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Views from the Choir Loft

Is your Congregation Ready?

Andrew Leung · March 5, 2015

CTL Congregation AN YOU BELIEVE IT?, The Sacred Triduum will be here in less than a month. The Holy Week is the highest point of the liturgical year and this is my first one as a full-time music director. As I mentioned here, preparation with the choir is very important and is the key to prayerful singing. I have been working really hard with my choirs. But other than working with the choir, it is also very important to be a “pastoral” musician. When I say “pastoral”, I mean to care about the spiritual needs of the people, not just give them what they want.

In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), the Church asks that:

“All the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, active participation in the liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people, ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people’ (1 Pet. 2:9, 4-5) have a right and obligation by reason of their baptism.”|

I am sure that many music directors, like me, have “big plans” for this upcoming Holy Week. As music directors, one of the ways to help the congregation to enter into prayer during the Sacred Triduum is through catechesis. It is very important to educate the congregation so that they will be prepared for the “big plans”. I wrote a short note on my parish bulletin last Sunday explaining what the Proper is and why we chant at Mass. And I am going to write another note soon explaining why the choir will be singing a polyphonic Mass on Holy Thursday. This kind of formation helps people understand more about the Church’s teaching and participate in the Liturgy more actively.

Of course, liturgical catechesis should also be given outside of Holy Week; but Holy Week is such an important and special time of the liturgical year. The Liturgies of the Triduum are so rich and beautiful. It is the perfect time to show people the true sacred music and help them to better appreciate its beauty.

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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Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is free from disordered attachments. Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

— Fr. Thomas Rosica (31 July 2018)

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