Category: Liturgy and Music

The Chanted Litany of the Saints
vs.
The Becker Litany of the Saints
Have at thee in the comments below!

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!

Formation… It sounds so proper!
Why can’t be just educate people through formation instead of having the Vatican issue “repressive” documents about liturgical abuse.
Fact is: the document on liturgical abuse is meant to be used in formation. It addresses the dos and don’ts in areas where some people who have in the past been responsible for formation have failed.
People who are on the CreativeLiturgy™ Bandwagon – take heed! No more stones instead of bread. Stop adding a few tablespoons of yourself into your liturgical activity and pay attention to hundreds of years of standard practice and to the actual text of the Vatican II documents instead of the Voice of Vatican II that you hear in your head.
Seriously. I’ve had it and skulls will be cracked if you don’t pay attention.