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Views from the Choir Loft

Weak-Kneed Prayers or Religious Patrimony?

Guest Author · September 17, 2014

0319_DO-LG N GOING THROUGH some old books that had been discarded by a Catholic school library, I found a book from 1982 on planning Masses with children. Filled with various articles about liturgical planning involving children, I chuckled at the drawings and skimmed through the text. One article on prayer (itself written and published in 1981) caught my attention. The author questions her readers:

“What will the next generation of students say about their school prayers? Will they rise up 20 years from now to criticize us for giving them a diet of weak-kneed prayers, full of trendy jargon and self-conscious posturing? Or will they complain that they have learned nothing by heart because we never used the same prayer twice? Or will they thank us for introducing them gradually to the strong and surprising words of praise that are a part of our religious patrimony?”

I could not help but think of my own grade-school years when all of us learned our prayers by heart (the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity, among others) and had to practice them and recite them from memory to our teachers. This was certainly not the case across the country or the world.

Even today, in 2014, in one diocese in the United States, in a survey of 11th grade Catholic school students, only 28.1% stated that they always pray with their family before meals (48.6% stated always or often). In the same survey, 54.1% of 11th graders said they never pray the Rosary alone or with family at home.

The author of the article I found in that discarded book wondered what students would say about their school prayers 20 years in the future. It’s been 33 years since she asked those questions and I haven’t heard young adults thanking their elders for “introducing them gradually to the strong and surprising words of praise that are a part of our religious patrimony” (which, by the way, is not a bad thing: our religious patrimony should be passed down to each generation). Instead, one can see with groups such as the Juventutem International Federation, college councils of the Knights of Columbus, and various Newman Center campus organizations/parishes a return to authentic religious patrimony—a patrimony that was, sadly, not passed down.

Do we criticize the older generation for the “diet of weak-kneed prayers, full of trendy jargon and self-conscious posturing?” Do we complain that nothing has been learned by heart because no prayer was used more than twice? It’s been 33 years: the blame game has been played and doesn’t need to be played again. Rather, let’s focus on returning to our authentic religious patrimony so the next generation can thank us for that.


We hope you enjoyed this guest post by Fr. Alan M. Guanella.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Liturgy For Children Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    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
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

After sixty years as teacher, composer, and organist, I may state that the Gregorian Chant should be part of the basic material of any musical education, be it religious or secular. The study of it enormously enlarges the spiritual background of any musician. Whereas students in literature will always be required to study Dante, Petrarch and Chaucer, why neglect Gregorian in music education?

— Flor Peeters

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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