Thank you for being patient with the lack of posts. It has not been a boring summer around these parts.
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So you may have read a reply from last Friday from Fr. P concerning how his parish handles music during Communion which appears to me to closer in keeping with actual Vatican II documents and the Tradition of the Church rather than what has just seemed to happen recently. After Communion is over there may be time to decompress. The first option is to sit quietly and reflect on all that has happened (and a lot happened) and to give thanks. The next option is to sing one of the following:
1) Psalm
2) Canticle
3) Other hymn of praise
And it is recommended that this be done by the whole congregation.
If we were to take first options then it would look like this:
During Communion the choir sings, which, in this humble bloggers opinion make a lot of sense. As a priest I cannot participate because I am doing and saying too much as are the extraordinary ministers of holy communion. Ushers are ushering, people are getting up and processing and receiving Communion - and if they want to receive in the hand they should not have a hymnal in their hands or clutched under their armpit. When everyone is done, if we don't just sit quietly, then that is a time to fumble for hymnals and page numbers and sing.
What happens in a typical parish is exactly the opposite.
1 comment:
Hmm... often the Choir at 9 will sing something for which they have books up top, but we don't down below. Or every once in a while the band at 11 (usually as the overflow/time filler song) will sing something not in the hymnal/missalette.
It never occurred to me that was the more correct way.
There have been a couple posts recently that have.. shall we say... tidied up things that happen during mass that the congregation doesn't do correctly (although it should be said, usually not through an overt fault of their own).
Right now I'm trying to find the least disruptive way to do things correctly. For instance, during the sign of peace, I now operate at a REALLY slow pace. Instead of offering my family peace, I tell them I love them, then slowly work my way to that one lucky parishioner around me who gets the "Peace be with you." By then, if I was slow enough, hopefully it's time to break into Agnus Dei.
Or I cheat and use my baby as a prop to not hold hands during the "Our Father." It's all a very jury rigged solution I'm not thrilled with right now**.
Is the best option as a parishioner at these services to try and do things more correctly in counter to what may be going on? Or in the efforts of making a better Mass, to try and match fellow parishioners?
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** - Except for using the baby as a prop. Kids are much work and so expensive that I figure that's their way of helping out.
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