Could you find a more “enthusiastic” Catholic Church in your area?
When my daughter lived in Michigan, she attended a Liguorian parish that was recommended to her by the diocescan headquarters because it was full of artists, musicians, actors, and other “arts” people in the city.
The music there was fantastic! It was all very liturgical–no rock band, no dancing, no hand-clapping, no “theater.” Absolutely nothing outside of the rubrics. But instead of doing boring hymns with boring cantors and musicians, the hymns were led by a choir that really knew how to sing in parts, and the orchestra–yes, orchestra!–was good, and the sound system was wired by someone who knew how to set up a sound system properly in a hundred-year-old building with a cathedral ceiling. And they did classical and baroque and modern and Latin and everything you can imagine (except rock and jazz and country). It was so inspiring!
And there was no applause afterwards–I often think that the reason there is applause in our churches is because good music is so rare, and people who are starved for good Christian music are saying, “THANK YOU!” In this particular parish, though, good music was the norm, and there was no need for people to applaud. It was just normal music for them.
Everything was so joyful! When I came home and told one of my priests about it, he said, “Oh, yes, the Liguorians are all about the joy of the Eucharist.”
BTW, my husband grew up in the Assemblies of God. There were a lot of problems in that denomination. About twenty years ago, his parents left the Assemblies of God after a major conflict with church politics, and didn’t attend ANY church for fourteen years because they were so disgusted with church.
Here’s the way I see it–ANY church can put on a good show. I’m a pianist. When I was Protestant (Baptist), I used to get together with the pastor and the music minister, and we would plan ways that we could influence the emotions of the congregation through various pieces of music, the lighting, the timing, the “script,” etc. We were very sincere and desirous of bringing the Gospel to the people, so don’t accuse us of faking anything. But the fact is, all that “spontaneity” in the worship service was all planned in advance and calculated to manipulate your emotions. I’m sure the Holy Spirit was at work, but He wasn’t the director of the enthusiasm–the music minister was.
Try to find a different parish with better music. Perhaps you can call your diocese headquarters and ask for the parish with the best music.
