One hates to plan liturgies in direct contradiction to the GIRM; however, the practice of enforced congregational singing at communion is awful in my book--for many, many reasons. My pastor refers to it as 'singing with your mouth full'. At our OF Masses the choir sings the Communio beginning with the celebrant's communion, receives communion, then sing a motet, and then lead the congregation in singing the Marian antiphon during the ablutions. After a brief (seated) silence, everyone stands and sings a hymn of praise. Much of the so-called Communion Procession (a term I dislike) is in silence.

At my parish, the choir sings the communion chant in English (plain chant arranged by our director), receives communion, then sings a communion procession hymn. However, it feels like another special choir piece because nobody in the congregation sings.

In fact, I think that the communion procession is a terrible time to plan congregational singing. Even though I enjoy singing, I don't sing during communion when I am part of the congregation. I'm focusing on receiving the Lord before and during, and then spending a few moments in quiet adoration after.

I would much rather save the hymn until after all had received and had a moment of thanksgiving. The notion that the congregation will be belting out a tune as they walk up the aisle seems to me to be unnecessary and unattainable.

There is a tremendous misconception that the GIRM says that singing of a hymn should begin during the reception of the Blessed Sacrament by the priest when in reality it means the Communion chant. Of course, it also says that this chant becomes part of the "communitarian" nature so they must mean that all that receive are to sing.

This is possible if seasonal Simplex chants are sung and repeated on a regular basis, but hardly seems practical using the correct Communion chant for the day. There are a few times when the GIRM seems to vary from trying to outline what should happen in an active house of worship, such as a monastery, and a local church. To me this is one, and reflects an lack of focus on exactly what is expected.

It would have been clearer if it read:

A: In a monastic house, the communion chant should be sung....and so on as described.

"86. While the priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion chant is begun. Its purpose is
to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to show joy
of heart, and to highlight more clearly the “communitarian” nature of the procession to receive
Communion. The singing is continued for as long as the Sacrament is being administered to the
faithful."

B: In a local church where the congregation may not be capable of singing the Communion Chant, the communion may be sung by the choir. A hymn may be added then. possibly as the meditation, so that the congregation may come together in a "communitarian" moment. The choir should finish the Communion Chant in time that they may also receive.

I am very bigoted and opinionated on this. The GIRM is right: there should be congregational song. BUT at the same time I refuse to have it unless it is responsorial in form. It is utterly impractical to have music that the congregation doesn't KNOW (as in have memorized) during communion. Hence why a responsorial psalm is so great for communion!

For me, if it doesn't have an easy, quickly learned refrain, the congregation doesn't sing it at communion.

Starting the first Sunday in May, the choir or cantor will begin singing the communion antiphon in English. I am not ready to tackle verses yet. After the antiphon, I will play while the choir/cantor receives communion. That takes more than a minute or two since the stairs to the loft are steep, and neither the extraordinary ministers, nor the choir/cantors are getting any younger. Then we will drag out the least wretched hymn from RitualSong we can find, and the congregation will listen to us sing it. The only thing new or unusual will be the addition of the communion antiphon.

The seating is very different. It is backless benches with a 45 degree angle sloping downward on the back side for kneeling by those in the row behind. Whatever they were thinking in 1926 escapes me. They must have been heavily into penance.

I've been politely chastised by a friend who says that the propers are for the choir and that leaves time for the people to sing...and that is definitely one way to go.

I've never liked the idea of congregation singing during the Communion procession. It asks a person to do too many things. A simple refrain would be the only thing I'd be for, but pastors are trained to believe that people must sing at Communion to express their "unity" as if attending Mass wasn't sufficient. Let's at least move away from the "bread" songs and into the Communion chant with verses.

"Please turn to hymn number XVI. We will sing verses I,V and VI. And please, refrain from placing contributions of v and x cents in the basket, because we need at least V or X dollars if we are going to keep the lights on from every I of you."

Hymns are the last thing the people in church should be singing. After the Sung Ordinary in Latin, English or Eskimo. And they are telling us that by not opening the books. But no one seems to want to accept the fact that this great experiment has failed. Give the variable parts of the sung Mass back to a choir.



The people should sing:

The Kyrie
The Gloria [THE GREAT HYMN OF THE CHURCH]
The Credo
The Sanctus
The Acclamation
The Amen
The Pater Noster
The Agnus Dei

Now, once they can sing all these consistently, then you will have a singing Catholic church. They love repetition. The Mass is constant repetition. People love the Mass.

The things about the Mass people do not like are things that they are not familiar with...and homilies that are pointless. The Mass gets to the point as a result of centuries of prayer. The sung parts of the Mass do as well.

Then, once you have a singing church and if you have a long aisle, add beautiful hymns for processions. And repeat them. Just a few.

If people tell you they get tired of beautiful hymns...then they need to spend even more time reading and singing them until they find the beauty in them. And they don't need to be the old hymns that I am researching and publishing. Maureen and Kathy have already proved that wordsmithing is not a lost art, confined to advertising and hymntunes do not need to be old, as Francis and others prove as well.

If you have singers with the ability to sing the propers in simple or complex form that adorn the Mass with beauty, sing them. Otherwise don't.

Being forced to do the Easter vigil for the third time using music out of a throw-away worship guide full of bad music and bad theology that we never sing has poisoned my mind.

The 'expression of unity' through enforced/coerced singing during Communion = social engineering of the worst kind.

Oh, I know. It's a sad situation. I often have to visit the Episcopalians or the Presbyterians to hear authentically Catholic music. The local Catholic churches are too busy singing, "Gather us in on the Edmund Fitzgerald..."

"Gather us in on the Edmund Fitzgerald..." -- LOL.

Does anyone share my sentiment that "O Filii et Filiae" is the "Celtic Alleluia" of the Renaissance?

Charles, we now know there is "plenty good room" in Davy Jones' locker for moribund music as well as for the fishes.

Noel has my thinking. Hymns are "icing on the cake". All we really need is to sing the ordinary. Hymns can make SPECIAL additions, but are truly just added music. I think hymns are much more effective when used sparingly and on special occasions, feast days, etc. When you sing three or four at every Mass I think it is overkill.

O my gosh, Noel. It never occurred to me that Gather us in was a direct lift of Gordons lite foot!

m

We usually have our Gregorian Schola sing the proper when Communion starts, then improvise or play something on organ, and have a hymn after communion. I dislike singing during Communion and agree, it is rather impossible to sing "with your mouth full".

I know the "T&S" you speak of, unfortunately. Compare it to this setting (track 21).

When I'm told we have to sing to express our joy and sense of unity, I flashback to the radical cell meetings of my youth. (At one time I could sing the Internationale in three languages.) Social engineering is certainly what it feels like to me.

While the Simplex, etc. are goals, they would probably be non-starters in my part of the country. However, the priests are all very firm about this singing during Communion. I found the best way around it was one of the Taize refrains, performed in a simple way without masses of solo cantors and/or instrumentation.

What people like? Gift of Finest Wheat, I am the Bread of Life, and Moore's Taste and See. Why? Because they know the refrain.

Mia, only a small percentage of the members who belong to the CMAA Forum post...let's find out what's really going on at communion:

Quick CMAA Communion Music Poll at:

www.thecatholichymnal.com


It will close after 100 responses have been entered. Results to follow. AND you can view the ongoing results right away.

Forget the POLL...it's too vague:

Survey: http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/E3310A6AB87AEF0C/

At the bottom of this page, there are two really nice versions of "Sing my tongue the Mystery Holy"