The next committee-produced make-it-up-as-you-go-along aren't-we-clever neoliturgy

The blog title is a line (all too pointedly accurate in some places) from Fr. Hunwicke's discussion of the form and source of the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
That's right, Liturgy, an action performed by a liturgical Church, an action whose form is a GIVEN.
Is it's form the be-all-and-end-all?
No, of course not. But it is requisite, (sometimes within certain parameters, sometimes with options.)
Those who insist on this are often insulted as "rubricists," (but it should be admitted, they are only so-called by fabricationists.)
Blessed be God for ever
I don't know that I have encountered the " the celebrant actually wait[ing] until the end of the singing, then say[ing] these prayers of the Offertory, but I have certainly heard priests shout them over instrumental music.
Some readers take exception to Martin Mosebach's complaint that the OF has "positively" forced us all to think about the Liturgy.
I understand what he is saying, but I think we are only forced, not by the OF itself, (although it does allow for more options that we should be trusted with, hearkening to Cdl Pell's words in another context, "better one mission than a thousand options,") but by, also in Fr Hunwicke's words, celebrants with an unhealthy "disrespect for Tradition and the Magisterium."
(I have no Hebrew.) This:
No reader of this blog could doubt my enthusiasm for reading Christian liturgy in terms of its Hebrew roots. But that means understanding that since our Christian Jewish tradition parted company with that Jewish tradition which became Rabbinic Judaism, we have possessed and developed our tradition in the Church, the Body of God's Messiah, in an integral and authentic way. For us, the blessing of the holy Name of YHWH Creator and Redeemer is the Eucharistic Prayer. It begins 'Let us give thanks to YHWH our God' and carries on as we laud and magnify that glorious Name by singing Holy holy holy YHWH God of SBAOTH.
has set me to wondering again, (the blog chatter about the word from the CDW about the Name of God started it,) I should know this, I think I do know it, but too dang much apartame, (pass me another diet vanilla coke,) and I can't come up with it --
When a Jew reads or sings aloud the psalms, he says what when he gets to the unutterable Tetragrammaton? I thought is was Adonai, but how, when using Hebrew words in Christian sacchro-pop was trendy, did we get to the 2 syllable word, (that yes, I admit I'm glad has always made singing SING a NEW Song UNto the LORD problematic in the eyes of some,), and how did the vowels in the English language translation get so universally agreed upon? was it some cabal of song writers?
It should be noted that there are contrarians on the new... directive? letter? instruction? corporate memo? whatever
From Rorate Caeli's combox:
The CDW directive on the name of God seems to be based on a theologically erroneous principle. Because being God Himself, Christ has every right to mention that Name: indeed it was His use of that name that was the occasion of Caiphas call for His capital punishment.
Being incorporated into Christ Jesus, and knowing God, no longer through veils and types, but face to face and in truth, we Catholics have every right to use this name in our prayers and songs, and it is pleasing to the Most Holy Trinity, whose name this is, to do so. To say otherwise is to subordinate the New Testament to the limitations of the Old.
I would appreciate any quotes from the Fathers of the Church which show a consensus against using this Name. I personally recall no Saint or Doctor whom I have read every mention such a scruple for Catholics.
I, on the other hand?
I am pleased that the Reform of the Reform types and the Trendists are, in general, of one mind on this.
(CAN'T we ALL just GET ALONG???)

I'd be willing to chip in the ferry fare...

... for such a group in any number of places.
News about a possible group swim...
Episcopal priests from Fort Worth may be looking at Catholicism
As it is, Texas is looking better and better for retirement...
A delegation of Episcopal priests from Fort Worth paid a visit to Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann earlier this summer, asking for guidance on how their highly conservative diocese might come into "full communion" with the Catholic Church.
Whether that portends a serious move to turn Fort Worth Episcopalians and their churches into Catholics and Catholic churches is a matter of dispute.
The Rev. William Crary, senior rector of the Fort Worth diocese, confirmed that on June 16 he and three other priests met with Bishop Vann, leader of the Fort Worth Catholic diocese, and presented him a document that is highly critical of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
The document states that the overwhelming majority of Episcopal clergy in the Fort Worth diocese favor pursuing an "active plan" to bring the diocese into full communion with the Catholic Church.

