"Now the power, Now the vessel brimmed for pouring..."

In an eMail from Magnificat - I'm not sure that the artwork isn't the greatest benefit of the magazine.
No, that would be the reflections.
Though it might be the obscure saints on various themes. Oh, except it's probably....
(Sometime I feel as if I am advertising for Magnificat, but really, you should subscribe.)
Anyway, this reminded me of the heartbreaking statue of the Man of Sorrows at St John Cantius, the same kind of stillness and power.

"Now the power, Now the vessel brimmed for pouring; Now the body, Now the blood..."

(Hymn text, by the way, which has nothing, so far as I know, to do with Magnificat, by Jaroslav Vajda.)

A Hymn and My Happy Place

I think of myself as a fussy, quick-to-compare-and-criticize person, as do most who know me, and I truly am.

That is why it is such a marvelous state of affairs that a tiny and welcome surprise can make me happy all day - please join in a hymn of thanksgiving, number 34 in the missallette.

I think I would willingly and joyfully sing the words of a washing machine owner's manual to PICARDY.
Add to that tune the glorious translation of Gerard Moultrie of the ancient words from the Liturgy of St. James, and I am transported.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, And with fear and trembling stand; Ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing in His hand ,Christ our God to earth descendeth Comes our homage to demand. 

King of kings, yet born of Mary, As of old on earth He stood, Lord of lords, in human vesture, In the body and the blood; He will give to all the faithful His own self for heavenly food. 

Rank on rank the host of heaven Spreads its vanguard on the way, As the Light of light descendeth From the realms of endless day, Comes the powers of hell to vanquishAs the darkness clears away. 

At His feet the six winged seraph, Cherubim with sleepless eye, Veil their faces to the presence, As with ceaseless voice they cry: Alleluia, Alleluia Alleluia, Lord Most High!

It is a shame that those who pursue, perhaps favor, a liturgical minimalism are unaware that the most minimal of embellishment, the tiniest extra effort, lengthening the Mass by mere seconds, is often enough to lift it, and the spirits of the congregants into an entirely new realm.

There is Nothing New Under the Sun, My Fellow Liturgical Musicians

Wait...  here we are with a new book treating of beloved characters from an old book... hmm, I shall have to consider the paradox.
Let us exchange the previous axiomatic cliche ['zat redundant?] for "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

I don't read novels anymore, literally, none.
About twelve years ago I went from voracious consumption mostly of literary novels and classics, never fewer than a half dozen stacked up on the floor on my side of the bed, didn't matter as long as they were light enough, (literally, of a low enough weight, so as not to strain wrists or eyesight in bed,) several a week, (when is the new AN Wilson coming out, I must know!!!!!!!! and oh, look I never read this Charlotte Bronte novel, PLEASE let it be as good as Villette!!!!!) to zero.
 I still read tons, but just, somehow, not novels, and I can't figure it out.

But that's really not my point.

Himself is crazy for his Kindle, and is reading Go Set... and made me read a passage that had me in stitches.

From the time of Jean Louise’s earliest ecclesiastical recollection, Maycomb had sung the Doxology in one way and in one way only:

Praise—God—from—whom—all—blessings—flow,

a rendition as much a tradition of Southern Methodism as Pounding the Preacher. That Sunday, Jean Louise and the congregation were in all innocence clearing their throats to drag it accordingly when out of a cloudless sky Mrs. Clyde Haskins crashed down on the organ

PraiseGodfromwhomall Bles—sings—Flo—w

PraiseHimallcreatures He—re Bee—low

PraiseHimaboveye Heav’n—ly Ho—st

PraiseFatherSonand Ho—ly Gho—st!

