Grassroots Liturgist

Although of less importance than other elements of the Mass, the reality is that the first thing that most parishes will consider when preparing music for a Mass is the hymns to be sung – the oft-derided "hymn sandwich".  Building up a repertoire of hymns, rather than just singing the same old-same old, is good and healthy on so many levels – for both the music group and the Assembly.   The learning-curve for our Vigil Mass congregation, the Music Group and myself has been very steep over the last 4+ years. There is no great secret but, for what it’s worth, here is how I work. The first criterion for me, as much as possible, is that the hymns we use are relevant to the season and/or “theme” of the Mass.   Unless you have an encyclopaedic mind then you need some help here and I use two sources; the suggestions at the back of the hymnal and suggestions provided within the pages of “Music and Liturgy” – the periodical produced by the Society of St Gregory.   I note down

It was some time in the summer of 2012 that, out of the blue, our recently-arrived parish priest asked me to start a music group to minister to our Saturday Vigil Mass; a group that, in particular, he wanted to attract young people to be involved in the life of the Church. First, a little background information.   For about six or seven years, since moving to the area, I had been involved in the music ministry at the Sunday morning Mass at one of the two parishes in our small town.   It was very low-pressure stuff; there was already in place a very talented musician/singer/composer who planned everything and I merely turned up and added some strumming on my guitar, some vocal harmonies and, occasionally, a solo or two.   However, due to family circumstances, we started to attend the Vigil Mass at the other Church and my guitar rarely left its case for several years.   The new Parish Priest became aware of my musical inclination because I had been asked to play and sing at a co

Welcome to my new blog. It has been suggested to me for a while to start this blog.   But I was reluctant for a number of reasons; not least of these being (I must admit) that I didn’t really have an idea of what a blog is as I don’t follow any myself.   When I started looking at some liturgical blogs there were a couple of things that struck me – it seems that virtually all of them are somewhere between “rather” and “very” traditionalist; and more often than not they aspire to a “quality” (for want of a better word) of music than most parish groups (in my experience) are incapable of – much as I love a bit of Byrd, Palestrina and Allegri I have never been involved in a parish where we had the resources and skills to pull it off. So, deeply influenced by the Dirty Harry philosophy of life (“A man’s got to know his limitations!”), this blog is aimed at grassroot liturgists like myself.   Based on my own experiences – successes and failures – it will contain reflections, pract