I liked ... the order of the words here:

"There's a very serious attempt on the part of Episcopal clergy in the Diocese of Forth Worth to petition Rome for some kind of recognition," said the Rev. Courtland Moore, who is retired as rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Arlington.
"They make it clear that they no longer believe there is truth in the Anglican Communion, and the only way they can find truth is reunion with Rome."

Note well, NOT "they believe there is no longer truth..."
I'm not serious about Texas of course... but I'd surely love to hear of congregations in Florida or New Jersey testing the waters.

Why I would not be a legislator...

... nor give the troubles of those delegated to fabricate our laws to a monkey on a rock.
How to balance conflicting, and great needs?
Begging is "a human right" says the Vatican
Of course this is true, those in need have a right not only to receive aid from us all but to make their needs known.
It would be unfair to the souls of those who are not (at the moment,) needy, to be deprived of opportunities for spontaneous Love in Action, caritas.
And yet.... how to combat begging "rackets", in which fake beggars were put onto Italian streets by organised gangs to "profit from peoples generosity", and the concomitant child abuse.
Laws are so dang complex... but they have to be to be good, to be fair; if there is an eventuality not conceived of and provided for by the framers you can be dang sure it will be jumped on by the unscrupulous or stumbled upon by the careless...
It is an unavoidable fact of life in this post-lapsarian world.
That goes double for liturgical and canon law, I imagine -- the stakes are higher.
Where does it say dancers can't sit on the altar table?
Where does it say I can't bring my gyrfalcons into the sanctuary?
And this makes me very sad, even though I imagine it is necessary:
A member of the ... Berlusconi government, also announced this week that Rome municipal police, or vigili, who mainly carry out traffic duties, would carry guns for the first time in 35 years.

And how about George Sanders estate?

Is this a great county, or what?
Anybody can sue anybody for anything.
Oh, wait, it's not in this country... the rest of the world has become as litigious as we.
I think they should sue Sir Walter Scott while they are at it, and Ciaran Hinds.

LONDON: The heirs of Knights Templar have initiated a legal battle in an attempt to force the Vatican to restore the reputation of the disgraced order that was accused of heresy and dissolved seven centuries ago. In a lawsuit, the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descendants of Knights Templar, has called on Pope Benedict to recognise the seizure of assets worth £79 billion. According to the association based in Spain, when the order was dissolved by Benedict's predecessor Pope Clement V in 1307, more than 9,000 properties, countless pastures, mills and commercial ventures belonging to knights were appropriated by the Roman Catholic Church. But they claim that their aim is not only to reclaim damages but also to restore the "good name" of the Order of the Temple, the Daily Telegraph reported. The Knights Templar, which existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages, was founded in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096. Its main purpose was to ensure the safety of Christians who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Order was endorsed by the Vatican around 1129 and became a favoured charity. But when the Holy Land was lost, support for the organisation faded. And rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France pressurised Pope Clement V to dissolve it in 1307.

Umm... appropriated by "the Catholic Church?" aren't/weren't the Knights Templar part of the Catholic Church?... maybe a wholly owned subsidiary or some such?

Specific intercessions

Today at the Prayer of the Faithful we prayed for people of Beijing displaced by the Olympics, livestock and wildlife at risk because of melting polar ice and the possibility of drilling, and good causes that are underfunded because of money given to "more glamorous" causes.

Oremus...

Ecumenism? they'll show us ecumenism (Blessed John Newman would be so proud...)
Cooperation? charity? yup, they got that too.
The (Roman) Catholic Bishops of England and Wales are a source of great confusion to me. I just don't get them... it must be very, very hard for some of their priests.
Such an odd attitude for the putatively "liberal." (Well, it follows, I suppose... they don't know the meaning of the word "progressive" either.)
And now this rumor that they are going to "crack" down on blogging priests?
PapaRatz certainly has a task in appointing the new primate -- and that gentleman will have his work cut out for him.
Damian Thompson is his usual interesting self:

For a moment it looks as if a fire has broken out in the chapel. A cloud of smoke is billowing from the back and rolling down the aisle – and it is fiercely pungent. This is grade A incense, pure enough to guarantee an instantaneous spiritual high.

A young man walks through the door swinging a thurible on a gold chain. He passes it to a priest, deacon and subdeacon – all in gold vestments – who take turns wafting it at each other. Finally, the subdeacon turns round and, bowing low, shoots plumes of smoke diagonally across the choir stalls with the accuracy of a mid-fielder taking a difficult corner.

