Music from Taize has these fine qualities of simplicity, unpretentiousness, a basis in Scripture, and choral harmony that seem lacking in some contemporary songs sung at most parishes.

Mark, you're doing exactly what I started doing during our pandemic conditions since the hymnbooks have been removed from the church. We have several of these songs in our repertoire and some other similar pieces such as a setting of Trisagion. I do have to do some regular refrain songs now and then, I feel, but the innovation has been tolerated well. Mind you, I'm starting my 23rd year in the job.
While the choir goes to communion (moving through the congregation) I used to do something similar because they could join in the refrains a capella from around the church, making a nice effect, but now I just do the proper antiphon directly from Fr Samuel Weber's book of the Proper of the Mass. I am inclined to favour doing something that is exactly from the Missal because many congregants buy missalettes and so have those in their hands these days.
At the offertory (with no collection being taken) I have just recently taken to doing whatever the Graduale Romanum lists as an alternative to the mass proper because it matches with the lectionary for this specific year. This means I have something to contribute that connects with the liturgy of the word as it finishes. It also gives me a chance to branch out in to some of the Grad and Alleluia music I've never had a chance to access. The offertory repertoire at this time of the year features long stories about Moses, Daniel, Job and Esther and those don't seem to recommend themselves as well as my new initiative to folks in the pews. I always start with the English translation, sung to the psalm tone and then do the proper antiphon melody in Latin. This past Sunday there was no such item available but the GR Communion Vovete was different than both the RM communion options and spoke of presenting offerings so I went with that over Daniel.
Did anybody sing Palestrina's Sicut cervus since that was one of the RM communion options? I had one choir that learnt it last year but that mass is down to three singers now. How long, O Lord, how long?

Along with what marymezzo said, you could always consider chanting the gregorian followed by English (perhaps Fr. Columba Kelly's?) introit, which might perk up the ears of the parishoners, to realize that the verse is actually something important, since it's being reiterated from earlier..?

I think your idea is a rather clever one. A refrain which is seasonally appropriate and everyone already knows, whilst still retaining the proper text... if you're going to 'sneak' it in either way, this is a clever way to do it.

You may be able to do a modified version of the propers in Advent fairly easily. You could use the Simple English Proper Antiphon sung by a cantor and follow that by a metrical setting of the psalm from which the verse comes set to your favorite appropriate hymn tune.

Oh dear. So your priest has a complete and utter disregard for everything HMC has had to say on the matter.

I once worked at a prominent place of pilgrimage... I had a traditional priest who hired me in to introduce chant and elevate music, generally speaking. I introduced the introit and communion antiphons (english) in addition to hymns, Missa XVII during lent, etc. Baby steps but we were moving in the right direction. We also had a communion rail reinstalled, masses were said ad orientem during advent and lent (whole season, not just particular masses), traditional devotions were rekindled and the rosary was said prior to every mass. I had a newer digital instrument which sounded as nice as anything ever would in what was ultimately a strange room. I'd sometimes spend up to 3 hours preparing a single weekend's registrations.

Then a new priest was stationed there and within two weeks all chanting was banned, no hymns could be sung all the way through; no latin; communion rail was no longer even an option... the altar candles were all stripped, and our sister parish was even permitted to use a fake paschal candle that was found in an old closet to save money. It was catastrophic. I did not last long.

Another priest at another parish was interested in hiring me at one point (totally unrelated to the above) and would have been able to offer me a decent pay raise. Part of the job required working with a folk-mass group. This parish has guitar masses and they aren't going anywhere, apparently. I told him point blank that the only thing I could contribute to a hippie guitar group was to shut. it. down. (I happen to know this priest particularly well, so I was quite frank with him.) He was very disappointed. When I pressed him on the matter of what HMC actually calls for, there wasn't much he could offer me as a rebuttal other than to suggest I was being too staunch and perhaps even un-pastoral. It's a shame too. They have a large 50 person choir, a nice pipe organ and perpetual adoration at that church. I would have loved to work there, but owing the circumstances and his own liturgical proclivities, we mutually agreed I would not be a good fit.

Yes, "Holy Mother Church".

MarkB- your post has me cheering you on! what you're doing is exhausting isn't it! I am in a similar boat as Director of Music Ministries in a Parish heavily wedded to OCP, and needing to tread so lightly and cautiously as I introduce the Propers. started at Communion, have now added the Entrance - all over 4 years time (the pace is ridiculously slow), but retained the OCP songs all the while. and mine is only one church in the cluster of 4 where my influence over the other music ministers is merely a suggestion, not mandate. has anyone done any research showing that singing the propers over feel-good gathering songs and the like actually gets you any faster to a "Singing Parish" ? (That's the advice I receive - to develop a "singing parish".) i'd love to have something in writing that i can point to to justify why i'm doing what i'm doing I'm fighting myself weekly. My gut knows the right thing to do, while I allow OCP repertoire to continue. I do spend an inordinate amount of time each week picking through OCP and only program what my ears consider true and beautiful (so text and tune are my guide - not how beloved it is). but like mark says, resources are needed for how to align a pastor and congregation's mind-set with our thinking. (fortunately music resources are blessedly now abundant! we love bartlett, weber, ainslie...) by the way, everyone's ideas on this thread are very much appreciated.

I don't have experience proving it makes for a better singing parish, but I can tell you that on more than one occasion I have pointed out how profound a particular proper text is relative to any hymn we would otherwise schedule in it's place. I know these experiences have made a favorable impression upon the schola as they understand the profundity of the propers vs. "the stuff we pick". There are certain proper texts that say things I've never found in a hymn (and if I found them and scheduled them I'm sure some liberal-minded parishioner would be offended) but because these texts come from the gradual and are a part of a codified tradition we can "get away with it" ——much to the spiritual benefit of all involved.

I'll also add that while you'll definitely get people who will grumble, you'll also get people who will surprise you. Not-infrequently I receive complements after Mass, especially from visitors who never hear any chanting at their own parishes, how profound it is to hear chanting at the Mass and how "holy" and "calm" it makes the Mass feel. "When you're chanting I just really feel like I can pray better!" ("That's because you can!") Funny how that works.