Why I love my congregation
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,508
    Nobody left till after the last verse of Hail, Holy Queen.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 872
    How many verses did you sing?
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,508
    3

    It's not so much that nobody left. It's that NObody left.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 872
    That's pretty good.
  • Ryan MurphyRyan Murphy
    Posts: 79
    That's awesome!
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,508
    Yeah... Anyways, why do y'all love your congregations?
  • JamJam
    Posts: 636
    I love my congregation because they're all elderly Serbs who kiss me on the cheek and tell me to come eat with them as often as possible. :D
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    Jam, I have recently come to the conclusion that about 3/4 of the problems in church music would resolve themselves if someone gave the musicians lunch after Mass. My parish music director and I have lunch about once a month--I think it helps. (I don't kiss him on the cheek though.) Maybe when my voice fails, I'll invite the choir to lunch.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I don't know that I could begin to list the ways my congregation is great. I never come away from church feeling less than appreciated (And this is the first time I can regularly say this!)
  • Ryan MurphyRyan Murphy
    Posts: 79
    Good Lord, Gavin! Where do you work?
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Out of three Masses today, I can raise you one, Kathy:
    The noon, I see one of our garage schola guys as I'm setting up; learn that another schola guy is lectoring; we have a visiting priest celebrant (Filipino from Corpus Christi, TX, whose parish has an weekly EF.
    Well, I sees God working and we chant the Kyrie (recited Gloria), Mode VI Alleluia, the Jubilate Deo Sanctus/Agnus Dei, Ave Maria (post Communion) and the Salve Regina for dismissal. Not a soul left, and the full church (noon Mass) joined in fully. I woulda taken a picture, but that would've robbed my soul forever.
    This is why I'll quietly post here now that I've formally submitted for a fully sung, Latin OF (save for readings/Gospel which will be chanted nonetheless and the homily) because we now have a vicar whose Latin teacher is still the Holy Father's Latinist, the crusty Franciscan American don, and he's up for an OF once a month in Latin sung, ad orientem EP, smells/bells. The pastor and other clerics didn't reject it out of hand and I'm thinking "this is really going to happen." Of course, we have to see if the PIPs show up, but I have faith. After all, I'm CMAA.
    It was a good day.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Why, Gavin works for Episcopalians, of course! Who else goes out of his and her way to pamper (and respect) their choirmasters and regard their work as an organic necessity to liturgy, integral to the aesthesis of worship, and keep him or her on the staff because he does no kitsch, no pop, no dross. In other words, he is respected greatly because only good and sacred music will ever issue from his mouth, fingers, feet, mind, choir(s) or plans, or dreams. Outside of the Anglican Use, in the Roman Rite, there is very spotty respect given sui generes to choirmasters and organists. Not much is expected of them except that they keep performing the latest sacred pop music (oxymoron alert). They, after all, are mostly not real choirmasters, real organists, nor real choirs; nor are they treated as though they were. Unlike the Anglican Use, there is very little liason of substance between clergy and musicians during the liturgy. Each walks in and 'does his thing' at the appropriate time with no sense of interaction or poetic flow from one part of the mass to another, or from cleric to musician.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    But, to be more topical here, I love my two congregations because of the way in which their faith is displayed in demonstrated gratitude for organ, singers, chanting, and the unity of all these things with the liturgical flow. I am engaged on important ocassions at St Basil's and may soon be invited again to be the Choirmaster & Organist at Walsingham (please pray for me there). Doing liturgy where it is expected to be real liturgy with real sacred music done well is a tremendous reward for those who perform it and, reciprocally for those who participate in it by an action, a passive action, an interaction, etc., where appropriate as the mass moves through the phases of its destination. Congregations who are blessed with liturgy of a high order, which lifts them up, appreciate greatly those who are the leaders of various aspects of the ritual. They feel better about themselves and this becomes gratitude for all the ministers of the Sacred Rites. I have been very fortunate: every church I ever served (Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, Lutheran [HOW I stressed what of Catholicity remained in the Lutheran Churches!] was profoundly appreciative of the attention to legacy, well performed music, heritage and worshipfullness, and a sense of God in the music that characterise my teaching and performance. It is these, and others could perhaps add their own attributes, by which people know that they are loved, and they will return that love ten-fold. Then, there are those few musicians who play loud, play soft, play well, play too well, but are little (or big) ego-centric tyrants, are 'sounding brass' because they 'have not love'. Other things to like about my congregations; sometimes they give one presents. But, more important by far: they SING anything you ask them to sing and learn it well and like it; they figure out why you played a particular voluntary before mass; they stay and listen to the closing voluntary; they like nearly everything you play, whether it is a John Bull fantasia or a Messiaen suite; they never are heard to sneer 'I don't know that!'; they read and follow their service folders and would (I'm sure) be collectively 'put out' if any extraneous comments or intructions should be added to the language of the rite. I like them because they are all fine, devout, loving and supportive fellow pilgrims. The mass, not to detract from the heights of sacramental theology which is attendant upon it, is the single most sublime group activity known by humankind. People who are aware of this are specially blest.

    Perhaps another member of this forum could express these ideas better than I have.
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    They appreciate where I'm coming from, and they know that I will challenge them.

    They sing — softly, loudly, or in their hearts. But they sing the parts of the Mass that pertain to them, and many that don't pertain to them.

    They stay for the final verse of the final hymn (when one is used).

    They pay attention to melodies absolutely unfamiliar to their ears, sung in a language foreign to their explicit comprehension. And some follow along with the translation given them.

    When some of them ask me about the music of the Mass they do so respectfully, and they pay attention to my apologia pro musica sacra.

    They know that I do everything out of "love for God and love for them".
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 835
    I love my congregation because it is made up of devout adherents of the Traditional Latin Mass; because several families bring their many children; because it is a beautiful old church; because its pastor celebrates the Mass extremely well; and because the former pastors include a saint and a 'blessed'.
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