Also we have a like button, but don't measure your work on this, very few posts ever get more than a few likes.

Right! And I do like(!) very much the fact that in this forum the button reads Thanks - I regularly hit it at postings that I do not especially like, but get me to rethink earlier statements.
Confusing criticism with attack is all too common...

I myself am 'guilty' of mainly commenting on threads about controversial topics - but that's because I appreciate so much that these discussions are possible in this community of promotors of traditional liturgical music! Furthermore, they are usually constructive and I learn from them.

Our reward for our efforts may not come in this world, but to be invited to join the choirs of Angels after our efforts in the world of sacred music is our ultimate goal.

This.

Truth... I assume most people on this forum are on the search for truth... You might call It a war VO vrs. NO, But I don’t see it as a war at all. I see our discussion (even if they get heated) As a grappling for truth, a Reaching out for God himself. The liturgy is central to our faith and to our profession as musicians.

I share my compositions here all the time, and the comments or acknowledgments are very few. It does not alter the intrinsic value of my work, which is my life’s devotion to sacred music and art.

On the other hand we are the Church Militant, and we are in a war that determines eternal life and death. My perspective has changed over the years moving from the Novus Ordo to the Vetus Ordo, a journey which has personally caused significant pain and suffering while at the same time hopefully gathering wisdom which I can share with others to prevent them from traveling the same difficult path.

All is done in love and devotion for Our Blessed Mother for the salvation of souls and in the end attaining heaven for as many as possible.

I didn't look at the post with the long argument, but often it is the same few forumers that post and repost on those anyway. I can barely figure out what is going on in them, hence why I don't read them. I much prefer hymns to St. Joseph!

If you have serious musical questions or compositions to share, go call three or four of your buddies and talk to them; that's about as many people on this forum as are actually going to pay your work any heed, anyway."

I think that this is patently unjust.

While it's been my practice and that of my predecessor to allow lots of free discussion, I should say that I did not appreciate the idea of starting a thread expressly for the purpose of encouraging people to complain about the liturgical reform during Holy Week. It's not as though the thread started with an insightful post about the subject.

Hello, all. I'm not advocating that we can't have discussions or argue about controversial things, but the post I originally cited really wasn't about anything, but more just with the seeming hope that something juicy would come of it, as if it was a sport to watch. Additionally, this was done on Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday, the holiest days of our calendar. I am saying that this Board, or at least too many people on it, seem to only come out for "Fight Night" and not enough on what a Musica Sacra Board should be about - the music - and how it integrates into the holiest of all things, the Mass.

I stand by my original statement. I hate no one and only want to see Christ more known and loved and that His beautiful majesty might be on more lips and in more minds because of the work we do. My abundant thanks to those of you who lead in this way...

Jacob,

Since it appears that you're referring to my post, I'm sorry that my intent has simply failed to be evident. If I recall the sequence of events, someone said that there should be a forum for those who wanted to debate the liturgical reform in another thread, so as not to drag the original thread off topic. I immediately created a thread saying, in effect, "those of you who want to debate the merits or lack of merits of the liturgical reform should do so here, rather than cluttering up other threads". I didn't mean it to become a sewer. I didn't intend to spark a mere gripe session, but if such developed, at least it wouldn't clutter/disfigure other threads.

I think a proper airing of the real benefits (if any) of the liturgical reform and the real shortcomings (if any) of the liturgical reform would be an entirely suitable topic for this forum, on any thread which could sustain it, and the fact that these discussions might take place during the Triduum isn't, in itself, either inappropriate or un-Christian. If we stop to think about the meaning and the significance of the three days, and ask whether the reform brings them into sharper focus, this (surely) isn't a bad thing.

Let me give you an example. If this were an architecture forum (or if we were discussing architecture as it relates to music and thus directly impacts our work as musicians and the lives of those whom we strive to draw closer to God) and we discovered that every newly consecrated parish should be named St. Mary Magdalene (because "They have taken My Lord away, and I don't know where they have put Him") or Admonition of Saint Paul (because "I am become a loud, clanging cymbal"), there wouldn't be anything wrong with acknowledging (in that context) that the work of musicians has sometimes contributed to drawing attention away from God. This wouldn't be griping, but a severe mercy, a proper examen.

Francis, I never said people weren’t ABLE/FREE to write what they want. The difference between “being able” and “should“ is significant. That is why I was pondering if there is another place for those of us who want to be in community but not have the constant barrage of controversy. I have talked to another musician on the matter, and he concurred - The post’s timing was very poor and the fact that it garnered 100+ responses during the holiest days of our calendar sends up huge warning signs to me and others. Christ had not yet even been taken down from the cross, (Good Friday) and discussion about controversy had commenced. Sounds like another group of people we read about for whom the inscription ‘INRI’ threw them over the edge. Of course anyone can take any position they like, but would it not be better for us, as individuals in this forum, to take the Saint John the Beloved’s posture at the foot of the cross and and actually mourn our Savior in anticipation of His glorious rising rather than spend those 3/365 days doing what we do every other day?

Anyone on here is free to participate as they want to but likewise being free I am within my right to question if this is the right group for me, which is essentially what I was doing.

Yes... we are always tripping over each other with charity here... if I may be so bold to ask, why didn’t you close your browser for three days? Personally, a number of us spent 4-6 hours per day in the Triduum chanting the pre 55 liturgy including the full tenebrae in vest.... and very little time on the forum.

Charles... yea, it’s easy to click into curmugeoness... politically correct charity can often be an excuse to look the other way... not charity at all. Prayer... very good always!