Also, one more thing I don't understand is we have a few Masses with guitar band, but why the church don't provide EF to people who want to worship Him in traditional way. Our Pope said that every parish should provide traditional Mass. Ok some people say that they cannot pray with Latin,(although they can try to learn the prayers), but there are some people who cannot pray with guitar band music. many seem to tolerate any quality of band music, as long as they can tap their feet or saturated with their feelings. (maybe they don't really hear the music, just sounds.) It seems to be very unfair.

Jeffrey,

Perhaps, but what if SP was not issued? I really think the growth in CMAA and the colloquium have quite a bit to do with that historic document. Try this for an alternative. The same situation exists as it does today but there are just as few opportunities to chant as there were before 2007. The Reform of the Reform movement is growing, but it's still too small to have a huge effect on the "ordinary". The keepers of all that we revile have the power. SP was the first step in allowing people like us to step out from the shadows and be counted. Let's turn this around. What happens if RtR folks begin to have their way? For years we will have chant + hokey songs as a "transition" or perhaps a permanent situation. I think that might be worse than no chant at all. I'm beginning to think that nothing short of Council of the Church can fix the mess created in the 60s.

Michael,

"Years"? I could see three years of chant + pap. As long as the pastor prunes away a few liturgical problems each year, we in the pews could have some basis for remaining hopeful. I give him three years. If no direction can be perceived, I will conclude he doesn't take certain important things seriously, and I'll feel good about moving my impressionable children and my monthly envelope elsewhere.

I just started volunteering as pianist / organist / singer for a Thursday evening Mass in Spanish at our local parish. The fellow who used to volunteer was a guitarist who chose modern hymns (and he offered them quite competently). But he moved out of the area and a friend of mine asked me if I'd be interested. I was.

I started during Advent and chose all Spanish hymns, but I chose what might be termed more traditional sounding hymns. Slower, more deliberate selections for the Sanctus and Agnus Dei and Spanish versions of "Veni, Veni Emanuel" and "O Sanctisima." I made the latter the closing hymn due to a tradition of the chapel in which Mass is held: The chapel is named for the Virgin Mary, and so the closing hymn is almost always a Marian hymn. One of the interesting things about trying this with a Spanish vernacular Mass is that a great many of the Latin hymns are translated or can be translated into Spanish with little or no melodic changes. Both "Veni, Veni Emanuel" and "O Sanctisima" are already translated into Spanish using identical melodies as the Latin. So, by the final week of Advent, I switched both "Veni, Veni Emanuel" and "O Sanctisima" to Latin. I also added "O Salutaris Hostia" as a post-Communion hymn. At our parish, this is a fairly "safe" place to add songs that the might not be sung by great numbers of the congregation, especially at the Spanish Masses. For many years now in the vernacular Spanish Masses, it has been common to sing a post-Communion hymn for which no words or music are provided to the Congregation. Thus, offering this song in Latin worked out.

Then, there was a break for a couple of weeks since both Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary fell on Thursday, and the Sunday cantors and choirs did all the music.

Coming back after the new year, I switched the Communion songs to "Tantum Ergo" and "Salve Regina." I also changed the Kyrie from Spanish to Greek (Misa Primitiva) and I replaced the Aleluya with a more traditional form (I believe it is also from the Misa Primitiva). Finally, I translated the Misa Primitiva Sanctus from Latin to Spanish and have used that. In the first Thursday Mass after the new year (still in the Christmas season), I chose "Adeste Fideles" as the entrance hymn. All this together was probably too much. The priest (a holy man from Colombia) has very much liked the change to Latin in the Thursday Mass. Most in the congregation have liked it, too. All comments received thus far have been positive. But the gentleman who sings with me has struggled a bit with all the new songs and has resisted some of the changes. Since then, I have pulled back, leaving the Kyrie, Aleluya, Sanctus and Communion hymns in Latin (or in a traditional form for the Sanctus) and choosing everything else from our Spanish hymnal.

Not too bad. Right now, though, I am resisting the temptation to select "Dies Irae" for the January 22 Mass (which coincides with the Roe v. Wade anniversary date and is observed by the clergy in purple attire during all Masses as a day of penance in our diocese for that reason). The hymn itself would be a good fit for the occasion, but I think it may be too much.