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Views from the Choir Loft

It’s What We Do

Andrew R. Motyka · December 18, 2013

N A PRETTY REGULAR BASIS, people not involved with Church music will speak to me about my work. When we start to speak about funerals, they usually have quite a few questions. At one of my previous parishes, I had 40-50 funerals per year. They would ask me, “How do you do that? I don’t think I could be around death that much. It would depress me.”

This is when I give what my wife calls my “It’s What We Do” speech. Apparently I have fallen into predictable patterns of storytelling and explanation. I call it consistency; she calls it annoying. Here it is:

Burying the dead is one of the Corporal Works of Mercy, and the funeral rites are part of that work. It’s What We Do. As Christians, we owe it to one another to pray for the dead. Furthermore, it is the only way to truly grieve the departed than to face their mortality (and ours) head on. It is for this reason that the funeral liturgy is filled with both prayers for the deceased and with reminders of our own mortality (even with the removed Dies Irae). As much of a cliché as it is, death is a part of life. Not one of us is getting out of this alive. We need that reminder of our mortality, and the dead truly need our prayers.

That’s why I can participate in so many funerals. I see them as an act of mercy, and as such, my duty as a Christian.

It’s What We Do.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Requiem Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew R. Motyka

Andrew Motyka is the Archdiocesan Director of Liturgical Music and Cathedral Music for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.—(Read full biography).

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    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful.
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    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
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    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
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