• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Are you Praying the Mass?

Andrew Leung · February 18, 2016

CTL Prayer in the Liturgy AST WEEK, I wrote about the Three Common Misconception about Chant and most people seem to agree with my observations. In that post, I mentioned “a deeper problem that has to do with ‘prayer’” since people complain about not being able to participate externally. I thought it would be appropriate to write a reflection on “Prayer and Liturgy”, especially at the beginning of this sacred season of Lent. This is a topic that comes up frequently in my conversations with my spiritual director.

My spiritual director, whose name I will keep private, is a very holy priest in his late 70s. He is the “Latin Mass Guru” in our diocese and he celebrates both Forms of the Mass regularly. He started his seminary formation before the Council and was ordained in 1964. He is one of the few of his generation who never gave up wearing the cassock in public. He is a very wise and inspiring priest. I love discussing liturgical questions with him because he knows exactly what happened before, during and after Vatican II.

There are many articles that deal with problems of the liturgy nowadays; I have written some of them myself. People write about the orientation of the celebration, the language we use in our Worship, the Old Mass and the New, etc. However, I believe the root of all the problems we see nowadays is the understanding of prayer. People do not know how to pray! Here are a few quotes from my wise spiritual director on prayer and the liturgy:

“The changes that the Council Fathers made to the liturgy were meant to help people to pray better. However, the outcome is not what they wanted.”

“It is our fault. It was us, my brother priests and I, who stopped those little old ladies from praying the rosary at Mass. They actually know how to pray.”

“In order for the people to appreciate the Church’s music, they must first learn how to pray.”

I can’t agree with him more. We must learn to enter into deep interior prayers. Prayers are our conversations with God. There are many forms of prayer. Physically doing, or saying, or singing something are ways of praying. Many people come to Mass to enjoy homilies, to sing songs and to focus on “what they can do”. These are all good ways to participate, but they are exterior and superficial. We need to listen to God so that we can have deep conversations with Him. We need to learn to meditate in silence, and eventually in melismatic chant. Maybe one thing we can do during this Lent is to stop criticizing the homilies, music and the tiny mistakes that happen at Mass, and focus more on the Body and Blood of Christ on the altar.

Finally, I would like to end with a remark that I often hear from my spiritual director when he thanks me for singing his Masses:

“The music was beautiful. It was beautiful because I can hear that you were praying.”

Are you praying the Mass? When you sing, are you praying?

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

Andrew Leung

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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

4 March 2021 • Can you spare 15 seconds?

Due to Covid-19, California has basically been under “lock down” for 11 months, and these restrictions have had quite a detrimental effect on our choral programs. We are frequently limited to just 2-3 singers, on account of regulations by the government and our Archdiocese. However, although the number of singers is quite small, I was struck by the beauty of the singing last Sunday. Listen to this 15-second live excerpt and see if you agree?

—Jeff Ostrowski
3 March 2021 • “A policeman” — really?

According to Monsignor Frederick R. McManus, there were “policemen” serving the Sanhedrin in the time of Our Blessed Lord. Look at this awful translation in the 1966 “Saint Andrew Bible Missal” from 1966. Yuck!

—Jeff Ostrowski
Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—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)

Recent Posts

  • A Beautiful Lenten Hymn • “How It Sounds”
  • Two Recent Talks on the Liturgy
  • 4 March 2021 • Can you spare 15 seconds?
  • Now Online! • “Missale Romanum” (1615 edition)
  • “Ash Wednesday” • Banned by YouTube after 93,000 Views!

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.