Grassroots Liturgist

Any parent worth their salt will teach their children good habits: brush your teeth; don’t eat sweets before meals; don’t stay up late, respect others; pray before you eat and sleep.   The list goes on.   Why do parents do this? Many of these are simply good for our health, such as regularly brushing our teeth and getting into a bedtime routine. Also, habits provide resilience; we may not always feel like brushing our teeth or going to bed on time, but they become part of our daily routine and so we do them regardless. But also, habits form our attitudes.   If you get into the habit of respecting others, you become a respectful person; if you get into the habit of praying, you become a prayerful person. There is one habit that we would do well to adopt as we say the Creed.   Have you noticed how, in small print, we are told that we should bow as we say, “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man”?   Have you wondered why? ...

Have you noticed how easy it is to fall into the trap of repeating parts of the Mass that you have recited for years or decades, without really thinking about them, or what those words really mean? Each and every Sunday, we recite the Creed.   So often that we can just whittle off the words without thinking.   I was once at a celebration of Holy Mass where the priest was leading the Creed, but lost his way.   It all ground to a very embarrassing halt because we were all on autopilot.   So let’s have a look at what we are doing here. We say, “I believe…”, yet we are saying it together.   This is the local Church – part of the global, universal Church – standing as one, proclaiming what it is that unites us and brings us together to celebrate Holy Mass. But even those very words, “I believe”, are more powerful and have greater implications than we may imagine.   When a parent says to their child, “I believe in you,” are they saying that their child mere...

Some time back, was I was talking to a former colleague who was also an organist in an Anglican church.  He told me that he was aware that a great many of his fellow church musicians ceased to go to church once they retired from their leadership roles in liturgical music. Now, there are some differences between Church of England and Catholic organists, chiefly being that they are generally paid.  As such, I suspect that there is a greater risk that what you do becomes more of a job than a ministry.  However, there is a similar risk for all those within the music and liturgy ministries, indeed all ministries that make demands on your time and energy. There is a great deal of sacrifice in being involved with such ministries.  There is, of course, the time and effort in taken in preparation, in practice and rehearsals.  During the liturgy itself, Holy Mass or otherwise, we can never fully immerse ourselves as we always have to keep one eye on what we are doing ...