Grassroots Liturgist

At the end of the month I am attending the annual Summer School run by the Society of St Gregory (the national society of liturgy and music for the Catholic Church in the British Isles).  One of the workshops is called " Accompanying on a budget: Two guitars and a tin whistle?  Whatever your resources, you can be effective ".  I rather wish that this session had been available some years back when we first started the Vigil Music Group, as some of the things that I expect will be suggested in the workshop came to us slowly over a period of time. For example, it was only after we had two flautists, both simply hammering out the melody line, that it dawned on me that this was such a waste of the available talent.  So we began to introduce harmonies for at least one of the flutes, which made a massive difference all round; it made the music that much more rich and beautiful for the liturgy (a good thing), but it also permitted a greater artistic expression for the mus...

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 n...

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 pl...