Thumb on the Pulse

Shortly after my post arguing how the best way to make parishioners come to Mass on time is to construct a liturgy that seems important enough not to miss, the former contributor sent me a link to this piece by Jeffrey Tucker on the banality of "contemporary" Church music and how it makes the Mass seem insignificant.

I should put up a run-on sentence warning sign before that last sentence.

Comments

[Alan]

I usually find the kind of music you're describing at worst mildly distracting. However, the couple of times I have been roped into singing in the choir, I felt I had missed the Mass entirely. I wonder if regular choir members also have this experience, or if the pros can do their job while still paying attention to the action of the Mass.

[PeterTerp]

That's an interesting point, Alan. I know I've often felt paradoxically more distanced from the Mass when I had more duties at Mass than not (I'm mainly thinking of when I was doing that whole usher thing at the CSC). I wonder if this whole concept of getting the laity more involved is really a diabolic plot to make otherwise devoted people less prayerful. Anyone who wants to be involved in liturgy either does so because they love the Mass or because they are a powermonger. The latter are already a problem; but taking out the former by giving them added responsibility seems pretty devious to me.
If I can propose a seriously flawed analogy, it is like working in the movie industry. A movie you have worked on probably never seems as effective, because your mind is on what was happening on the set rather than on the story. Or, as someone said in the documentary Gigantic, the saddest part about being in They Might Be Giants must be that they never get to experience what it means to discover the music of They Might Be Giants.

[Matt]

Hahaha. "The former contributer." That made my day. I inherited a bag from his co-conspirator in the ----- about a year ago, and I only just got around to completely emptying it. I found a wallet size portrait of a young ------ circa 1988. It's priceless.