The Saturday Vigil Mass (along with the "latest Mass on Sunday in driving distance") are prime candidates for evangelizing the cause for Chant...and providing singers a Schola to come and sing in without having to abandon their home parishes.

This is a Mass that is sometimes staffed by a cantor who is there, not for vocal or musical ability, but because she's available. And in some cases the cantor is a needed choir member who, through family pressure, does not show up for choir on weekends to do double duty.

Solve the problem if you have it, by creating a schola and for the first four weeks sing the music that they are already singing at the Mass….enough time to rehearse the group in better music.

Start rehearsal an hour and a half before the Mass and as a regular thing hit a nearby restaurant for dinner after Mass and let the choir know that you would enjoy having them come along. There are many single, divorced and widowed Catholics for who a Saturday night means sitting home while other people are out having fun, people who would welcome a chance to have something to do on Saturdays that fills their time in a meaningful manner.

Now if you can get your pastor to come along for dinner, you are on the way to changing the entire music program of the parish.

Much of running a choir program is going beyond just being glad to see them at rehearsal. This gives you time to get to know them as well.

Now…what about the music? At first, leave it alone.

Then, on the fifth week have the choir sing a really, really old-fashioned Catholic hymn at the Offertory. Softly. Prepare the people for the Consecration through your song, creating an atmosphere of solemnity.

Then sing, as the priest receives, an Agnus Dei.

Leave everything else as it is. Hard to do, I know, but worth it.

And if you sing chant, accompany it. And even sing it in English.

It's easier to move gradually, giving complainers less to complain about, than doing a total makeover.

I've been hired to do a total makeover, charged to change EVERYTHING and it can only succeed if you have support of the priests you are hired by and there is no change in clergy.

But we are not singing the Propers, and the Gloria and…. though you may feel that you have done little to effect change, it's not true.

Most importantly, you have substituted one person wailing away over the microphone with a group of people singing. It was the tradition to not have soloists and to dress choir members alike and even hide them in a loft so that when a single person was singing they did not have a physical presence as a soloist. So you have made one big move already.

Then you sang something that old-timers love.

Then during a time of utmost solemnity - the priest's reception of the Blessed Sacrament - which is followed by minutes of chaos as Extraordinary Ministers approach, receive and then move to their "stations", you have been able to cast a solemn musical net over all of this, creating an atmosphere conducive to prayer and preparation by singing the Agnus Dei.

If you accompany it, many people will not notice that it's that much different from other music. But you will notice that they are much quieter as a congregation while it is being sung. That's due to the fact that movies use Gregorian Chant to make a scene on a church "solemn" and people react to what they have learned at the movies without realizing it.

Is this sneaky? I'd say it is considerate.