After almost a year of singing them, offering to teach them whenever I was thanked or complimented, making copies to use at church, telling people they could take them home, making recordings both fine and feeblish amateur for those put off by thinking they need to sound like... oh, Chanticleer, writing a simple article when requested by TPTB, after all this - three timid voices, (regulars, I judged from the sound, but I didnt want to turn around and put them on the spot,) sang along with the seasonal Marian Antiphon at the end of Mass.
3 comments:
Congratulations. As you well know, as stated by two popes, all Catholics should be able to sing the four antiphons, at least in their simple tones. One of the things that drives me nuts about my 1962 Mass parish is that the congregation is never expected to sing anything in Latin (!) besides the Mass responses, parts of the Mass, and, of all things, "Sub tuum praesidium." So the choir director decides out of thin air -- e.g., during Communion -- that the choir will chant something like "Ave Maria" and the congregation sits there in complete silence. Well, almost complete silence as there is this one dude who always chants along and leads one or two other rebels. Which, come to think of it, is exactly the result that you have written about, just coming from the opposite direction.
There were even more singing this week, and the congregation seems to be growing.
I'm looking forward to seeing how many join in on the Regina Coeli in 2 weeks!
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
Post a Comment