In the confusion that followed, if the Archbishop of Canterbury had materialized in full regalia Jean Louise would not have been in the least surprised: the congregation had failed to notice any change in Mrs. Haskins’s lifelong interpretation, and they intoned the Doxology to its bitter end as they had been reared to do, while Mrs. Haskins romped madly ahead like something out of Salisbury Cathedral.
Jean Louise’s first thought was that Herbert Jemson had lost his mind. Herbert Jemson had been music director of the Maycomb Methodist Church for as long as she could remember. .... He had devoted thirty years’ spare time to his church, and his church had recently rewarded him with a trip to a Methodist music camp in South Carolina.
Jean Louise’s second impulse was to blame it on the minister. He was a young man, a Mr. Stone by name...
Mr. Stone had long been suspected of liberal tendencies; he was too friendly, some thought, with his Yankee brethren; he had recently emerged partially damaged from a controversy over the Apostles’ Creed... [but he] was tone deaf.
Unruffled by Herbert Jemson’s breach of allegiance, because he had not heard it, Mr. Stone rose and walked to the pulpit with Bible in hand.
[Jean Louise] felt amusement turning into indignant displeasure and she stared straight at Herbert Jemson throughout the service. How dare he change it? Was he trying to lead them back to the Mother Church? Had she allowed reason to rule, she would have realized that Herbert Jemson was Methodist of the whole cloth: he was notoriously short on theology and a mile long on good works.
The Doxology’s gone, they’ll be having incense next—orthodoxy’s my doxy. ...
Mr. Stone had pronounced the benediction and was on his way to the front door when she went down the aisle to corner Herbert, who had remained behind to shut the windows. Dr. Finch was faster on the draw:
“—shouldn’t sing it like that, Herbert,” he was saying. “We are Methodists after all, D.V.”
“Don’t look at me, Dr. Finch.” Herbert threw up his hands as if to ward off whatever was coming. “It’s the way they told us to sing it at Camp Charles Wesley....The music instructor... taught a course in what was wrong with Southern church music. He was from New Jersey,” said Herbert....
“He said we might as well be singing ‘Stick your snout under the spout where the Gospel comes out’ as most of the hymns we sing. Said they ought to ban Fanny Crosby by church law and that Rock of Ages was an abomination unto the Lord....He said we ought to pep up the Doxology.”
“Pep it up? How?”
“Like we sang it today.”...
“Apparently,” [Dr Finch] said, “apparently our brethren in the Northland are not content merely with the Supreme Court’s activities. They are now trying to change our hymns on us.”
Herbert said, “He told us we ought to get rid of the Southern hymns and learn some other ones. I don’t like it—ones he thought were pretty don’t even have tunes.”
Dr. Finch’s “Hah!” was crisper than usual, a sure sign that his temper was going. He retrieved it sufficiently to say, “Southern hymns, Herbert? Southern hymns?”....
“Now, Herbert,” he said, “let us sit quietly in this sanctuary and analyze this calmly. I believe your man wishes us to sing the Doxology down the line with nothing less than the Church of England, yet he reverses himself—reverses himself—and wants to throw out … Abide with Me?....What about When I Survey the Wondrous Cross?”
“That’s another one,” said Herbert. “He gave us a list.”
“Gave you a list, did he? I suppose Onward, Christian Soldiers is on it?”
“At the top.”
“Hur!” said Dr. Finch. “H. F. Lyte, Isaac Watts, Sabine Baring-Gould.”
Dr. Finch rolled out the last name in Maycomb County accents: long a’s, i’s, and a pause between syllables.
“Every one an Englishman, Herbert, good and true,” he said. “Wants to throw them out, yet tries to make us sing the Doxology like we were all in Westminster Abbey, does he? Well, let me tell you something.... your man’s a snob, Herbert, and that’s a fact.”
“He was sort of a sissy,” said Herbert.

Whacha lookin' at?

This is a piece about "great" hymns.

I agree with some choices, don't know others, (seemingly, from the author's choices, the list is complied out of a protestant experience,) actively dislike others, but  I find these kinds of lists to be very valuable -- when I was the go-to wedding guy for music at a parish, I was always very keen about trying to have the B & G program congregation music, particularly a congregational hymn somewhere if it was a mixed marriage - there are many protestant hymns that are fully compatible with Catholic theology, and it was the best way I could think of to make the ceremony respectful of another "faith tradition," to use the buzz word.

