Vernacular mass/ organ plays at consecration

[Elizahbeth]

I live in italy and last week the organ
was played with sort of slow night club, dinner music glide during
the consecration, I mean at the first elevation of the body and blood.
Then he stops until the agnus dei.
The masses are in italian, no latin.
It seems all wrong, he always plays dinner music before mass too.
I am not able to change things as its all very well organized here by the
ladies who run things.
Any ideas?
If i could just be able to pray then or even think about this awesome
moment which is the absolute centre of my day and life,
but its so distracting I cant get past the smoozy music.
Help!

 

[starsmurf]

Maybe do what St Therese did when one of her community would fidget (especially cleaning her teeth with her nails!)? St Therese couldn’t ignore the noise, so she offered it to God. She treated the sound as if it were a wonderful symphony. This may be the organist’s idea of wonderful music(!) so offer it to God as if it were angels singing. While his/her choice in music may be questionable, in my church our organist sometimes has to play (though not at the consecration) to cover up the sounds of people allowing the kneelers to crash down, children and babies crying or talking, etc. What sounds to you like “dinner music” could actually be the organist just improvising.

If that doesn’t work, then try to focus on the fact that Jesus has just become present on the altar. The organist (and, it seems, other members of the congregation) think that this is the best way of praising God, so you may have to suffer in order to allow your brothers and sisters in Christ to have Mass the way they want it. When I went to Mass in a town I used to live in, the hymns were sung to guitar accompaniment by someone who couldn’t actually play properly. They would give the hymns odd pauses and rhythms. I found it really difficult, but I reflected that Mass isn’t a concert or an opera. I’ve not gone to enjoy a “performance”, I’m there to worship God. If things are not the way I want them to be, that is something that can help me to be less selfish, It’s not my Mass.

To attend a Mass that doesn’t fulfill these human desires for things to be a certain way can be better for our soul than a Mass that is just the way we want it. A Mass full of people praising God from the heart, even if their way of showing it isn’t our way, is better than a formal Latin Mass that is actually fulfilling our selfish desires and feeding our (often unconscious) pride in being “more devout” than those attending the Masses we don’t enjoy. The important thing is surely that Our Lord is present, everything else is insignificant compared to that, isn’t it? Please don’t take this as personal criticism, I think this applies to most of us.

I know it can be upsetting if you feel that Mass isn’t being celebrated with due solemnity, but what matters is what’s in the heart, not what music is or isn’t being played.

God Bless