The Australian media has obtained what appears to be a copy of ICEL's draft for the new English Mass translation.
(Thanks to AAE and Fr. Keyes for the news.)
Liturgy and Music: April 2004 Archives
I was out of town over the weekend at a conference, and attended Sunday Mass at a seminary near the place. Later that day I went to visit a friend some miles away; he's in a religious order and currently serving as a transitional deacon. We talked over pizza:
RC: Well, here's the latest liturgical war story.
Bro: Oh, boy. What happened now?
RC: [pauses:] What's the worst liturgical accident possible?
Continue reading Good recovery.
My wife was leaving daily Mass and overheard a woman telling our pastor something about "Dancing With the Psalms."
Here's the Sibleyan link to what she might have been talking about.
Check out the high-tech flip-chart action. The section about "Writing Original Psalms" looks promising as well.
And here's a keeper from the section about how the program was developed:
The Litany of the Saints - Chanted
And it wasn't even close.
I know why some people like the Becker. It's likable in the same way that Big Macs and Happy Meals are. It's fun to perform if you crave theme songs from children's shows. Clowns. Pandas. Big Colorful Banners. That's what the Becker is.
The Chant - in English or in Latin - is a prayer, pure and simple. And prayerful people like to pray when then sing.
The Chant is praying twice.
The Becker is clanging - twice, twice, twice again.
The group I regularly sing with is in Boston, but I'm here ten miles north, living in a big parish with 3000 people but only an occasional choir -- I think they sing for Easter, Christmas, and confirmations.
So I asked the pastor on Saturday if it would be OK to organize a group of people to learn and practice chant, and maybe be of some use to the parish?
Now, I didn't really expect him to take a strong interest in it: I figured the only thing Fr. Bill had enthusiasm for is the local baseball team. The flag hanging outside the rectory door isn't yellow with a pair of keys, but blue with a pair of red socks! Well, it shows how much I knew about him: he says he loves chant and he's all for starting a schola!
OK. Now what do I do?
There's some interesting stuff in the comment boxes below related to the Top 100 Hymns. Fr. Tharp has a simple solution for pastors: give the music director a list of hymns that don't make the theological cut and request they be removed from the parish repertiore.
It strikes me that the faithful need to wait for pastors who are willing and able to do something that the US Bishops have not done for forty years: get specific about hymn and song texts. I'm in my 10th year as a choir director and the silence sometimes makes me wonder where music is in the hierarchy of liturgical importance. Somewhere between flowers for the altar and cushions for the pews? Or somwhere between the placement of the tabernacle and the use of unleavened bread?
The flip-side is the heavy-handed pastor who has his list of favorites that includes the Top 40 hits from 1960-present, and can't stand latin, "Holy God We Praise Thy Name" or even "By Thou My Vision." I've heard the stories that make the average, faithful organist run screaming into the night.
It's great more guidance is coming even if you'll hear the cries of oppression from the folks who think it's perfectly acceptable to sing whatever makes them feel good.
Just remember who didn't cry "Oppression!" on Good Friday.
Good news! Bp. Vigneron of Oakland is addressing a long-neglected issue: hymns that do not reflect Catholic teaching. The Register reports that he's drafting guidelines for the USCCB's consideration.
(Via med student Dev Thakur's new blog. Welcome, Dev!)
Update: Fixed the typo; thanks for spotting it, Fr. K. I've had an unblemished record with Nihil Obstat until now and wouldn't want to lose it!
