People at Mass and poor paticipation

[CatholicCajun]

We have an awesome choir and musicians at the Mass hubby and I attend. There are some “problems” however. The Gloria is nothing but a performance by the organist, it is impossible to sing it, it is not made for lay participation, it is simply for her perfomance, she does do some familiar hyms, but most are new and we simply don’t know the music, some of it is not even Catholic which is disappointing. There are times that the song choice is simply too hard for those of us who are not musicially trained to sing, so it is almost impossible to sing if you cannot sing the song.

 

[RosalieM]

This is a great topic. The choir at our parish has taken over the mass. The regular pew sitters are confused most of the time. It seems more like a circus.

I am looking forward to the new missal. I understand we may get back to the older hymns too. It could be a great year!

Yaay! I too am looking forward to the new missal.
I was ready to quit (or at least ease up) on my choir participation until i read some of the posts here. I can feel the difference when I am in the pews with the parishioners and not at a choir mass. The thought entered my mind last week, they just don’t know any better. I don’t know what people are being taught; but there’s so much they’re missing.
A priest I spoke to said to pray for those who are fidgety and missing out during mass. It just may be all we can do.
Again, thanks for reminding me about the new missal. I’ve been catching colds every year since I joined the choir and am just getting over a doozy.
I remember the appreciative and prayerful looks on the parishioners’ faces during our strenuous Christmas choir efforts. I guess it’s more than worth a stupid cold once a year or so.

 

[Hadrianus]

Having attended mass in seven or eight countries over the years my impression is that generally speaking worshippers do not really have much interest in singing. One great difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is that Protestant churches tend to be self selecting. That is to say that many Protestants sing merrily at church because they like to sing. Protestants who don’t like to sing stay at home. Catholics have a much greater sense of obligation and therefore go to mass for the sake of worship rather than because they enjoy the experience as a musical event. Already by the 5th Century AD Catholic churches had scholae cantorum who were trained in singing, and the propers of the mass were sung by them all the way down to the abandonment of Latin in the 1960’s.

There does seem to have been a living tradition of singing the Latin ordinary in High Masses in many parishes, apart from the English speaking world in which the long persecution of Catholicism ended the practice. Though I love a sung mass on those rare occasions where the music is really good, I can’t say that I enjoy singing itself. All that said however I 'd say that simple Gregorian melodies, Taize chant, and of course hymns adapted from the Anglican and Lutheran traditions will get people to participate in them.
So much of what passes for music in Catholic churches today is truly bad and this hardly encourages participation in song. In fact there is a very amusing but also serious book on this by a musician Thomas Day called Why Catholics Can’t Sing. I recommend it to anyone exploring the topic further.

 

[RosalieM]

The excellent first soprano who sits next to me in choir offered to lend me that book. I think I’ll take her up on it.

 

[daeve]

The little choir at my parish has 2 women and 2 men if we’re lucky. Both of the women are altos, although the other one has a better chance as a soprano than I do. We have a few occassional members but they were all at the women’s retreat yesterday. There two of us where there, the tenor and me, an alto. Two little girls joined us and they knew the songs and sounded ok, but I don’t think anyone except me heard them.

We do what we can, the best we can, but we’re all there is. Anyone can join us and we say so frequently. It’s in the bulletin every week. Bob and Debby may not be a “choir” but we show up, we know the music and we’ll sing it with you or for you. Whether you join is up to you.

 

[PattiDay]

That depends where you come from. There was no assembly participation in Mass anywhere around where I grew up. It was strictly Server & Priest or choir. We never experienced dialog Masses until after Vatican II so for communities where I grew up, even opening your mouth at Mass was daunting since people had never done that.

I attended Catholic elementary school and went to Children’s Mass at 9:00 AM. We learned every hymn that was used in the mass at that time, including many of the Latin hymns, mass, seasonal–lent and Christmas, for Benediction. It is surprising to me that I can’t remember a word of some of the currently used hymns without the hymnal, even with their simple words, but the Pater Noster or Tantum Ergo, bring it on…

 

[TimothyH]

It’s sadder still, when you consider that 40-50 years ago, people were singing “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” or “Come Holy Ghost” at the end of Mass, just following the priest, not even concerned whether they were participating or not.

I attend an Evening of Recollection by Opus Dei once a month. About thirty guys sing “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” as they repose the sacrament at the end of the Bennediction.

Man, it’s good.

 

[RosalieM]

I’m going to attend my first Opus Dei meeting this month. My confessor, an Opus Dei priest, suggested it as a retreat.
People sing “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” after the weekend Benediction before vigil Mass Saturday evening.

 

[ProVobis]

I’m going to attend my first Opus Dei meeting this month. My confessor, an Opus Dei priest, suggested it as a retreat.
People sing “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” after the weekend Benediction before vigil Mass Saturday evening.

That’s great. I forgot about the Benediction. O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo. And the Litany of Saints after that. How could one not respond to that?

They used to do Stations of the Cross at least once a month at my parish. That always got great “participation” as well.

 

[ProVobis]

I attend an Evening of Recollection by Opus Dei once a month. About thirty guys sing “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” as they repose the sacrament at the end of the Bennediction.

Man, it’s good.

That’s great. I forgot about the Benediction. O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo. And the Litany of Saints after that. How could one not respond to that?

They used to do Stations of the Cross at least once a month at my parish. That always got great “participation” as well.

 

[Acolythus_sum]

I attend an Evening of Recollection by Opus Dei once a month. About thirty guys sing “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” as they repose the sacrament at the end of the Bennediction.

Man, it’s good.

There’s not much that’s better than a bunch of men with good voices singing.