But I'm citing the article for another reason, a really fine turn of phrase, wording that is "neat," in the most basic sense of that word.

Truly excellent music angles our attention heavenward

Love that - "angles."
We're all looking at so many things, trying, actually to "multitask" by looking at man things at once.

And we're not "bad", we're not bad people because we're looking at that which is not the most important, it's HARD to focus correctly and and it's difficult to stay focused.

But the wrong POV,  the giving of attention to lesser matters, (much less to wrong things,)  is actually harmful. Harmful.

And sometimes all we need to do to eliminate risk of that harm, to give ourselves the right prospect, is to change the "angle."
Maybe only a degree or two? that may be sufficient! It could be that all you need to do is-

"Angle your attention heavenward!"

And liturgical music does that.
So the question is - what are you looking at?

And when truly excellent music angles our attention heavenward? It changes you. And when enough lovers of God collectively listen to the words and the music—it can cause a shift in the Body, the Church. It changes us.

Today's Readings

 Heading out later on a rare opportunity to celebrate in the ordo vetus, (or when speaking of the older rite is it not appropriate to say that the PIPs "celebrate," as if often heard of the newer? No matter.)

Haven't looked up the readings, though I'm fairly sure it's the same Sunday? weeks from the point of Easter is weeks from the point of Easter...
Worry not that I will be denied the scripture assigned in the modern ordo for today, (even if I did not almost always prepare,) heard those yesterday.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who chuckled a bit, even if only inwardly, at the Prince of the Apostles dragging Cornelius up from his knees, with, get up, I myself am also human.

And cue KING'S LYNN.

I remember why I go to music-free Masses...

Quite aside from the quality,  (and with the "stop judging," still ringing in my ears, I guess I should put it very far aside,) the extraordinarily random choices leave me flabbergasted.

Here I Am? Make Me a Channel? All Glory Laud and Honor? Pescador?

What?

The Treasures of Magnificat Magazine

I was browsing before Mass this morning, (lots of ;little articles I had not read in turn, essays that hadn't caught my eye at the time,) and not for the first time, noted how frequently I come across a relfection or even a sentence that strikes me as so perfectly lucid and lucent - and illuminating, and I will read to the end and see that the words were penned by someone named Ratzinger; or how often I happen upon a hymn text, (or translation,)  previously unknown to me that is verbally elegant and theologically rich, and paging to the index in the back of the little Magnificat, I see that it is the work of Kathy Pluth.

The lyric to the Theotokos, (sp?) is quite wonderful.

O Theotokos, Mary blest,

Our human nature’s shining crest,
Through you we have our liberty,
Free children of the light to be.

O Queen of all the virgin choir,

Though David was your kingly sire
Your royal dignity has come
Not from your fathers, but your Son....

Exemplar of virginity,

Give glory to the Trinity,
Whose endless treasure-stores of gifts
Through you our human nature lifts.

Magnificat has been a real blessing to me.

I gave my Mother a subscription, but the frequency with which the periodical chooses an optional memorial made it useless for her, (she wanted, no, needed the exact, no flipping-around-pages readings, proper antiphons and collects that the priest was saying as her hearing was going*,) so she gave it back, and then Himself gave me a four year subscription.

At first I was put out by their approach to what they call Morning and Eventing Prayer, but now that I understand their reasoning, I have nothing but praise for its creator and editors.

And the artwork!
Oh, the artwork....

(*And in retrospect, she didn't need to be constantly faced with the evidence of a beloved pastor's liturgical minimalism, not to say laziness. She knew it - even chided him on it slightly once - and forgave it. I wonder, how much time is saved by omitting a spoken Gloria during the Octave of Christmas?)

Pope St Gregory the Great

So I'm glancing at tomorrow in my little Magnificat and I think, gee, that's a lovely text, oh, a hymn for St Gregory, and I check in the index, and wouldn't ya know?

