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Views from the Choir Loft

Once Upon a Mattress

Andrew R. Motyka · December 25, 2013

This post is guest-written by Andrew’s wife Julie, while Andy alters his sleep schedule in anticipation of Midnight Mass.

NDY’S AND MY FIRST CHRISTMAS AS A MARRIED COUPLE WAS IN 2006. The above is our Christmas photo from that year. If any of you music directors or choir members recall 2006, it was a year of the dreaded “Monday Christmas,” not to be seen again until 2017. The parish where Andy was working at that time had four regular Masses every weekend, and five Christmas Masses. Normally, the “folk group” covered the music at one of the Sunday Masses, but decided to give themselves the weekend off that year, resulting in Andy playing for nine Masses in about 40 hours (though there were two priests to take turns).

Because we lived about 45 minutes away from the church, we were invited to spend Christmas Eve at the rectory, a Victorian-style house with the parish offices on the main level and the priests’ quarters on the second floor. We were relegated to the very drafty third floor, where there was a guest bed that probably had not been slept in by anyone since 1967. It was permanently dented in the middle, and Andy and I spent all night sliding into the middle of that bed and trying to roll back out to the more-supportive edges.

Andy (and probably you, too) was worried that I might not have a point to make when I told him I wanted to write about that crappy guest bed for his Christmas blog post. I don’t work in the music field, but I’ve been Andy’s main cheerleader for years, so I have at least a few insights. Being a church music director or a dedicated music volunteer is hard work. Things are not always going to go the way you want or expect, and, if you are anything like Andy, there are going to be times when you feel like like just when you made it to the supportive edge of the bed, something happens, and you sink back down into the dent the middle.

On Christmas Day, when you’re tired after umpteen Masses, or any time when things get discouraging, just remember: you’re not spending your whole life sinking into the hole, even if it feels that way sometimes. Every time you fight your way back out and provide good music at Liturgy, or make a positive change in your parish, or write an informative article, or mentor a budding musician, you are doing something positive for the future of the Church. The fruits of your work may not be immediately apparent, but those of us who are along for the ride appreciate what you do.

So on this non-dreaded Wednesday Christmas, after your last Mass, eat some Christmas goodies and take a nap in a bed that was hopefully manufactured in the twenty-first century. Please don’t worry about whether your cellist was out-of-tune and why no one sang along with “Angels we Have Heard on High.” You did good work today, and the Church appreciates it!

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 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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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Hymn by Cardinal Newman
    During the season of Septuagesima, we will be using this hymn by Cardinal Newman, which employs both Latin and English. (Readers probably know that Cardinal Newman was one of the world's experts when it comes to Lingua Latina.) The final verse contains a beautiful soprano descant. Father Louis Bouyer—famous theologian, close friend of Pope Paul VI, and architect of post-conciliar reforms—wrote thus vis-à-vis the elimination of Septuagesima: “I prefer to say nothing, or very little, about the new calendar, the handiwork of a trio of maniacs who suppressed (with no good reason) Septuagesima and the Octave of Pentecost and who scattered three quarters of the Saints higgledy-piddledy, all based on notions of their own devising!”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Introit • Candlemas (2 February)
    “Candlemas” • Our choir sang on February 2nd, and here's a live recording of the beautiful INTROIT: Suscépimus Deus. We had very little time to rehearse, but I think it has some very nice moments. I promise that by the 8th Sunday after Pentecost it will be perfect! (That Introit is repeated on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.) We still need to improve, but we're definitely on the right track!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    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. From “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium” you can hear a live excerpt (Mp3). I'm not a fan of chant in octaves, but we had such limited time to rehearse, it seemed the best choice. After all, everyone should have an opportunity to learn “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium,” which summarizes Candlemas.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Whether celebrated with priest and people facing each other or with priest and people together facing the same direction, every Eucharist is Christ coming to meet us, gracing us with a share in his own divine life.”

— Most Rev’d Arthur J. Serratelli (1 December 2016)

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