Singing of the Lord's Prayer

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The main question here is: How many of you sing the Lord’s Prayer during Mass? Is it taken up well by the assembly, and sung by all?

I realize that this something that is a parish decision. In my case, we are a transient parish with many regulars, but also a lot of visitors as well. About 20 or so years ago, it was decided by that we would recite the Lord’s Prayer. Some disapproved, most could care less. The reason is the same reason why many do not sing at any point in the Mass. The feeling was that if we don’t have them sing the LP, more will be more confident in reciting it, and the many visitors would feel more comfortable and recite it as well instead of stumbling over the words of it being sung. The reciting of the LP continues today and no one comments on it not being sung; well, until yesterday.

I was approached by a nice lady who introduced herself as a parishioner. She ask the question and I gave her the answer similar to what I said above. Then her middle-aged daughter from out-of-state joined us and I politely reiterated what I told her mom. “Well, we sing it at our parish and it so beautiful and everyone sings.” I just responded with a that’s nice and I’m glad it works for you and your parish. The conversation continue and the daughter then wanted to know if I start singing it. I said, “no,” for the reasons I just mentioned. I asked her if they sing the entire prayer straight through to the Amen. She said yes. It continued with me asking if the priest speaks his part before the last part of the LP, for which she said no. Already knowing that I’ve gone to far already, I retorted, “then you are singing the Protestant version.” Of course at that point, they were not happy with me, and as they walked away, I thanked them for stopping up and I may someday reconsider. They politely said thanks.

The other question is: What would you have said or done?
 
At the parish I most often attend, the priest saying the Mass usually prompts the congregation and cantor by saying either, “…we dare to say,” or, “…we dare to sing,” in the prayer just preceding the Lord’s Prayer. It varies, but it seems like a 50/50 split between singing and reciting. We always sing an a cappella version when we do sing, and from what I can hear the congregation all participates well either way.
 
At the abbey we sing it in French plainchant. Those who want to join in, others say it silently or quietly.

I sing it with the community.
 
Music Director here. The priests are here hate it sung. Often, a composer will change up the words, or add many amens to the end, which usurps the Great Amen.
Also, it’s the ONE prayer that Non-Catholics can pray with us…and then we make it sung by unknown music.
Yesterday was the RCIA option for the Gospel and the presentation of the scrolls of the Our Father.
It stated: This is how you are to pray: It didn’t say “this is how you are to sing”.
I’m a musician by trade, I “get” that singing is praying twice. But for liturgy, unless in an Abbey with a schola, I like the fact that we pray with words, and not notes.
Just my opinion.
 
We sing it maybe a handful of times a year, and yes, everyone pretty much sings it. It’s not a problem. The priest appears to be the one who decides, because the organ never accompanies when it is sung.
 
Sometimes we sing it, sometimes we don’t. I suppose it’s the celebrating priest who makes the decision, but I never inquired. In any case, it’s an easy-to-sing musical arrangement, and always the same one, with some of the words changed to fit the meter. As soon as it’s finished the congregation recites the Our Father in the standard form. In other words, the sung version doesn’t replace the spoken version, but is added to it.
 
We sing it at my local parish. Personally, it annoys me, but I participate anyway and offer it up.
 
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Agreed. I think we are both on the same page. The priests here really prefer not to sing it, “too long.” But I love it when one parishioner out of thousands thinks we should do something and gets upset because you won’t comply. I think the decision to recite it for our church is the correct one mainly, as I have said, we get a lot of visitors.
Thanks for you responses.
 
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We chant it sometimes and recite it other times. We just follow the lead of the priest.

Since I am usually standing with the choir I don’t have the best sense of how many people are singing but I’m fairly certain that most people are at least mumbling the words.

We have sufficient people who make an effort to stay on pitch and keep the chanting from dragging.

Oh, and we actually have “band” at my parish but when the Lord’s Prayer is sung, it is always a capella.
 
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I go to the EF. So the priest sings it during a High Mass. It’s beautiful in Latin with that Gregorian melody.
 