We are witnessing an unusual sight: a Roman Catholic solemn mass, celebrated according to an ancient Latin rite effectively outlawed 40 years ago. And it’s taking place in the 13th-century chapel of Merton college, Oxford, which has been Anglican for 400 years.

Just for a week, however, it has gone back to being Catholic – but this is not Catholicism as most people know it. I’m at the summer school of the Latin Mass Society which – to the delight of the conservative Pope Benedict XVI and the dismay of trendy British bishops – is teaching priests how to say the Tridentine mass.

The last time Merton chapel regularly witnessed this sort of complex liturgy was in the 1540s, before the Protestant reformers pulled out much of the stained glass and toppled the statues of saints. The organi-sers of the summer school are reformers, too, but their aim is precisely the opposite: to restore Latin services and rich furnishings to their own Catholic parish churches, many of which were stripped bare by modernisers after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

What makes this summer school rather controversial is that most of the bishops of England and Wales disapprove of the return of the Latin mass, regarding its sonorous Latin prayers and intricate gestures as a relic of the Middle Ages. Until recently, the Tridentine mass could be celebrated only with a bishop’s permission, usually granted grudgingly for special occasions. Then, in July last year, Pope Benedict XVI swept away the right of bishops to ban the old services. Most of them were horrified.

I've byzanted a few times myself...

I know, zeroing in on typos is base, but it reminded me of the old joke
(I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never kippled...)
The story is sad, though, isn't it? And all too common
Sagging Spirits
Byzanting Catholice at Church of the Resurrection in Smithtown say the church hierarchy is trying to close their parish

Special Affects

I was given tickets recently to a production of a work of musical theater which I had already seen (also comped...) I mention this only to note that I saw the performances in question more than once, with time for the performers to grow into, ossify in or re-think their roles.
I like a great deal a great deal, terrific score, exciting story, romantic, and contains a few small elements that are implicitly, if not explicitly, spiritual, almost religious.
But the piece is not my subject.
The leading lady, and the leading man for that matter, were almost affectless, there was such a lack not just of urgency, but really of involvement in the proceedings that came through in many if not most of the line readings.
When I was acting, there was a lazy but effective direction one heard given all the time - "Raise the stakes." In other words, let your character have some emotional investment in what is happening, or may happen, care.
I'm not talking about melodramatics, I hope I have cured myself of an affection for that both as an actor and audience member.
I remember course work in Restoration comedy with a fantastic actress/instructor who chided me, I like your choices, or rather I DON'T like your choices but I like that you made some. But they're the wrong ones -- this girl doesn't have the energy to expend being that upset over being thwarted, her father forbidding her to see her beau is no more nor less vexing than her maid mismatching her hair ribbons for her.
But this piece is set in an era of overt passions and grand gestures, with types who are warm, not cool.
And I'm not talking about subtlety, about screen performances onstage, (although one sees that often enough -- hello? the body mic' is not going to do all your work, you know... and the close-up you're poised for? doesn't mean much to those of us in the cheap seats.)
This plot features kidnapping and horror and murder and insanity and hopeless, impossible love and the sudden and shocking possibility of dreams long deferred tantalizingly close to fulfillment.
And without actively misreading lines, some of the principals conveyed that it all mattered somewhat less than J Alfred Prufrock's cuffs or peach. Instead of murderous furor we saw pique; instead of adoration, affability.
They could not rise above the near affectlessness of their demeanor IRL to become anyone but the 21st century young adults or aging adolescents they are.
I may have mentioned before that I have done indie darling Zoey Deschanel (sp?) an injustice, I thought she was a dreadful actress.
So blank, such a flat speaking voice, almost zombie-like at times....
But I now think she is simply an avatar of her generation, captures the affect of her peers perfectly, and, within the minuscule range accuracy would demand, displays great range.
There's a very funny commercial now flacking some travel destination, where a voice over such as you would expect in a documentary about tracking down some elusive, wild animal turns out to be talking about a teen-ager's smile.
We're teen-agers, it's our job to despise and refuse to interact....
Directing this spring, I found the overwhelming majority of kids, (in otherwise, not those with performing experience, or natural performing ability,) or to fall into one of two categories -- the deliberately obstructionist, you can't make me do this and if you make me do this you make me me like it; and those who are willing, but have seemingly lost their skill at showing enthusiasm or pleasure or anger by more than infinitesimal variations in their facial expression or tone of voice.

