Music During Mass

[sami1066]

Hi all, I Really enjoy Mass on a sunday. Only My Parish church has a guy with a guitar at the front singing hymns. The hymns are lovely, but they are ruined by this guy singing his head off and warbling every word. It is so distracting when I am praying, and a little embarrassing. Does anyone else experience this??

 

[Polycarp1]

I do. And I struggle with it. Especially during our “contemporay mass” where we have guitar, piano, bongo drums and sometimes a violin. It’s beautiful music and I would love to listen to it in concert, but I find sometimes that long pieces often interfere with my limited ability to concentate and pray. Some of the selections seem to me to be more about show business than praise.

I know at the same time that it appeals especially to our more youthful members and that there are many doors in my Father’s house and if this music get’s them in the door it may well serve to introduce them to the rest of the Mass as they mature in the faith.

 

[Jeanne_S]

I feel the same about the almost constant music and or singing before and during the Mass.We have a beautiful choir at my parish,however,it seems as though the Mass has become more about the choir,than what it is actually meant to be. I find it especially distracting during the Communion service.Also,a lot of times the congregation will break out in applause for the choir,very inappropriate in my opinion.I have gone so far as e-mailing the director of music/liturgy re this very issue…never heard back from him…

 

[Dave_B]

Could you not mention this to your priest?

I remember once at a wedding applause kept breaking out. I find it disrespectful personally but at weddings in the uk its mainly ppl who dont attend church.

Attended a pentecostal service once. With full band and the works. That was an experience.

 

[Dave_B]

Just an idea but if the guitar player cant sing you could ask if a singer could accompany the musician

 

[sedonaman]

Hi all, I Really enjoy Mass on a sunday. Only My Parish church has a guy with a guitar at the front singing hymns. The hymns are lovely, but they are ruined by this guy singing his head off and warbling every word. It is so distracting when I am praying, and a little embarrassing. Does anyone else experience this??

Yes, and, unfortunately, a good many people have to be entertained to attend church. This probably goes for other denominations as well. You can get an inkling of this whenever you hear someone say, “I don’t get anything out of going to church.”

In many Catholic parishes today, the sense of the sacred – of mystery and majesty and even of worship itself – has largely been banished. The bells, incense, votive candles, and Communion rail are gone. The Tabernacle with the reserved Sacrament can’t be found. Elegant statues of our friends, the saints, are locked in the basement, replaced by balloons, banners with greeting-card sentiments, and other dime-store decorations. The organ gathers cobwebs. The sanctuary has become a stage. And the kneelers are now being ripped out, the crucifix taken down.

It’s virtually impossible to pray before (or after) Mass because of all the chatter and backslapping. The Creed is left unsaid. Homilists pander with (unfunny) jokes and (not quite the latest) pop-psychology blather. The words of the liturgy are improvised upon by politically- correct clerics and lectors with weird agendas – God our Father becomes “God our Parent,”[1] the Son of God becomes the “Child of God,” etc. And we must clap, clap, clap for the band and the liturgical dancers and the clowns – we aren’t making a joyful noise unto the Lord, but only unto the (amateurish) entertainers.

The primary purpose of the Mass has been transformed from receiving Christ and worshiping the Almighty into “celebrating community” – i.e., celebrating our wonderful selves. One influential liturgical “expert” has said the Mass shouldn’t convey “a feeling of infinity or eternity or the world beyond,” for it’s really about “communal sensitivity” among parishioners. But this touchie-feelie Catholicism – where the Sign of Peace becomes the high point of the Mass – has no power or magnetism. Normal people seldom get out of bed on Sunday morning in search of warm huggies.

Catholics who are alienated by trivialized or freakish Masses – who are sick of being guinea pigs in a liturgical lab – often jump ship for an Evangelical church, or just stay in bed. Indeed, church attendance among Catholics has dropped from 70%, just before the liturgical experiments began, to 25% today! And today, two out of three Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist – which isn’t surprising, given that how we worship has a profound effect on what we believe about the meaning of the Mass.

The liturgical experiments have largely been a miserable failure. We at the NEW OXFORD REVIEW [newoxfordreview.org/]](http://www.newoxfordreview.org/]), a monthly orthodox Catholic magazine, agree with Cardinal Ratzinger that our damaged liturgy needs to be repaired. We articulate the Catholic Faith in all its splendor and truth. We don’t just chronicle liturgical horror stories, we cover the full range of issues of concern to orthodox Catholics. According to The Catholic Answer, we’re having “a notable impact” for the good on our deeply troubled Church.

“Does St. Bozo’s Parish No Longer Amuse You?”
newoxfordreview.org/covers-pdf/ead-stbozos.pdf

[1] This morning, March 25, 2012, the chanteuse referred to “God our Mother.” “Mass” which everyone has known for 2,000 years what it is has become “liturgy” which only the elect know. What “liturgy” conveys that “Mass” doesn’t has never been explained.

 

[sedonaman]

…Also,a lot of times the congregation will break out in applause for the choir,very inappropriate in my opinion.

They obviously never had Mrs. Elliot for 6th grade. When my public school class once clapped a hymn, she admonished us: “You don’t clap a prayer, class.”

I have gone so far as e-mailing the director of music/liturgy re this very issue…never heard back from him…

You probably never will. He’s an artist, and artists don’t take criticism, nor do they like to be told how to be creative.

 

[jeanannemarie]

Yes, we have the guitar and I don’t like it either. Just can’t warm up to it for Mass or the likely songs chosen to go with it. Perhaps I should say “I just don’t get anything out of it.”

 

[Diana_Catherine]

Hi all, I Really enjoy Mass on a sunday. Only My Parish church has a guy with a guitar at the front singing hymns. The hymns are lovely, but they are ruined by this guy singing his head off and warbling every word. It is so distracting when I am praying, and a little embarrassing. Does anyone else experience this??

Our guitars have been gone for a while. I am praying it is not a vacation but a permanent situation. We have had organ and some chant lately. I don’t like guitar masses, either.

During communion I find most music distracting. I want to pray and it is hard. Every once in a while softly in the back ground they will play Ave Maria but that’s not very often.

 

[sami1066]

So what can we do? There is a youtube video, and I highly recommend it, of a priest Fr John O’Connor. He was a hard line traditionalist this video is nearly two hours long, and in it he says all this will eventually happen that the sacrifice of our holy Mass would be reduced to a simple protestant communion service. The bells have gone from our church, the music is embarrassing and its becoming a shadow of itself. Its just inappropriate, more about a guy showing off his musical talents. I have never experienced a Latin mass, but I have been invited to an Orthodox liturgy by the priest there. Does anyone know what it is like?

 

[mick321]

So what can we do? There is a youtube video, and I highly recommend it, of a priest Fr John O’Connor. He was a hard line traditionalist this video is nearly two hours long, and in it he says all this will eventually happen that the sacrifice of our holy Mass would be reduced to a simple protestant communion service. The bells have gone from our church, the music is embarrassing and its becoming a shadow of itself. Its just inappropriate, more about a guy showing off his musical talents. I have never experienced a Latin mass, but I have been invited to an Orthodox liturgy by the priest there. Does anyone know what it is like?

I have attended Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgies. There have been NO musical instruments of any type. Hymns were sung by choirs of unaccompanied voices, both male and female. Absolutely stunning.

Compared to one of our local Catholic communities though, there is no contest. Those interested may follow the link and click “play all samples”.

amazon.com/Anthology-Chants-Polyphany-Michaels-Abbey/dp/B001R0IN3S/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332718875&sr=301-2