The work of the great Kathleen Pluth.

A Voice from the Pews...

A most interesting blog on the sad state of parochial music in Roman parishes by the always worth your time Kathy Pluth suggests that it is an odd occurrence for random parishioners in the pew to start up whatever hymn they choose during Mass.

I hope that that is so, that it is indeed rare, although I have lived in two different parishes, (in the US,) where this was liable to happen.

Although in one of them, I guess it was not so very random, it would only ever be O Lord I Am Not Worthy, God Bless America or Let There be Cheese in Church.

I was emboldened to start, on my own... motu proprio? humming the Gregorian Ave Verum once during communion after OLIANW's three verses were finished....
Felt bad about it afterwards.

Speaking of Germany...

(Weren't we?)
They apparently do something right.
From Colin Mawby's latest issue of "Vivace":

[O]ur children are denied a broad musical and liturgical education if they are not given access to the hymns loved by their parents and grandparents. You have to distinguish between traditional and old-fashioned and I am not asking for the reintroduction of the latter, it is the absence of the former that worries me.

The Catholic Church in Germany has solved this problem in a highly imaginative way. There is one Hymn Book, sponsored by the Hierarchy, and given free to every church. It contains a basic core repertoire and each Diocese adds its own supplement. This book is currently being revised. The core repertoire contains the finest hymns and this means that children are introduced to the tradition of German Chorales at an early age. I only wish there were something similar in other countries.

The proliferation of Hymn Books, many with their own agenda, does nothing to preserve our traditional hymns. Catechetics in our Training Colleges, with their emphasis on the new, is producing a semi-educated, sometimes fanatical, vintage of religious teachers – this is not the fault of the students! There is a lot of good in modern religious teaching but if it cuts us off from our history it's doing a great disservice to religious education. Let’s preserve the traditional alongside the innovative. We all need to be aware of the history and practice of Sacred Music.

How About Zacheus as Patron of the CMAA? he also was "small but loud"

One peculiarity of being almost off grid is getting het up about things long after others have vented and moved on.
I read CNS "news" in someone esle's diocesan paper, a week late or so, you see.

So, a representative of one arm of the Liturgical-Industrial Complex characterizes the Church Music Association of America as "small but loud."

I'd like to think CNS misquoted the fellow, or by neglecting context, implied he meant something he did not.

After all, their selective quoting of the director of the US bishops CDW equivalent makes him sound ignorant as all get out

Chant has a legitimate place in Catholic worship, Father Hilgartner said, but "there's room for other legitimate cultural adaptations, which includes the form that music for liturgy takes."

Chant's place is only "legitimate"? really? Is that what "pride of place" means, legitimate, but no more or less privileged than anything else?

Fr Hilgartner is surely not so ill-informed.

I mean, he couldn't be, right?

And back to the company man,

"There's a camp that's becoming entrenched, (saying) that the proper antiphons that are found in the missal are as essential to the liturgy as the reading, and no one would ever replace the proper antiphons with something else."

Aside from the question of whether that is a fair characterization of anyone's position, --- for a representative of a faction that is "entrenched" in the liturgy as business, and "entrenched" in a position whereby they profit from the sale of those hymns, (take the term to mean text or tune,) that usurp the place of the propers, and has been so "entrenched" for nigh on four decades, to describe someone else as "entrenched" -- well, it's rich.

You call it "sloth", I call it forbearance....

I am, (I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters....,) the laziest person on God's green earth.
I went elsewhere than my parish for Mass this weekend, and intended to duck in to pick up a bulletin.
Time got away from me as I lazed away hours and now the church is certainly locked.

BUT.....

Saved from myself, I cannot now check out the hymn board, and I should acknowledge that descrying the inappropriate selections was a different, and perhaps primary reason for my intention to drop in, as I realized as I was looking for my keys and sunglasses.

It's an ignoble impulse.

