I often wonder how realistic our assessment of the state of Catholic music is in this country. Somehow I suspect that none of us really knows the extent of the problem. Just the morning I heard of random Mass attended in the SE, big city, and i could have predicted this but the music was the usual variations on One Bread One Body, plus a Come O Come thrown in to mark the season, all interrupted every once in a while by Marty Haugen's Creation. I suppose this will go on for 100 more years until someone does something to wake the musicians up.

Regretably, I advise that you do charitably ask Peter/Paul how he came to that repertoire decision? No matter what rationale he concocts, your point will have been made by the mere act of the inquiry.
At our "Ensemble" Mass this morning we were pleased to have a young Filipino priest possessed of a beautiful, honey tenor voice. So I changed the Communion Song (after singing the Proper Antiphon from Bruce's AG) from "I received the Living God" to Ricky Manalo's "Ang katawan ni Cristo" on the fly. One Communion-themed text for another. "We will rise again" has no resonance, however tenuous PP's explanation may be.

the idea of a vocal sacred music proponent on a liturgy committee

If only to say, "you know, I just discovered that we don't have to reinvent the wheel for every Mass! There are these things called 'propers.' Maybe they could serve as, I don't know, guides?"

@ Ioannes - those two vocalists are not members of the commission. I would never blindside anyone, but rather I think I will just ask about the selection and its appropriateness for the season of Advent. It could of been just an uninformed choice on their part, who knows . . . thanks for the support!

Amazing. OCP's planning guides--brilliantly crafted to give maximum cover to all directors of music who seek to do minimum work--have vastly more controlling power over American liturgy than any Vatican document.

Darth_Linux wrote:

The Communion hymn for this Second Sunday of Advent was none other than Haas' "We Will Rise Again." Should I complain? What it had to do with Advent and why it was selected is beyond me . ..

In fairness, Advent is the period of the Church year in which we are reminded of both Christ's first coming at Christmas and His return at the end of time.

The first reading today is Isaiah:
Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.

And the second reading mentions:
...waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God...

And Mark's Gospel itself refers to Isaiah and further incorporates John the Baptist's proclamation
“One mightier than I is coming after me..."

As Catholics we repeat our belief in the "resurrection of the body" at the end of time each time we recite the Credo, so these all seem to tie together in exactly what We Shall Rise Again says.

And Jeffrey, if OCP's posting has such incredible power, why doesn't the CMAA publish a similar list of recommendations for weekly hymns that acknowledges the contemporary reality that most American Catholic churches have a small set of books in their pews such as Gather, Word & Song, We Celebrate, etc. ? OCP's planning guides are showing us the power of the internet and the willingness of DMs everywhere to use such resources. Would our time not be better spent lighting a candle than cursing the darkness?

OCP has never made a penny from me, and they never will. I don't buy their stuff. However, I do like the suggestion for CMAA recommendations. That would be a valuable resource.

And Jeffrey, if OCP's posting has such incredible power, why doesn't the CMAA publish a similar list of recommendations for weekly hymns that acknowledges the contemporary reality that most American Catholic churches have a small set of books in their pews such as Gather, Word & Song, We Celebrate, etc. ?

This is a wonderful idea, bu it is a very large task.
The indeces in many contemporary hymnals are inadequate, carelessly compiled, and full of error.
I can't remember the specific but there was something in the most popular hymnal last year, that I didn't like much but knew was a perfect match for the lectionary readings; but I could not recall the title, only a few phrases.
After searching the scripture reference index and checking out every referenced selection i gave up.
I came across it later, and the several sources given for the text did not include the psalm from which it directly quoted.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

CanticaNova is no better, just an equally arbitrary selection of better music. It still has nothing to do with the propers.

-G - You're right that it's a big task. And unless the Parish Book of Chant is making a lot more money than we think, the CMAA will depend on volunteers. (And we know Jeffrey - books will never make any of us rich!)

So here's my contribution. It's the index of the Word and Song 2009 book (50 weeks to go). Took about 5 hours to scan, OCR, edit, format and rough proof. If we can get some other folks to do the same with their parish hymnals we'll have the beginning of a database to use for the purpose.

Obviously it's not the answer to prayers for Chant to regain its place, but you begin the battle from where you are, not where you'd like to be.

VickiW - Getting attachments to work on here drives me crazy (and it's a short drive). Unfortunately I have to compress the Excel version because the system won't allow an ".xls" extension, and I have to compress the Word version because it exceeds the 500k limitation.

It works ok for me, but I've added an MS Word version to see if that might work for you. And just for fun I've also tried the Excel in a ".rar" compression format as well. If none of them work for you I would take that as a sign! (g) (But email me and I can send it to you directly.)