were as deep.
 
Our parish is blessed and our director does a vast array of liturgical styles. He can take Haugen type music, take the jangle out of it, and make it more reverent sounding. He also trains the choir to do Palestrina. And everything in between.

There are two key things here:
1 he believes what the music ministry is proclaiming and
2 HE GETS PAID APPROPRIATELY.

If you want competence, you have to make the sacrifices for it.
There is plenty of soul searching for a parish to do on all sides.
 
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What of the priests in poor countries, holding Mass with rudimentary materials, no lofting ceilings or beautiful choirs, no golden chalices. Just the Word and the Eucharist, humbly offered and gratefully received. There are people 'round the world who have devout and serious liturgical experiences without anything other than a willing heart.
 
goout said:
There are two key things here:
1 he believes what the music ministry is proclaiming and
2 HE GETS PAID APPROPRIATELY. (like close to $50,000 a year)

If you want competence, you have to make the sacrifices for it
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Agree, if the liturgy is truly where heaven and earth come together, we should make sacrifices to make that reality more palpable to the people in the pews. I know many Catholic musicians who can’t make a living in Catholic churches, and have to work in other churches when they would much prefer to offer their gifts to Catholics, in Catholic liturgies.
 
Exactly. Sometimes people equate quality of the music with reverent liturgy.
 
If music was dropped an octave that would help a lot. Strained voices do not help anyone, especially the vocalist.
 
snarflemike said:
We have another friend who used to teach RCIA to young professionals. She said the most frightening experience she had with each class was when they went off together to attend their first Mass,
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You mean they were in RCIA without ever having attended Mass?
 
BartholomewB said:
You mean they were in RCIA without ever having attended Mass?
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I’m just passing on what she said. Maybe this refers to their first Mass where they had been given an understanding of what was happening in the Mass.
 
Eh, it’s the same Jesus and the same Mass wherever you go. In this time of COVID, I would think people would be grateful that they have Mass at all without getting all hung up on whether the music, church decor, homilies or whatever are to their liking.

Before COVID hit I spent several years going to Masses, mostly OF and some EF, at probably 100-150 parishes all over the US. The music, atmosphere, church art and architecture, homiletic style all varied widely, but I did not see any irreverent priests or “liturgical abuses”. Nor did I see any liturgies that I thought were “poorly celebrated”. They were all nice in their own way, even if some of them were more my preference than others.
 
We also have a friend who used to be the director of liturgy for our diocese. He now lives high up in the mountains, four hours away from the main city in the diocese. The tiny parish in the mountains is run by an excellent young priest, and between the two of them, the liturgies are far more sublime than what is found in many of the rich parishes down the hill.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Eh, it’s the same Jesus and the same Mass wherever you go
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Indeed, Jesus always gives his best to the people in the pews. But do those involved in the liturgy give their best to the people in the pews (and to God)?
 
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I’m not sure how what the “people in the pews” are doing has to do with how the liturgy is celebrated.

Most of us have good days and bad days when we go to Mass. I’ve had great Masses where I really felt like I was giving Jesus my all, and other Masses where it was all I could do to sit in the pew and bumble through the responses.

It’s not anyone’s business but the person’s own.
 
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