Reverent Worship In A Howdy Doody World

Okay, this gentleman is coming from a very different a very different sacred musical tradition, and a very different Christian "faith tradition" not liturgical at all, no concept of the Liturgy as Revelation; and so the hymns to which he refers are never going to have the power of liturigcal music, is never going to fulfill sacred music's true purpose, to help us to the Source ond Summit of Christian Faith.
And he has an unnecessary fear of the new, (although as must follow, laudably, he does not fetishize the new.)
And he surely does hit on some solid truths that lie along the road to the Truth.
Their denom obviously is fighting some of the same cultural battles as the Church, people seeking entertainment and stimulation and pleasure, where they should be seeking a path to the Transcendent...

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to attend [a religious workshop], what I enjoyed most was the a cappella singing.
... the singing was much better when the group was singing a well-written, musically punctuated piece and the song leader was not engaged in monkeyshines....
One of the major contrasts I witnessed between the teen set and the adult gatherings was the split between singing fluff songs and hymns with sound, theological meat in the music. I heard someone describe these “devotional songs” as 7/11 songs- seven words, sung eleven times. ....
It is no wonder then that in such a flash/bang, shame neutral, hyper-saturation media environment that those suffering through the most, adolescents, are themselves captured by the desires of this age, commercialism and harsh task master of nihilism. More than ever, these children need these hymns. ...They desperately need to hear God addressed as Thee and Thou, two steps higher than the clumsy domain of megrim mortals. They need to be shielded from the chaos of charms ...
They do not need pithy jingles mimicking the impetuousness of continual childhood, [emphasis mine] they need to be told that their boat is sailing on to the imperturbable harbor of adulthood. They need victory gardens, not Wal-mart. They need the marriage supper of the Lamb, not hooking up with the feelings du jour. They need cognitive proof that beyond trends and positive thinking there stands a Rock of Ages and a Balm in Gilead.
They need leaders who will command their attention above rather than to center stage. They don’t need spontaneous prayers, solos, cart wheels or unnecessary choral tricks to crack a whip and say “Look at me.” They need good singing, period not three exclamation points. They need to know that corporate worship of God is always exciting no matter if its done in a convention center with four-thousand voices or by a creek with four. Corporate worship is exciting always, beyond circumstances because it is, by its very nature, beyond the human experience. By raising your voice to God, unaccompanied by the clangs of cymbals or the warbling of a soloist, you are presenting God with the only sacrifice He demands: yourself.
During those blessed minutes, during those rests from the cacophony of cares, the individual son or daughter of the King of KIngs receives a tremendous opportunity: the chance to leave yourself and participate in the shadow of God’s glory. It is a marvelous time wherein we are not bound by the fetters of time and space. When we sing we join an invisible choir harmonized in English and Urdu and Hakka and Madurese. ... For a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we wear robes of white and dip our feet in a Crystal Sea.
Friends, that is not the rambling fancies of my fertile imagination, that is the reality of worship. That is God’s glory. If you find yourself less than enthusiastic... Worship isn’t boring, you are boring. In those sacred seconds, I am reminded that I am not apart of the rat race because I am not a rat. ...
It is my sincere hope that if you ever happen to be [where] I am leading singing that you will completely forget my name, my skills or the occasionally out of tune vocalization of those near you and instead you will remember how you were moved because you beamed a smile when you realized that “we serve a risen Savior” and you will have trembled “Beneath the Cross of Jesus.” And you will rush to take that spark and light a blaze in your neighborhood to tell others about the perfect peace in this dark world of sin and the wonderful love of my Blessed Redeemer way down in the depths of my heart.

"Mother Rat"

Another "fruit" of the finding of the Catholic Chapel Hymnal is finally seeing the much excoriated "Mother, At Thy Feet is Kneeling." (Yankee H/T to Brian of Christus Vincit, the BLOG for alerting me to the existence of this gem from days gone by :oP)

Now that I know the tune, I may work it into an improv this Friday... it should fit right in with Hail Mary, Gentle Woman, (which I will be playing.)

(Oh, another Yankee H/T and thanks to Brian for his touting of FireFox)

No Payn, No Profite

Father Hunwicke, surely among the most witty presences on the 'net, suggests a preface to be published with the new translations, in answer all the whiners, umm... I mean, those with concerns about the new Missal translations, and how the "burden" to introducing them fall on the guys on the ground, at the parish level, and how having to utter words and formulae the people have already taken into their hearts, to which they are accustomed from long usage will be hard.
(To which I reply, and forcing people to focus anew on the words they can now rattle off is a bad thing, HOW exactly?)

