Monday, June 06, 2005
Complimentary Visitor to my Site
No, not this one. My parish.
Our parish organist was away on "vacation" earning her 4th black belt (or 4th degree black belt--I'm not a karate expert, so don't ask me) so we had a substitute for our middle three Sunday Masses yesterday.
Up front I should tell you this guy is one of the best church musicians I've ever known. He used to be music director at a nearby parish at which I interviewed about five years ago. It would have been great working with him there; I recall the 4th Sunday of Lent liturgy my wife and I attended: it was easily one of the ten best liturgies in my experience. They hired someone else, which, as things turned out, was for the best.
Anyway, I was up in the choir loft at the start of the noon Mass, which is not known for being as lively as the other liturgies here. I think the 7:30 people sing better. But I was hearing the sweet strains of singing rising up from the pews. It kept going all through the Mass. Our guest commented on the congregational singing this weekend. At all his Masses. Exactly what were they singing? "Praise to the Lord," Glorias by Haas, Jones, and Anderson, Haas' "The Lord is my Light" Hughes' "Alleluia in C," Community Mass by Proulx, "Song of the Body of Christ," and "How Can I Keep From Singing."
Pick music they know, I guess.
