Strike up the band!
I went to 6:00 pm Mass this weekend. Our evening Mass is for the youth, so instead of the traditional choir we have a full band with guitars and drums. The band isn’t half bad, but I just find it inappropriate for Mass. As I was kneeling trying to pray, all I could here was the tat-tat-tat of the drums. The entire atmosphere was not conducive to prayer. It was made even worse when I saw two guys, one of them a liturgical minister, chewing gum!
Hey, I don’t mind doing something for the youth. I’m not an old man (I’m only twenty three), but I favor a more traditional mass. I see a problem in the way that the young people are worshipping. “Jamming out” and chewing gum are probably not the best ways to grow closer to God, especially during this Easter season. So why don’t I do something about it? I am. I’m throwing my hat into the race for Parish Council. I don’t want to totally scrap the youth Mass; I just want to put it in context. The solemnity of Christ’s death should not be overshadowed by a nonchalant attitude. One day these kids are going to grow up and they will need to know how to worship like an adult.
Am I being too puritanical about this? I understand that if I don’t like the mass that I don’t have to go. There are four other masses celebrated throughout the weekend that suit my tastes. I guess my problem is that when I heard the band, the first thing that came to mind was a fundamentalist service. The last thing I want to see is the Church trying to “look cool” so that kids will come. Any input?
April 26th, 2007 at 12:09 am
I think that in a youth mass, it is totally fine to have a ‘band choir’ as part of the music liturgy and people going for a youth mass should anticipate livelier and ‘jamming out’. As we all agree that music is a very subjective matter, one man’s meat is another’s poison, there is no hard and fuss rule as what is deemed “appropriate” for mass. Music during mass is to enhance worship and participation of the whole congregation in praise and worship together. But then again, being such a subjective matter, music may enhance one and decline another which roots back to what is appropriate. Since that particular mass has been themed ‘Youth Mass”, let the youth “jam out” so that “youths’ or others who enjoy and perhaps worship level elevated have a place and time to “worship out”.
It would be a shame if the youth lose their place in the church or their views and thoughts are not considered, and their zeal is reduced and cramped by church leader’s opinions. Nothing wrong if the youth want to make the Church look ‘cool’, so that kids will come, because as long as people come, with the presence of our Lord and Grace of the Church, He can minister to touch, heal or connect.
Like you mentioned also, perhaps it would be a good idea to attend other masses celebrated throughout the weekend which ‘suits’ your taste. I don’t think anybody can determine or judge what is the best way to grow closer to God in Church. Let God be God in how He draws us closer.
Lastly, I would suggest that if any choir, may it be traditional or full band are ‘disrupting’ the flow of the liturgy, then by all means improve their playing or control the volume or what ever means which deemed necessary. “Strike Up” the band should be avoided if possible.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:13 am
1157 “Song and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant when they are “more closely connected . . . with the liturgical action,” according to three principal criteria: beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn character of the celebration. In this way they participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful…”
And Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation
Sacramentum Caritatis:
42. In the ars celebrandi, liturgical song has a pre-eminent place. (126) Saint Augustine rightly says in a famous sermon that “the new man sings a new song. Singing is an expression of joy and, if we consider the matter, an expression of love” (127). The People of God assembled for the liturgy sings the praises of God. In the course of her two-thousand-year history, the Church has created, and still creates, music and songs which represent a rich patrimony of faith and love. This heritage must not be lost. Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another. Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration (128). Consequently everything – texts, music, execution – ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons (129). Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed (130) as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy (131).