B: Let me understand this please. So the sung version changes the words to a prayer that our Lord gave us to fit the music. Then after it is sung, you then recite it in the “standard” form? Nothing personal to you Bartholomew of course, it is not your decision, but am I the only one that thinks this is wrong in both cases?
 
We usually sing it, but when there are a lot of visitors (we are a college town) father announces we will simply say it. Works out well.
 
Like us: many seasonal visitors, so reciting it makes more sense.
 
We sing it on Sundays and almost every week day mass. It doesn’t matter if someone is playing the organ or not. My parish sings a lot and it sounds good as long as I don’t have to start. Words are exactly the same sung or spoken. Sometimes the priest sings the Embolism before we all sing the Doxology (For the kingdom etc… Amen). Most parishes sing it in my diocese as far as I know. Doesn’t matter if there are lots of visitors or not.

In defence of singing the Our Father. It is easier to learn something by memory when there is a tune to remember the text. This goes for all ages and all languages especially for children and those learning a new language. Get 10 persons together and within 10 minutes you will have a large number of songs you learnt as children and you will be able to sing them as well. No one is going to remember what their uncle and aunt talked about when they were 5 years old.
 
HeDa: I got ya. I’m glad I posted this; learned a lot about other parishes and what they do. Every parish is somewhat different it what they think they should do here. No one way is right or wrong. For us, making the visitor feel more at ease and welcome is important, so the choice of reciting the LP. Just because you sing it regardless, I am sure your parish welcomes the stranger in other ways. However, I wonder if we really need a tune to help us memorize the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that we have been saying or singing for many, many years. Just a thought.
 
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When people who had strokes or dementia of all kinds and someone started to sing a well known song those people started singing as well even though they couldn’t speak because the brain couldn’t connect with their mouth because of the disease. I find that very amazing.

When I have taught kids English I have always sung a lot with them. They ended up with very good prononciation and also remembered words a lot easier. In my diocese, parishes have between 50-100 nationalities and languages spoken in them. There are those adults who can’t read at all and those who speak 7 languages and read fluently in all of them.

There are 2 different tunes for Swedish and then the one for the Our Father in Latin so it is easy to learn.
 
rondirect said:
B: Let me understand this please. So the sung version changes the words to a prayer that our Lord gave us to fit the music. Then after it is sung, you then recite it in the “standard” form? Nothing personal to you Bartholomew of course, it is not your decision, but am I the only one that thinks this is wrong in both cases?
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I try and make a distinction between my own personal preferences and what I judge to be “right” or “wrong.” I certainly see nothing wrong with the solution I described. It has the advantage that for those who prefer not to sing, or for the occasional outside visitor who might not be familiar with the musical arrangement, the Our Father is not omitted.

As for the slight changes to the wording in the sung version, you could probably say the same about most musical settings of liturgical or Biblical texts. Here, for instance, is the full lyric, including all the repetitions, of Schubert’s setting of the Ave Maria. (I just found this by googling for it, but from memory I believe it is correct.)

Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Ave, ave dominus
Dominus tecum
Benedicta tu in mulieribus
Et benedictus
Et benedictus fructus ventris
Ventris tuae, Jesus.
Ave Maria

Ave Maria
Mater Dei
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Ora pro nobis
Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Nunc et in hora mortis
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Ave Maria

Should a rather trite, easy-to-sing arrangement of the Our Father be held to higher standards than Schubert?
 
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I am totally lost on this post, read it twice, I guess if the question is do you sing or recite the Lords Prayer, I recite it, even if it is sung. I don’t like to sing anymore for plenty of reasons. so pft it is what it is.
 
We haven’t sung it in a long time, for which I’m thankful. Not that I don’t like to sing the Lord’s Prayer, but the choir used to sing it to the tune of I Don’t Know How to Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar.

They never had the words on the same notes two weeks in a row. Nobody could really sing it with them. And being so familiar with the original song, the words that constantly sprang to mind were “He’s a man, he’s just a man, and I’ve had so many men before, in very many ways he’s just one more.” Not something you want to think of when you’re supposed to be addressing God.

In another parish, decades ago, we used to sing a version that included the doxology.

As for repetitions, church documents have specifically allowed repetitions for musical purposes, but they do not allow for changes in the text.
 
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