And it isn't healthy, it's like picking at a scab, seeing that however much my efforts fell short, there now seems to be no concern at all for liturgical specificity, as we avail ourselves of the Frightful Fourth.

In the dioceses of the United States of America there are four options for the Entrance Chant: (1) the antiphon from the Roman Missal or the Psalm from the Roman Gradual as set to music there or in another musical setting; (2) the seasonal antiphon and Psalm of the Simple Gradual; (3) a song from another collection of psalms and antiphons, approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop, including psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) a suitable liturgical song similarly approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop....The procession bringing the gifts is accompanied by the Offertory chant...The norms on the manner of singing are the same as for the Entrance chant...While the priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion chant is begun....In the dioceses of the United States of America there are four options for the Communion chant: (1) the antiphon from the Roman Missal or the Psalm from the Roman Gradual as set to music there or in another musical setting; (2) the seasonal antiphon and Psalm of the Simple Gradual; (3) a song from another collection of psalms and antiphons, approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop, including psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) a suitable liturgical song

Umm, yeah....

The Hymnographer Speaks

I wish the brilliant New Ephrem over at Hymnography Unbound blogged more, but at least she posts regularly over at MusicSacra.
There has been a great deal of talk about the (apparently, I did not see or hear it,) abysmal music for the liturgy for the installation of the new co-adjutant ('zat the right word?) in L.A. and about what authentic inculturation is, and this, I think, speaks mightily to both subjects:

Whenever you see a picture of Pope Benedict talking to people, he's got this shy smile thing going on. And yet, he's brilliant, and although welcoming of people, he's ruthless about ideas. Regarding liturgy he can see nonsense claims coming from miles away--and then he devastates them.

[H]is remarks on the way back FROM Africa were ... dramatic. As I read them, I thought I heard the echoes of the old Bat Man comics' fight scenes.

Speaking of the Masses he celebrated in Cameroon and Angola, the Pope said,
"[I was] moved by the spirit of meditative absorption *POW!*
in liturgy, the powerful sense of the sacred *BIFF!*;
in the liturgies there was no self-presentation *BANG!*
of groups, no self-animation, *ZAP!*
but the presence of the sacred, of God Himself; even the movements were always movements of respect and awareness of the divine presence. *KAPOW!*

This multi-whammie, smiling pre-emptive measure undermines all future attempts to point to the African liturgies as a positive example of the multi-cultural fad in liturgy. Yet another ephemeral wave in the endless cycles of fads that have mainstreamed since the last Council, multiculturalism (like all the others) effectively downgrades the liturgy from the most intimate possible sharing of heavenly and earthly realities available to us on earth, to an anthropological celebration.

The most astonishingly candid expressions of the superficiality of multiculturalist liturgy are the various Dancing Puppet Liturgies, in which non-human, non-animate artifacts are dressed up to represent various colors and genders--which then "participate" in the liturgy.

I'm sure that we can all see the difference between Africans dancing at Mass vs. midwesterners, and their puppets, dancing at Mass. Yes? But the Pope wisely made a very public and clear distinction.

It's not wrong to express ourselves in the liturgy. But we must express ourselves liturgically, and in Christ. We are at Mass to open ourselves to God and to come into direct, real contact with the Father through Him--never losing the "sense of the sacred" and the "respect and awareness of the divine presence."

Incidentally, if you haven't bought a copy of her hymntexts, Hymns for the Liturgical Year, you really should. (And I, the cheapest, skinflintyest, most tightwadesque, miserish, scroogeazoid on earth do declare: THEY ARE A BARGAIN.

A Hymn for a Soul Who's Probably Headed to Purgatory

It is, as they say, the "dying season".
Lots of funerals of late, and all with very specific, (and sometimes odd,) musical requests, (shall I put a brandy snifter on the console....?)
Also, lots of non-authorized, (non-canonical?) canonizations,if you know what I mean.

