tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682550116445790117.post1306852959731860789..comments2024-03-23T09:59:53.293+00:00Comments on LINEN ON THE HEDGEROW: Good priests are ignoring the requests of the Holy FatherRichard Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10826907710570316952noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682550116445790117.post-33944982613143456562011-12-08T16:29:56.303+00:002011-12-08T16:29:56.303+00:00Well some of us are trying to reintroduce chant as...Well some of us are trying to reintroduce chant as a regular feature in our parish masses but we have to go slowly because there is a lot of predudice and ignorance out there. Grudging support is the best you will usually get from the parish priest who usually hasn't a word of Latin and no musical training. The funny thing is that the Africans , Indians , Poles etc love it. For them it's inclusive and they know a lot of the common chants.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682550116445790117.post-90691498815379504312011-11-21T19:01:52.796+00:002011-11-21T19:01:52.796+00:00If the Holy Father would cease "requesting&qu...If the Holy Father would cease "requesting" and begin ordering then maybe these incessant banalities would go away. <br /><br />Governing does not mean requesting; it means ruling, something the Vicar of Christ was commanded to do by Our Lord Himself.Aged parenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05217229048176272954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682550116445790117.post-23431571322440532612011-11-20T08:17:12.258+00:002011-11-20T08:17:12.258+00:00Sorry Patricius, it was a rhetorical question. I a...Sorry Patricius, it was a rhetorical question. I am heartened by your experiences.Richard Collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10826907710570316952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682550116445790117.post-33545964814931806952011-11-20T01:23:08.143+00:002011-11-20T01:23:08.143+00:00Richard- Please excuse my witholding details of my...Richard- Please excuse my witholding details of my personal circumstances. While I value the freedom afforded me by the blogosphere to share personal views and opinions I do not wish to give scandal- which could all too easily happen. What I can say, however, is that I tend to be pretty picky about where I attend mass. So much so, in fact, that my tendency to go to Mass in a neighbouring parish- in my youth- led one parish priest to compare me to King David after he had done for Uriah the Hittite and nicked the fellow's missus! Frankly, I still don't get how going to Sunday mass in a parish other than one's own compares with murder and adultery but that is some priests for you! He seemed blissfully unaware of the fact that most of my contemporaries from school had ceased going altogether! I agree that sometimes one comes across guitar players and ghastly hymns but outside my home parish over the last eighteen months, for example, I have been at Sunday masses in ordinary parishes in Clifton, Lancaster, Liverpool, Wrexham and Birmingham dioceses. Some had choirs. Others had not. At none of them did I hear a guitar. All had organs- or some approximation of that instrument. Some effort was being made to sing something of the ordinary of the mass in almost all of them. Things musical were often far from perfect - apart from a responsorial psalm one rarely hears a proper chant- but I seem to have avoided the worst abominations in my travels. G.K. Chesterton once said that if a thing is worth doing it is worth doing badly. I don't think that is an excuse for making a poor effort. Rather it means doing the best one can with the resources one actually has. To return to your point: I don't think there are many priests deliberately going against Pope Benedict's wishes- just that they have to work with the resources both personal and, if you will excuse the pun, personnel they inherit-and personnel for whom they have a pastoral responsibility. <br />God bless you.Patriciushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08906131174326742939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682550116445790117.post-72351496283462777502011-11-19T17:04:44.165+00:002011-11-19T17:04:44.165+00:00Patricius...please let me know in which part of th...Patricius...please let me know in which part of the land you live.....wherever I have gone to an OF Mass in the past forty years I have been surrounded by dismal guitarists and tibetan nasal flute players.<br />God bless.Richard Collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10826907710570316952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682550116445790117.post-89000344868464046502011-11-19T13:55:05.939+00:002011-11-19T13:55:05.939+00:00Electric guitars, "psychedelic music" an...Electric guitars, "psychedelic music" and flamenco masses are doubtless newsworthy because they are, thankfully, rare. My own impression of what happens musically in parishes is that it has a lot more to do with the type and quality or cultural background of those who volunteer their services than with any wish on the part of parish priests to promote a particular agenda. Often the education of priests in this area is inadequate and, even where there is a good choir, as for example in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Liverpool, the celebrant lacks the "bottle" to intone a "Gloria in excelsis Deo" or even "The Lord be with you". It is to be sincerely hoped that the introduction of the new Missal with its integral chants together with the easy availability of recorded exemplars will go some way towards improving the musical culture of the clergy.Patriciushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08906131174326742939noreply@blogger.com