Hi Claire,

Yes, implementing changes in the music at a parish is challenging (no matter what the language of the people!).

Right now I work in formation in my religious community, but in my previous assignment at a largely Latino parish in California, these were some concrete steps we did:

• 1. Catechesis, catechesis, catechesis! Beginning with frequent preaching on the liturgy, on Mass, on why our singing should be primarily a form of prayer. Also we provided workshops for our choirs (in both English and Spanish) to help them understand the role of music in the liturgy. In my experience, choirs are so generous, and so giving back to them really helped us to bridge a gap. Also, most of our musicians had never read a single document on what the Church says about music...rather than criticizing them for it, by instructing them and leading them to understand their role better made them more receptive to change their style and music. They still love very different styles of music, but they begin to understand why many styles are simply not appropriate for the Mass.
• 2. Many people know no other type of church music than what they have been hearing for the last forty years, so although they say they want "happy music," I think what they are looking for is music that connects with their religious experience. If we try to make their religious experience (especially their experience of the Mass) deeper and more prayerful, then their musical choices will begin to follow.
• 3. We gave our choirs a period to adjust to changes, but we were also clear about what we expected. We eliminated very quickly the settings of the Mass that used words that differ from the Missal texts. We gave them several settings that conformed to the official texts in case they had a hard time finding their own. The Gloria was difficult, because there are so few good settings in Spanish that follow the texts (at least that I know of!). Just getting the groups to use the official texts was a huge step, because it eliminated so many bad settings.
• 4. We began in part with an emphasis on daily Masses at first. Having a specific cantor at every Mass (this particular parish has daily Masses in English and Spanish) that had prepared the Psalm to be sung with Gregorian melodies. This introduced them to chant style and made the faithful regulars yearn for more prayerful music at other celebrations.
• 5. During Advent and Lent, all choirs use Latin Mass parts, which brings an important ritual unity between our Spanish- and English-speaking congregations. We made recordings for them in house of the settings, sang along with them, helped them with pronunciation, etc. They are still getting used to it, but many have surprised themselves by coming to enjoy it. When our school choir (and the whole parochial school!) learned to sing the Latin Mass parts in record time, it left little room for older choir members to complain that the Latin chants were beyond them! :-D

These are small steps that leave much to be done, but they are a start. So, this parish is still not using antiphons like these yet, but in my long term perspective I think they will get there. What they need are resources (like good settings) and good examples of how it can be done.

benedictgal, Here you go! Ordinary I in Spanish