A friend mentioned that this bothered him, that he hates that people act as if there's no need ever to pray for the souls of the departed who might be in need of Purgatory -- but gee whiz, he just loves "For All the Saints," and really would like to be carried out of the church to its strains.

So I wrote an alternative final verse to be sung to SINE NOMINE, (it needs to be sung before death, unless I fix the tenses, I suppose.)

Anyway, this is for you, Gregory:

Remember Christ's my Judge, not just my Friend.
I've faith in the 4 last things, whate'er the trend.
So I'd ask your prayers, when earthly life shall end;

Alleluia, alleluia!

New Hymn

Apologies to Horatio Bonar...

1. Come, bishops, tarry not
New missals aim our way!
O why these years of waiting here,
These ages of decay?

2. Come, for we PIPs still wait;
Daily ascends our sigh;
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come”;
ICEL, O heed their cry.

3. (corrected) Is you work fin'lly done?
Fish! we cry, or cut bait!
You have all dithered far too long,
No longer will we wait.

4. Father, obstruct this not,
Stand not in progress's way,
Leave off your whinging and your ploys,
Your tactics to delay.

5. At last! translations new,
Faithful, and good and true.
If you defy the Church, well then...
Who's wrong, the Church or you?

(Corrected)ST BRIDE?

Needs some work, but for now...

Hymns by Father Faber

The, (occasionally more rancorous than I would wish,) discussion of the proper contents of a truly "Catholic" English language hymnal over at the CMAA fora piqued my curiosity.
Well, initially, it shamed me -- Noel & c. listed so many text and tunes of which I had never heard!
And for quite a while, really ever since I found the Britt book, cheap on eBay, I'd been interested in the Office Hymns, and then I thought this year being potentially a very great one for Cardinal Newman I really ought to introduce the choir to some of his, and then there was talk of Chesterton whom I was unaware had written hymns, (though it only makes sense, him being a poet and all, duh...) and I began to think of other converts, and frankly, WOW.
I had no idea Fr Faber was so prolific. Charming self-deprecation:

The do­mes­tic wants of the Or­a­to­ry kept alive the feel­ing that[English Catholic hymns were] needed; though at the same time the Au­thor’s ig­nor­ance of mu­sic ap­peared in some mea­sure to dis­qual­i­fy him for the work of sup­ply­ing the de­fect. Ele­ven, how­e­ver, of the hymns were writ­ten, most of them, for par­tic­u­lar tunes and on par­tic­u­lar oc­ca­sions, and be­came ve­ry pop­u­lar with a coun­try con­gre­ga­tion. They were af­ter­wards print­ed for the schools at St. Wil­frid’s, and the ve­ry num­er­ous ap­pli­ca­tions to the print­er for them seemed to show that, in spite of ve­ry glar­ing lit­er­ary de­fects, such as care­less gram­mar or slip­shod me­tre, peo­ple were anx­ious to have Cath­o­lic hymns of any sort. The MS. of the pre­sent vol­ume was sub­mit­ted to a mu­sic­al friend, who re­plied that cer­tain verses of all or near­ly all the hymns would do for sing­ing; and this en­cour­age­ment has led to the pub­li­ca­tion

Did you know there were so many? I didn't.

1. Blood Is the Price of Hea­ven
2. By the Archangel’s Word of Love
3. Dear God of Orphans, Hear Our Pray­er
4. Dear Je­sus, Ev­er at My Side
5. Exceeding Sor­rowful to Death
6. Faith of Our Fa­thers
7. From Pain to Pain, from Woe to Woe
8. Hark! Hark, My Soul!
9. Have Mercy on Us, God Most High
10. Ho­ly Ghost, Come Down upon Thy Child­ren
11. I Wish to Have No Wishes Left
12. I Wor­ship Thee, Sweet Will of God
    • I Wor­ship Thee, Most Gra­cious God
13. Jesu, Gentl­est Sav­ior
14. Jesus Is God!
15. Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All!
16. My God! My God! And Can It Be
17. My God, How Won­der­ful Thou Art
18. O Come and Mourn with Me
19. O Gift of Gifts!
20. O Je­sus, Je­sus
21. O God, Thy Pow­er Is Won­der­ful
22. O How the Thought of God Attracts
23. O Paradise!
24. O Soul of Je­sus, Sick to Death
    • My God! My God! And Can It Be
25. Oh! Come to the Mer­ci­ful Sav­ior
26. Pilgrims of the Night, The
27. Sleep, Sleep My Beau­ti­ful Babe
28. Souls of Men! Why Will Ye Scatter
    • There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
29. Sweet Sav­ior, Bless Us Ere We Go
30. Thy Home Is with the Humble, Lord
31. True Shep­herd, The
32. Why Is Thy Face So Lit with Smiles?
33. Workman of God
    • God’s Glo­ry is a Won­drous Thing
    • Oh, It Is Hard to Work for God

