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Views from the Choir Loft

Pastoral Plan (Part 1 of 2)

Andrew Leung · April 30, 2015

CTL Pastoral Plan FEW WEEKS AGO, I had a chance to meet the Archbishop of Atlanta at a deanery meeting for the Archdiocese Pastoral Plan. His Excellency Archbishop Gregory explained his pastoral plan and answered some questions from priests and staffs from different parishes. As a music director, my mind started thinking, of course, about the implementation of the Plan in the music area of the parish.

The Pastoral Plan was finally released to the public last week. There are four main points in the Plan:

(1) Knowing Our Faith;|
(2) Living Our Faith;|
(3) Spreading Our Faith;|
(4) Evolution of Our Parishes.

Here are the explanations of the four points and my thoughts about how to implement them to a parish music program.

Knowing Our Faith — This is the first and basic step to “be a Catholic”. We have to discover and understand our faith. We must know what we believe in! As I contemplated on this first point and tried to relate it to my parish music program, the word “Catechesis” came to my mind. As I mentioned before, liturgical catechesis is very important and it helps us to understand the Liturgy and to participate more deeply. Teaching people the importance of music in the Liturgy and the basic Church teachings on Sacred Music is the first step to build a successful program. It is the key to have a congregation that sings loud and proud. Liturgical catechesis should also be given as a formation to choir members. As church musicians, we need to make sure that we are prepared and understand the spirit of the Liturgy, so we can lead others to God through the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Living Our Faith — Once we know our faith, we need to live out our faith in our daily lives. We can express our faith by having a good prayer life, reaching out to the poor, living a virtuous life, fighting for the good moral values, etc. From the liturgical musician’s perspective, we live out our faith through our singing and our service to the Church. This is the more technical part of music. For example, we learnt that the Church asks that all liturgical music to be “true art”. So, we practice on our own and rehearse with other members in the choir so that we can sing or play beautifully. Latin is the Church’s language and most of us can’t speak or understand it fluently, so we learn the text with the help of translations and understand what we sing. To make quality music and to pray through it is how musicians can “live our faith”.

For our brothers and sisters in the pew, the implementation of the second point would be to learn the responses and the ordinaries of the Mass, to sing the hymns and praise God in the Liturgy, engage in prayer and meditation while the chants or polyphonies are sung. Participating in our liturgical roles actively is definitely a way to live out our faith.

Point 3 and 4 will be discussed in my next post

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

It is clear the Church is facing a grave crisis. Under the name of “the new Church” and “the post-conciliar Church,” a different Church from that of Jesus Christ is now trying to establish itself: an anthropocentric society threatened with imminent apostasy which is allowing itself to be swept along in a movement of general abdication under the pretext of renewal, ecumenicism, or adaptation.

— Cardinal Henri de Lubac (29 August 1967)

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