I’m in a men’s chant group (
www.brazoschant.org) and once a year we do an entire latin mass (minus readings and homily, of course). We have the “Mass of Vatican II” missals from Ignatius Press that has all the congregation parts in latin chant. This way, everyone follows along.
Everyone loves it! Even our bishop. We are usually called in to sing a few songs when he comes for confirmations, so he’s had regular exposure to us. Also, the diocesan newspaper ran an article on us. At our last confirmation, the bishop made the after-Mass “Thank-you’s” to the congregation, and he started by saying, “I’d first like to thank the Schola for sharing their talents again. I wish I could clone you guys and toss you all over the diocese.”
We had one priest in a parish 2 hours away read the above mentioned article, and he PAID his youth director to drive to our town, practice with us, and drive home every other week just so that they could start the same thing in their parish. We are getting all sorts of feedback, and it is ALL postive. Our schedule is very full. In fact, we are having to turn parishes down because most of the men are married and have lives outside of schola.
So, I guess the point is that Latin & Gregorian chant are spreading like wildfire because they strike a deep chord in the hearts of churchgoers. They meet a need that, sadly, has been ignored, or worse, these people have had to subsist on the melodramatic cheese songs that are passed off as “sacred music”. Yah, whatever. People know garbage when they hear it. We’re just trying to follow Vatican II documents, not its “spirit” (I always respond like that when a cynic here or there hints at nostalgism after hearing us).
I also used to get upset when the Gregorian chants would be followed by “Gift of Finest Wheat” or “Here I am, Lord”. Cheese-ola! But then it hit me. Let beauty and mediocrity stand side by side and the average person will see the stark contrast. Now, we are not the best Gregorian Chant group in the world by any stretch. However, we believe that good music done decently is better than horrible music done well. And the comments we get back time and time again have confirmed my assumption.
God has worked great things in our group, and I think it is all because a group of like-minded men wanted to be faithful to the Church. It’s been hard and our families have had to make little sacrifices, but the rewards are amazing. Any of you out there that are tired of the ugliness and mediocrity, I tell you what my buddy (now schola buddy) told me: “Get off your butt and DO something about it!”
I’m glad we did.
http://www.brazoschant.org/multimedia/Confirmation_10-31-2004_ScholaBishop2-Thumbnail.jpg