I dunno... do you think your liturgy should be informed by your faith?

A Catholic musician voices a concern at Canticanova:

When the music director position at our church opened a couple of years ago, our pastor hired a non-Catholic to fill the position. As a cantor and choir director, I was open to the idea at first. However, with experience, I now believe hiring non-Catholic music directors to be incongruent with the practice of our faith. The religious beliefs of the music director eventually surface in many different ways, both inside and outside the liturgy.

I am curious, since the writer explicitly says "in many different ways", as to how they surfaced, in addition to, indubitably, the choice of texts to be sung.
A disregard for rubrics?
Irreverence?
Ignorance of Catholic culture outside the Mass? (the lacunae in my experience and knowledge until shortly before I began my current position was shameful.)
A lack of knowledge as to, or even an indifference to, the liturgical theology that governs what priority should be given various musical, (or potentially musical) portions of the Mass?

In any case, in theory I have no objection to a non-Catholic musical director in a Catholic parish, given general competence, and a respect for and limitless curiosity about and willingness to comply with the requirements of Catholic liturgy.
Gary Penkala replies:

Situations like you describe can be very different one from another, and making general statements about them is often difficult. Obviously, all things being equal, a parish should hire a practicing, faithful Catholic as music director. One would expect the music director to be qualified in both Catholic music and liturgy, and if the situation warrants, to be competent in organ playing and choral conducting....

However, other circumstances may influence a decision. Perhaps no Catholics applied. Perhaps the Catholics who may have applied were not competent in other areas (organ, directing, etc). In such cases a decision must be made: hire a non-competent Catholic musician or hire a non-Catholic competent musician.

That being said, it should not be taken lightly that a non-Catholic in an authority position in a Catholic parish will be at a distinct disadvantage. Much research, training, patience, humility and flexibility would be required in order to learn and appreciate Catholic liturgy and music. It's definitely not an easy task, especially for someone who has chosen (either directly or through family tradition) to "protest" the Catholic faith.

If, as a pastor, I were faced with the prospect of no music at all, or of hiring a non-Catholic to oversee the program, I'm not sure what I would do.

I cannot argue, and this is a conversation I have heard more than once, but there are two elephants in the room eavesdropping.

One is that there are plenty of Catholic musicians and liturgists who are abysmally uninformed as to what the Catholic Church teaches about, and requires of Her music.

But that one's small, as elephants go. The next is enormous, even by elephant standards.

And that is that people who do not hold what the Church holds and teaches are nonetheless have been permitted to dictate the expression of those teachings, to write the words we pray in our liturgies, with, judging by the inadequate, misleading and sometimes flat-out erroneous theology to be found in the "Hymnals of Record," virtually no oversight.

That is why the Parish Book of Catholic Hymns, an on-going project provoking much discussion over at the CMAA boards, is potentially so valuable a development.

(I am also pleased for that acknowledgment that hymns are going nowhere, and have a valid place in our liturgies.)

The Song We NEED, Rather Than Want

Quoting myself, in a combox at Mara Joy's, who, like virtually all chief-pickers-or-songs-at-Mass, is dismayed at the flatness, the thinness, the sameness, the banality, the redundancy of the texts of the hymns with which, for various reasons, we are stuck, as opposed to the wealth, sitting there untapped, of the propers.

