I do not like to sing at Mass. I don’t like the hymns usually unless they are traditional ones I’ve known forever and I have a terrible voice. No one sings so it’s not like I can sing and not be heard.
Are there only one or two Sunday Masses at your parish? If there’s an early morning Mass, there is usually a lot less singing. But music is an integral part of the Mass, and not everyone is bored by it. My Dad always sings (not loudly) at Mass, and he is tone deaf. I have always admired him for it, even though I sing well (must’ve come from my mother!).
But I’m tired of sitting through the announcements which is basically someone reading the entire bulletin and then the priest coming out to ask if we have any visitors, birthdays or anniversaries. Individually and we have to hear where everyone is from and when the birthday or anniversary is and joke and applaud.
Well, to some extent, I can understand about reading the bulletin as announcements. This is because nobody (OK, very few people) ever reads the bulletin. If people read the bulletin, they wouldn’t have to have it read to them. But I find that large (like legal-size paper-size, not enormous!
) signs for upcoming events posted in the narthex or on the doors of the church also work. Maybe you could suggest this?
The visitors, birthdays, and anniversaries thing is something I’ve never see anywhere. The visitor call, I have seen in Protestant churches, but never birthdays and anniversaries. It could probably be shortened without its primary purpose being lost by just having visitors raise their hands and asking those around them to make sure they feel welcome. (Personally, I would rather rip my hair out than have a bunch of people staring at me and asking me where I’m from and that, but I’m shy in new places. But I would be more likely to just raise my hand and chat with the people around me.) For birthdays and anniversaries, maybe just a weekly call for those people to come up to the priest after Mass for a blessing?
It’s all very well for people here to say you have to grin and bear it, and maybe it will turn out that you have to do just that, but before that, you could ask to talk to the priest and make some suggestions.
If it keeps going on like that, rather than leave early, I’d whip out my Rosary and start it in Christ’s presence in the tabernacle.
But this is Lent and it is my favorite liturgical season and I no longer even want to go to Mass. I want there to be another church I can choose where it is more solemn and holy and my mind isn’t constantly wandering to the grocery shopping list.
I have to say that I’ve never heard chanting the Our Father referred to as not solemn or holy before!
When I first came back to the Churct, I went to a parish where I hated the music. I mean, out of the four hymns in the “hymn sandwich,” maybe I would like one of them. Plus I was in the choir (because it usually ends up that way), which meant rehearsing the hymns as well as singing them at Mass. Eventually I did find another parish with music I love, but I stuck it out at that first parish for six years. So I know about grinning and bearing it.
Here are some suggestions:
- Pray. During the Mass, I mean. So many times I can remember praying, “Please, Lord, please let me just get through this Mass without sinning any more. Please let me concentrate on you and not on resenting the fact that we are singing that hymn again. Please grant me your peace.”
- Try to sing the hymns that you can. They go faster if you are singing them, even if just quietly.
- For the hymns you just can’t manage, open up the missalette or whatever is there and reflect on the readings for the day. Read them over, think about how they are connected, picture them in your mind, and so forth.
- If the tabernacle is visible in your church, gaze on it and think of Jesus staying there to bless us. Think of the great love He is showing by being there for us.
- (Outside of Mass!) Get a book on the Mass. I particularly liked Scott Hahn’s “The Lamb’s Supper,” but there are other good ones. It helps make the repeated parts of Mass more interesting.
I also know I somehow have to just accept the service without sitting there with some huge resentment because really why am I in church if I feel like that.
Because you are obeying God.
Of course it’s best if you go to Mass because you love it. The absolute best is going because you love going, without noticing whether you like the music or not. (I never quite managed it, but it was something to strive for.
) But there is a great value in going even if you hate it, especially if you are actively trying to hate it less. Going to Mass because you love God, and “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (which BTW is a Tallis piece I’m happy to see in any Mass), has value in itself. So you don’t get to let yourself off the hook and say “Well, I’m not doing any good going in this mood, so I’ll just stay home,” which is something I used to try to fool myself with a lot when I was going to Protestant churches, which don’t have rules about these things.
God bless you!
–Jen
