A parish was in need of an organist. It was decided that the top applicant should play for a Sunday Mass. It happened to be “Stewardship Sunday” and the pastor was preaching on sacrificial giving. At the end of the homily, the pastor asked that all those who were able to increase their contribution to please stand, so as to inspire the whole parish. Just then the organist played the “Star Spangled Banner,” and everyone stood up. The organist got the job.
Throughout the past 40 or more years, national studies on church membership and church attendance have identified a parish’s music program as one of the top qualities of a positive experience for Sunday Mass. Many parishes in our archdiocese pay significant attention to the development and quality of liturgical music and expanded cultural styles. Given these national studies, the importance of this effort cannot be overstated.
I readily admit that I do not play a musical instrument, nor can I read music. As a celebrant for Sunday Mass, I am unfortunately a minimalist when it comes to singing the parts of the Mass that I am supposed to sing. After I sing the doxology, I am resigned to the sound of the keyboardist pounding out the correct note so that the choir does not descend into variations of B flat. Once I celebrated Mass in an assisted living center. The person who was supposed to lead the singing didn’t show up, so I had to lead the hymns. After Mass there was a social and a piano player began playing lively tunes. Some people were dancing. One elderly woman invited me to dance with her, but I replied, “I dance like I sing.” To which she replied, “Oh Father, nobody dances that bad!”
Most of us find music to be a source of inspiration, whether sacred music in church or secular music in our cars. Some people even listen to sacred music when they are not in church. Many parishes make a financial commitment to professional musicians and choir directors. The importance with which people treat music in the liturgy suggests it is an investment worthy of every dime spent. Nonetheless, the participation of the people in the pews gives every traditional hymn or contemporary song of praise an added richness. Even I sing better as one voice among many. For me, nothing stirs the soul so deeply as the sound of the people in the pews singing.
Through the intercession of St. Cecilia, patron of pastoral musicians, may all our organists, keyboardists, instrumentalists, choir directors and choir members continue to inspire us. May they know of our gratitude to God for the gifts they share at Sunday Mass. And may our thanksgiving be truly shown as we raise our voices in faithful singing. As the old saying goes and is regularly attributed to St. Cecilia, “to sing is to pray twice.”
After all, in the life of a parish, when we do Sundays well, the other six days of the week fall into place.
