Grassroots Liturgist

The Estonian people love their choral singing, at least as much as the Welsh do.   And, if you were to meet anyone from Estonia, they would tell you how they literally sang their way to independence through the ‘singing revolution’ of the 1980s.    This singing both expressed the unity of the people and, at the same time, helped to build up, to strengthen that unity.   And this unity of identity, as Estonians, kept them strong and resilient during the years of Soviet oppression. This bears repeating: their singing both expressed the unity that they already shared, and it promoted and fortified that unity. In some ways, this echoes our experience of Holy Mass. At the beginning of the Mass, the bell is rung, we stand for the Entrance Procession…..and we sing! The purpose of this Entrance Song (usually a hymn, though this is a relatively recent practice) “is to open the celebration, foster the unity of those who have been gathered, introduce their thoughts to ...

Our music group plays at the Vigil Mass every fortnight.  On the alternate weeks I lead the singing unaccompanied.  Strangely, our small congregation often - though not always - sings more heartily when there is no accompaniment. I know that we are not alone in this.  Talking with other music leaders, and reading liturgy forums, I know that this happens elsewhere.  I'm not entirely certain why this is the case, and I'm sure that there are a number of reasons, but it does mean that we don't need to afraid of leading unaccompanied singing. Hymn singing is a recent phenomenon in the Catholic Mass.  More traditional is the singing of Processional Songs or Chants.  Put simply, these are similar to the Responsorial Psalm in that there is an antiphon (response) sung by everyone and verses from a psalm sung by a cantor(s).  We use John Ainslie's " English Proper Chants ".  If we had an organist we would doubtless make use of that; instead we sing the ...

Included in the second tier of importance of things to be sung at Mass are the Entrance Procession, Gloria, Psalm, Communion Procession and post-Communion. The Gloria is the great hymn of praise of the Triune God and, personally, I am a little disappointed that it only makes the second tier.  That said, it is still considered more important than singing during the Preparation of the Gifts (Offertory) and the Recessional - and it is a daring parish liturgist that would miss out those!  There would be revolts in the pews!! Not so long ago, before the New (English) Translation of the Missal, it was permissible to sing a setting of the Gloria (and, indeed, all the Mass parts) that paraphrased what was actually in the Missal; the Peruvian Gloria, for example, proved popular with many.  That is no longer the case, as I found out myself when I submitted my first Mass setting (High Peak Mass) for permission to be used outside of my own parish; permission was at first withheld...