We do sing praise, praise, happy, happy most of the time.

My "default" for many liturgies whose introit strikes a tone similar to today's is "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy," (which, IIRC, I needed to teach my congregation, as they had no text in their repertoire that addressed the need for mercy,) but even that states the sinner's receipt as a fait accompli rather than us having the humility and good sense to actually ASK for God's mercy.

The more immersed in Liturgy I become (and the progression through the psalms in the LotH is GREAT for teaching this,) the more I need to say or sing all those different things which the psalms encompass, often vastly different from verse to verse in a single psalm.

Such prayer becomes a process rather than a moment.

The Hymn Sandwich leaves us so theologically impoverished!

There are theologically profound hymns, of course, but they are not the ones that achieve Top Ten status, (they're not the ones people ask for, the ones they want,) and in the utilitarian practice of only singing the number of verses necessary to get from point a (in time or space,) to point b, we seldom enjoy their richness even when we do sing them.

The general instruction for the LotH has something about the desirability of using the appointed psalms even if they don't fit your current mood or perceived needs.

I suspect the psalms we resist, are the ones we most need to pray.

"Sit ventus, occidet domus, quicumque hominum struet, fundabit nisi Dominus"

This site, (H/T to the the Morbers) is a collection of hymns translated from English, into Latin.

Mark Mortimer has taken more than 300 English hymns, including many old favourites and some less well know, and produced Latin versions of them in the same metres. They are therefore singable to the same tunes, at the same time as preserving the rhyme-schemes of the originals.

I admit I don't know the English hymn of which the title is a translation -- it just paraphrases a verse I like to fling, especially when the National Anthem of Sovereign Kingdom of Pelagia is suggested as our opening hymn.

Hymn for Year for Priests

The always-worth-a-look blog of Vincent Uher has an original hymn text graciously offered for use in this Year of the Priest.

Hymn for the 'Year For Priests'

In honor of
The Most Reverend Edward James Slattery
Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa
And in honor of Father Mark Daniel Kirby and
The Adorers of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, O.S.B.

Friends of Christ, O royal priesthood,
Sing God’s praise for every priest –
Strong and faithful, weak or lonely –
From the greatest to the least.
Brother priests of the Good Shepherd
Called to live the Lamb’s high feast,
Witness to your love of Jesus,
Lord and Master, Great High Priest.

Take the Cross upon your shoulder.
Place your mind within your heart.
Make of Christ your perfect model.
Walk His steps and learn His art.
Beat down Satan with each footstep.
Fight to free each captive soul
Till the world’s deceits and pleasures
Are no longer mankind’s goal.

Learn from Mary Blessed Mother;
Ponder in your hearts God’s grace:
How Christ makes His living presence
Real to feed the human race –
The Atonement raised to heaven
Through the holy hands of priests
For the life of all creation
Christ’s own life, His Heart, His peace.

Forward go the royal banners
Of our Eucharistic King.
The Wise Virgins follow closely
Lamps of seven in offering.
Priests of God guide Christ’s lay faithful
To bring forth their gifts and lights
And to call both friend and stranger
To the Way of Jesus Christ.

Now behold the Cross illumined
By the uncreated light.
See your Lord alive and risen
Calling you to share His life
And around Him all assembled
Martyred priests and Saints of God
Calling all of us together
To the Wedding Feast of God.

Copyright © 2009 Vincent William Uher III
All Rights Reserved.

Suggested Tunes:
Beach Spring
Chartres (Hymnal 1940)
In Babilone (Dutch melody)
Hyfrydol
Meter: 8 7 8 7 D

From Mr Uher:
Terms for reproduction: (1) the text must be printed in its entirety; (2) No alterations may be made to the text; (3) a copy is mailed to me if it is reproduced in a newsletter or other parish publication.
(Address at that link)