purpose of parish choir
  • E_A_FulhorstE_A_Fulhorst
    Posts: 381
    Mr. Merkel ---

    It is a healthier approach in the age of broken worship to lean to the side of strict and jurisdictional, at least if this approach is obfuscated from public appreciation.

    Folks around here forget that the nuts and bolts of the liturgy, especially the Novus Ordo, is a behind-the-scenes concern for most parishoners. We care about it because it's our job to care about it, but it is not the world. Still, it is our domain and we should hammer all this out, if privately.
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Mr. Merkel,

    "ut meum ac vestrum sacrificium....".

    Since Father can say a Mass with no congregation present, save a server, the congregation can't be a necessary component of this aspect of the value or validity of the Mass. Since Wembley Stadium could be full, but wouldn't be able to offer the Mass until the priest arrived, I can't see how the level of preparation of the congregation can be a constituitive element in considerations about Mass.

    If you're talking about the Missal of Paul VI, the context is different, but the substance has to be the same. To wit: the purpose of using a responsorial psalm is to have the congregation respond, and if the cantor sings so poorly, or if the melody is beyond the capacity of the congregation to follow well, or if no music is provided for them to follow, then this aspect of liturgy fails in its purpose. It should be noted, however, that this was an innovation intended to encourage "active" participation, which was then understood to mean "busy" participation.

    Since the Church is "taught, governed and sanctified" by the hierarchy, and since we are the Church Militant, order and (by extension) jurisdiction matter.

    I'm happy acknowledging that the Church allows that there can be a goodly collection of appropriate music in most points of the Mass. Should one sing, for example, the chant Ave Verum, or Byrd's setting, or Elgar's or..... is an open question, dependent not on the interests of the congregation but on the skill of the choir.

    I take issue with your closed-box view of what congregations can sing. Trying to provide "what the people want" has emptied the pews for the last 40 years. Attempts to provide "relevant" "youth liturgy" and such has, similarly, resulted in greater loss of young people to than nearly anything else. Someone (at NPM?) claimed that the people aren't clamoring for Latin, which was true, because they had been told that it wasn't allowed. How many people would choose church architecture if they were told, in advance, that it would weaken their faith?


    God bless,

    Chris
    Thanked by 1Chris Allen
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