After a recent experience I had subbing at a local parish, I've been thinking about going into the liturgical music consulting business.

Much like Sherlock Holmes, one of my favorite literary figures, I would work privately, helping music directors solve little problems and answer questions they themselves hadn't the time or resources to deal with.

Here's an example. At that small suburban parish, the DM and I discussed the details of the Masses for which I would be subbing. While going over the material, much of which was at least 10 years behind what the "mainstream, NPM-type" parishes are doing, I asked about the "Lamb of God", i.e., how many repetitions, and was it just the "Lamb of God" text or were other invocations added. She said that they always added many different invocations, only singing "Lamb of God" as the first repetition. Of course many of these invocations were so poor and full of theological problems that I had to comment on them. She began asking for guidance on this and as I discussed it with her she became dejected and asked how I knew all of this. I explained that I made it my duty to be fully-read up on these matters and to know what the documents called for. She said that she simply didn't have time to do all of that reading.

I found this both sad and tragic. She's been the DM of this parish for probably 20 years, and hasn't changed anything they've done despite the many trends and controversies that we're all aware of. I also was a bit angered by this, because IMHO what we do musically with the liturgy impacts the welfare of the immortal souls of the congregation just as much as how the liturgy is executed or what is preached in the homily, and it seems like she had a rather cavalier attitude about it all.

I would guess that we spent about 45 minutes over the course of that conversation discussing important issues of liturgical music, and since I'm now employed but not enough to live independently of my parents, I thought, "That was dumb. You've spent hours and hours reading and researching this stuff and countless dollars getting your degrees, and here you're giving your knowledge away to people who have taken the importance of that knowledge for granted. You should turn your knowledge and passion into a means of making a living!"

Of course, the first problem that came to mind is finding myself at odds with the local diocesan Office of Worship, which in my area is headed up by a priest with a D.Min. and a long-standing reputation. My thought is to go talk with him directly and express my desire to be available for this sort of thing. He is, after all, the rector of the cathedral parish as well as the head of the worship office, and I can only guess that if people call from parishes with questions, he doesn't always have the time to answer their calls or provide the kind of in-depth analysis they may need or want. He would be the Inspector Lestrade to my Sherlock Holmes.

Has anyone else ever thought of taking on this kind of work?