And if any would iudge this waye more painfull, because that all thynges must be read upon the boke, whereas before, by the reason of so much repeticion, they could saye many thinges by heart: if those men will waye their labor, with the profite in knowlege, which dayely they shal obtein by readyng upon the boke, they will not refuse the payn, in consideracion of the greate profite that shall ensue therof.

I for one am all for borrowing anything useful and good from the BCP.

This little light o' mine...

I know many of us have... issues? with our pastors, but even so, most of us know the poor guys work their tails off, in ways few in the parish will ever appreciate or even know.
So, a joke in tribute to, and a word of thanks to Fr. A, Fr B, and Fr C:

During a colloquium, a number of priests from different orders are gathered in a church for Vespers.
While they are praying, all the lights suddenly go out.
The Benedictines continue praying from memory, not missing a beat.
The Jesuits begin to discuss whether the blown fuse means they are dispensed from the obligation to pray Vespers.
The Franciscans compose a song of praise for God's gift of darkness.
The Dominicans revisit their ongoing debate on light as a signification of the transmission of divine knowledge.
The Carmelites fall into silence and slow, steady breathing.
The parish priest looks for a flashlight, finds the basement and replaces the fuse.

The Shower Head Principle

I don't want people to think I'm all gloom and doom... there have been tiny successes in my life lately.
I found, in the never-ending cleaning of the loft a falling to shreds old paper-bound hymnal printed by McLaughlin and Reilly, the Catholic Chapel Hymnal? IIRC, and I finally know why my parish sings the odd variation it does on the Stabat Mater, and sings the refrain to the Lourdes hymn in the French manner, that is, with the accent on the "ve" of "a-VE" (I had thought it was because of a French Canadian nun in the school.
Also, I found in a thrift store a beautiful old leather check register for .75, which is the PERFECT loose-leaf notebook for 11 X 14 organ music photocopies and odd, separated-from-their-binding pages. So, all I have to do is punch 7 holes in everything $!!#>$%?! No, honestly, I am thrilled. I'd been looking for a reasonable ring binder for a long time (they are available through office supply places, but for way more than i can afford, or would be willing to, even if money were not an issue, spend.)
So I am happy. Ish. Happy-ish.
The Shower Head Principle of Luxury and Happiness. You might think you want, say, a boat that costs thousands and thousands of dollars, and using that boat would make you happy, every once in a while.
But a small luxury, such as the very best shower head in the world would cost only a fraction of that, and you would use it every single day, and thus ultimately, will bring you more pleasure.

Fed-uppedness

Why is it that sometimes I can have five projects going, and I am gung ho on all of them, and am simultaneously yearning to do act on five more great ideas for other projects I can't squeeze in just now, but just wait until I have a free momen... And then there are times, I'm not in ill health, I'm not depressed, I'm not even physically tired -- but hanging a fresh hand towel seems beyond my initiative?
No, it's not depression, but maybe it's fed-upedness.
The Colloquium was such a "mountain top" experience, and many of us joked about how hard it might be to go back to the real world, (I personally made a great contribution toward easing everyones re-entry into normal society by taking some of the glamor off the otherwise magical musical experiences, with the Alleluia our chant schola butchered one morning...)
And I've always known I couldn't make any serious, overt improvements, or changes in my situation, but a Stealth Liturgical Music project with equal parts attention to kids not already indoctrinated in the Cult of What's Happenin', (or rather, the Cult of What Wuz Happenin' 20 Years Ago,) gradually shifting the balance of congregational song from "what do we like best?" to "what's the closest we can come to what's called for?", and getting the choir and cantors to learn that liturgical music should be our priority, and only after that, old favorites or attractive new anthems.
But I could deal with that partially because somewhere out there, things were better, right? and they were becoming... More Better, all the time, right?
Yeah, somewhere over the rainbow.
Perhaps Himself is correct, and righting what's rong with the Rites is trying to put toothpaste back into the tube.
Since the colloquium I know of three musicians who have either given up, or been told their employers, (be it pastor or parish,) had given up on them, (none of them were CMAA types, but they were doing or trying to do good work.)
And that's not even counting the people I only "know" on line.

