Singing the Creed

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We have just started singing the Creed (Nicene) and it is really beautiful, but some in our parish don’t like this and have been resisting. Is singing the Creed such a bad thing or is it just not done much. I feel bad for our priest who has studied Liturgy for years and just wants to get some things started in our parish and now finding there is resistance. Is this normal?

mlz
 
It sorta sounds painful, especially if you’re a person that doesn’t like to sing in the first place. I’m struggling to imagine how you can sing “consubstantial”.
 
We sing the Apostles Creed at at my parish, the parish i go to in the evening on Sunday has what is known as or rather they call a contemporary mass, and i guess a " regular " mass that alternate on Sundays, well anyhow my point is when this parish first started this, I had no idea it was coming, I walk in an there is this GIANT portable screen at the front of the Church, with a projector of some sort displaying some picture that was going to prepare for the rest of Mass to begin, so i just figured everyone lost their mind and I just flat out left and went to the latest mass available in town that day… But after I come to find out that there is now these alternating things between contemporary an i guess regular , the Contemporary Mass has the big screen, displays all the Hymns, Readings, and Prayers, Responses that are to be said etc, makes it easy to follow along basically, but the Church is so big that it is really needed for Holy Days where the Church is packed and no one in the back can figure out what is going on…

Change is never easy, not everyone will like it, there was a big uproar in my town alone when people found out that prayers were being altered to a more original format, an there was actually articles for a week in the public paper over it, as if Catholics were going to abondon the Church all together over something which really is not a big deal at all, an there were quotes from everyone in town from those who agreed to those who were confused and lost and didnt agree.

So singing a prayer to verbally speaking it, Not only have I sung the Creed there are times i forget which parish but the also sing the Lords’ Prayer as well… Can not say we have sung the Nicene Creed least not as of yet… I don’t know why anyone would put up a huff about singing a prayer at mass, it isn’t like anyone is being forced to sing, so if one can’t sing or doesn’t want to, don’t, just pray it like normal i guess.

How about instead of Singing the Creed or any prayers, how about how to change the Choir out completely when they get to big for their britches and replacing them with a Choir that can play appropriate music during mass and Christmas etc. That can probably far worse to go through than anything i imagine… then how to do it with out offending people, and to do it out of kindness and not being mean spirited… How does one do that or is there no way around it. Better yet how does one tell people who are complaining to stop complaining that their complaints are unwarranted and possibly even wrong. An to express that the focus is on Christ, not wether or not to sing a prayer, an not for a choir to play any song they feel will draw in a crowd and or to be hip.
 
The problem with the creed as song is that it’s very wordy, and is just a touch clunkier in the new translation. Have you ever thought of singing the Pledge of Allegiance? Probably not. The Nicene Creed has a similar type of content - profound beliefs expressed basically as an explanatory list, not a poem. And it’s seven times the length of the pledge. This makes for a serious challenge in musical composition.
 
Nonetheless, the Creed is of the second degree in sung parts of the Mass, and should be sung whenever the Kyrie and Agnus Dei are, and should be sung even before we think of singing the Entrance, Offertory, or Alleluia chants. I would say that the number of parishes who get this wrong in the Ordinary Form are close to 100%.
 
“I’m struggling to imagine how you can sing “consubstantial”.”

no harder than singing “one in being”
 
“But why settle for an imitation when you can have the real thing?
”

Because not everyone is intent on using as much latin as humanly possible.

Although I’m not sure even the first link is along the lines of what the OP was talking…
 
Being Byzantine we have ALWAYS sung and not chanted the Nicene Creed, in which it is “in one Substance with the Father” rather than Consubstantial. It is very beautiful. We also sing the Our Father as well. If one doesn`t feel comfortable singing just whisper the prayers that are being sung. No problem there.🙂
 
mlz said:
We have just started singing the Creed (Nicene) and it is really beautiful, but some in our parish don’t like this and have been resisting. Is singing the Creed such a bad thing or is it just not done much. I feel bad for our priest who has studied Liturgy for years and just wants to get some things started in our parish and now finding there is resistance. Is this normal?

mlz
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I would love for our parish to sing the Creed instead of the awful stuff we sing. It’s so beautiful. Like this: youtube.com/watch?v=Pmg-RXtY1T8&feature=relmfu
It gives me goosebumps! 🙂
 
In the EF Solemn High Mass where I attend, the Creed (Credo) is sung, alternating between the choir and the congregation, It’s rather long, so it gives the congregation a rest between lines. It works pretty good that way (in Latin no less). Credo in unum Deum… :harp:
 
10thCrusader said:
In the EF Solemn High Mass where I attend, the Creed (Credo) is sung, alternating between the choir and the congregation, It’s rather long, so it gives the congregation a rest between lines. It works pretty good that way (in Latin no less). Credo in unum Deum… :harp:
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We do that too! I like singing Gregorian though I’m not the world’s best singer and can’t read music too well. So I have to memorize a lot. But it’s wonderful to hear our canter and Father chant, they have strong lovely voices.

amsjj 🙂

+++
Jesus, God and man,
imprisoned by love in Thy most holy Sacrament,
have mercy upon us.
  • Blessed John Henry Newman, December 22, 1851
Tú y yo sabemos por la fe que oculto en las especies sacramentales está Cristo,
ese Cristo con su Cuerpo, con su Sangre, con su Alma, y con su Divinidad,
prisonero de amor.
  • San Josemaría Escrivá, 1 junio 1974
… Our Lord Himself frequently said; and it is recorded as an Apostolic tradition from Him by St. Justin the Martyr. He says ‘Jesus often said, “They who are near Me are near a fire”’.
  • Abp. W. B. Ullathorne, August 1st 1886
 
I adore the sung Niceno-constantanapolitan creed we always did said it when i was growing up, but with a new priest comes new preferences. We started singing it, and I thought it was awkward but I have learned to love it.
 
The ONLY time I’ve sung the Creed is at the EF Mass. I have never sung the Creed at ANY of the OF Masses I’ve been to.

Even when the new translation came out… New music was came out with the new translation… I (naively) thought there would be more singing (and chanting). Ahhh… But, the only change was the new wording. It is still basically singing AT Mass, not singing THE Mass.
 
AdDeum said:
The ONLY time I’ve sung the Creed is at the EF Mass. I have never sung the Creed at ANY of the OF Masses I’ve been to.
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The English is a real struggle for me. I only sing it in the Latin. That’s the way both JPII and now Benedict XVI do it, except sometimes in Greek.
 
mburn16 said:
“I’m struggling to imagine how you can sing “consubstantial”.”

no harder than singing “one in being”
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Actually you can hold the “l” at the end a little bit longer than the “g.” Just saying.
 
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