How we can receive more from the Mass - 3 (why we sing)
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 ...