Learning that a program of over a decade and a half standing was "not what we have in mind."
Being quashed by musically and liturgically illiterate committees of Church Ladies, (of both sexes.)
Seeing a change at the chancery turn the clock back to the glory days of GLOP for all diocesan functions.
Driving trucks.
And yet.
And yet, and yet, and yet...
I'd like to think it's the last gasp of the dinosaurs, that the current commotion is really the circling of the wagons by the Forces of Dimness.
Meanwhile, can we all hang on?
And what is best to do, hang on where we are?
or stick together, marshall our forces, gather on the Forest Moon of Endor or Yavin IV?
I have mistakenly called Fr Phillips "Monsignor Phillips" any number of time... perhaps I should start saying Obi-Wan Phillips?

From the fury of the liturgy police, O Lord, deliver us...

From the blog Australia incognita this marvelous bit of common sense:

"Rubrics are God's table manners, and not the dinner itself."

A blog worth checking out.

"The Eucharist is not a jolly useful springboard for the real Christian business ...

... of going out and changing the world and doing social service and voting Green."

Just another in a series of marvelous lines by Fr Hunwicke (this one, in a post that is primarily about the new translations)

He goes on:
The Eucharist is the telos, the end and purpose of human life and existence, the Son's everlasting propitiation before His Father in a wonderful mysterion granted to be among us. Seeing the Mass as having a utilitarian purpose, however high and noble, is the beginning of godlessness.

A Burden of Song

Dr Mike on the CMAA discussion boards a thread, (about, of all things, serial music! .... but I digress,) said something of such great good sense, and said it so well that I must repeat it here:
we can jump up and down and holler about singing in church and accuse people of not being properly catechized if they don't -- sound familiar? -- or we can work with the situation. Train those who want it but provide good scholas and choirs for the churches to once again sing for the people. Don't deny people the opportunity, but let them understand their role, which is not carrying the entire burden of the singing at Mass.
I have tried to explain before that we are often asking too much of the congregation.
Eleven musical numbers at my parish. Yes, some of them are very short (the gospel acclamation, the memorial acclamation, and the "great" amen,) and some of them the burden is mostly on someone else, cantor or choir, (the kyrie sometimes, and the psalm always,) but still, eleven musical numbers!
And some of them go on....and on.... and on....
We expect people who are walking, watching for the usher's cues, and EATING, (I may unblasphemously say,) for Christ's sake, to also sing for longer than Billy Bigelow's Soliloquy would last with the most self-indulgent leading man.
It's unreasonable!
And that Notre Dame study of parish life some 20 years ago or so, gave evidence that it's counter-productive -- the more the congregation is asked to sing, the less well they will sing.
The trouble is, of course, that those who have placed this burden on their backs will also have very wrong-headed notions of the hierarchy of what should be sung, hymns hymns and more hymns....

St Cecilia, pray for us!

Another dedicated Catholic musician's troubles, (I have GOT to get over myself, and realize how much worse I could have it, since I have none of the other worries, family, health, etc., that add to church musician's lack of hope):

I've been director at [my parish for] sixteen years. When I first started, I was not long out of graduate school, and I knew NOTHING about what Mass was really supposed to be. I went through the usual foolishness of choosing hymns "that the people could sing" for every Mass. The Church had Worship III and a subscription to the Breaking Bread/Music Issue, which came from the Withywindle of Catholic music -- the center from which all the queerness comes (Tolkien geek reference).

The choir sang lots and lots of a capella music, and we continued to grow musically. We were stuck in the Siberia of the early Mass, which few people under 60 attended. I tried to make the music as good as possible -- we did a lot of classical (including Renaissance) repertory. Eventually the folkie for whom the church had bought the Music Issue etc. passed away, and they replaced him with someone who directs a local gospel choir and isn't even Catholic rather than turn it over to me. Yes, they said they were afraid I would "scare the children" -- probably by teaching what the Church actually says the music is supposed to be. Well, don't get me started on that. My title of "Director of Music" became meaningless at that point as far as I'm concerned, and I've just been trying to salvage my little corner of the liturgy -- the early, early Mass. My choir have been pretty faithful, but even they felt the schiaffo when the parish passed me over for direction of the shepherdless sheep of the 'high" Mass.

