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“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Are you Praying the Mass?

Andrew Leung · February 18, 2016

CTL Prayer in the Liturgy AST WEEK, I wrote about the Three Common Misconception about Chant and most people seem to agree with my observations. In that post, I mentioned “a deeper problem that has to do with ‘prayer’” since people complain about not being able to participate externally. I thought it would be appropriate to write a reflection on “Prayer and Liturgy”, especially at the beginning of this sacred season of Lent. This is a topic that comes up frequently in my conversations with my spiritual director.

My spiritual director, whose name I will keep private, is a very holy priest in his late 70s. He is the “Latin Mass Guru” in our diocese and he celebrates both Forms of the Mass regularly. He started his seminary formation before the Council and was ordained in 1964. He is one of the few of his generation who never gave up wearing the cassock in public. He is a very wise and inspiring priest. I love discussing liturgical questions with him because he knows exactly what happened before, during and after Vatican II.

There are many articles that deal with problems of the liturgy nowadays; I have written some of them myself. People write about the orientation of the celebration, the language we use in our Worship, the Old Mass and the New, etc. However, I believe the root of all the problems we see nowadays is the understanding of prayer. People do not know how to pray! Here are a few quotes from my wise spiritual director on prayer and the liturgy:

“The changes that the Council Fathers made to the liturgy were meant to help people to pray better. However, the outcome is not what they wanted.”

“It is our fault. It was us, my brother priests and I, who stopped those little old ladies from praying the rosary at Mass. They actually know how to pray.”

“In order for the people to appreciate the Church’s music, they must first learn how to pray.”

I can’t agree with him more. We must learn to enter into deep interior prayers. Prayers are our conversations with God. There are many forms of prayer. Physically doing, or saying, or singing something are ways of praying. Many people come to Mass to enjoy homilies, to sing songs and to focus on “what they can do”. These are all good ways to participate, but they are exterior and superficial. We need to listen to God so that we can have deep conversations with Him. We need to learn to meditate in silence, and eventually in melismatic chant. Maybe one thing we can do during this Lent is to stop criticizing the homilies, music and the tiny mistakes that happen at Mass, and focus more on the Body and Blood of Christ on the altar.

Finally, I would like to end with a remark that I often hear from my spiritual director when he thanks me for singing his Masses:

“The music was beautiful. It was beautiful because I can hear that you were praying.”

Are you praying the Mass? When you sing, are you praying?

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 15th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (13 July 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and propers for this Sunday are also provided at the the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“The Night Office—Nocturns or Matins—except for Holy Week, Easter Octave, and Christmas, has never appeared in the Vatican edition. The larger part of the mediaeval repertory for the Office thus remains still unpublished in the Vatican edition, and is likely to remain so, for the obvious reason that almost no cathedral chapters or monastic choirs sing the Night Office regularly today.”

— John Merle Boe (1968)

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