However, a new wrinkle in the program was that I got involved with "those Latin nuts" who not only sing Gregorian chant, but actually love it. Fortunately I had learned to read the neumes in music school, so I wasn't completely lost; but this put a major crimp in their appreciation of the parish music program. This all came to a head when my little schola sang a couple of months ago. We sang the Introit, Communion and Offertory, and also sang an alternatim treatment of the Offertory antiphon with a polyphonic component by Josquin. After Mass, I told the pastor we would sing again for Assumption. He said, "No, that's way too soon. I don't want any more of this stuff. Maybe twice a year."

But why, Father?

"Because I'll get E-mails."

(Oh, the HORROR! He might actually have to explain something.)

I knew then that our efforts had been in vain, but I decided to shoot the moon with this year's budget. I requested (and solicited funds from certain parishioners for) scholarships to entice solo-quality singers to join the program. I asked for money to go to the Colloquium and the St. Cecilia Chant Workshop. And I requested money to buy copies of the Graduale Romanum and the Graduale Simplex for the Schola. I was going to make the Schola the main musical group in the Parish.

Next week I have to defend said budget before the richest (and least musically astute) man in town. He's been head of the PFC for thirty years or more, and the parishioners bow and scrape in front of him as if he were the Tsar of All The Russias. So they tell me they want a hymnal. The richest man in the city, for whom the bulletin budget is less than pocket change, is tired of spending the money for "something that gets thrown away." They tell me they don't want any more Latin. And they tell me I'm asking for too much money -- although it's less for me to attend the Colloquium than it was for the folk group guy to attend the NPM hootenanny every other year.

I can't rescue the parish from her lay leaders. They not only don't think there is a problem with sacro-pop, they regard it as "traditional" music. So I am just an inconvenience -- a gadfly who has organized the program, produced the music bulletins, whipped up a choir from unprepossessing material, and so on and so on. And while I don't intend to die on Budget Hill, so to speak, I'm going to make sure they know why they should not buy a hardcover hymnal. Now, if they make me go back to the Withywindle Pulp Hymnal, I'll deal with it. I'll choke back the gag reflex when I encounter the neutered and bowdlerized glosses in the hymns. But I will also continue to teach the choir and cantors what is supposed to be, and maybe the next pastor will be more courageous.

My apologies for the vituperation. I'm so done with them! It makes me ill to think of the coming season. As is the case for many of you, however, I can't afford to quit my job. We are poorer than church mice after some of the health issues we've had to deal with the last few years. So I'll do what I have to do, even if it means an early grave. At least then I'd be good for insurance money.

Is it my winning smile?

I have always thought I was a pretty obviously censorious person.
I mean, I wasn't born sneering like Pooh-bah, but even as a small child I would arch an eyebrow ironically at almost anything I heard, and as a teenager, all of whom admittedly roll their eyes, my eye-rolling deserved to get my face slapped sideways.
I don't think my face conveys interest or approval or even neutrality as a matter of course, so why, of late, are people who have no possible cause to think I would automatically agree with them coming up to me and telling me the most out-there things?
A man I had never met before, engaged me in conversation, went on a harangue, in confidential tones, about the "lavender mafia" who have "destroyed" the music ministry of his entire diocese (not my own,) and named names.
This was not in any kind of church setting.
Weird.
But this has happened with politics, highly contentious matters of performing arts, you name it -- some vibe I am giving off says "come up and chew my ear off about your personal obsession, I'll affirm you in your fervor!"

"Returning To A Sense Of The Sacred in Catholic Liturgy"

It is not only musicians who gripe about the dog's dinner we have managed to make of the Liturgy.
Hugh McNichol asks Where is the Institute for the Sacred Arts in the United States?Why haven’t the bishops established this particular institute for the United States? in this article http://www.bloggernews.net/116840.
And it set me to wondering, out of the, what? 194 or 5? dioceses in the United States how many established that Institute of Sacred Music that was part of the mandate of the Vatican Council?
And why so few?
Was it because, just as Mr McNichol laments, "It confounds me that our own Catholic clergy persist in absolute decision-making authority when it comes to the execution and implementation of new liturgical spaces or the commissioning of sacred art. Most clergy with which I am familiar do not know the difference between Baroque and Bauhaus but they insist on making the decisions about church design and architecture," a similar reluctance to engage those with some degree expertise obtained in matters musical? that those in authority didn't want the musically knowledgeable putting in their 2 cents and thwarting their own preferences?

Seriously, how many diocesan, or even regional for metropolitan archdioceses, Institutes of Sacred Music are there in this country?
Given the hoopla surrounding Fr Webers appointment, I imagine...