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Views from the Choir Loft

Which Masses Would You Choose?

Fr. David Friel · April 3, 2016

PRIEST I KNOW is pastor of a small parish (roughly 150 families). He is working to introduce the beauty of sacred music and has arranged for musicians from local symphonies to provide music at the parish’s Christmas Midnight Mass and the Easter Vigil. In addition to SATB vocalists, the instrumentalists have included an organist, cellist, violinist, horn player, and trumpeter.

Such a project, of course, is limited by funding. At this point, the pastor would like to expand the number of Masses throughout the year at which these musicians play. He has set up two options.

Option 1: Bring in the musicians for the official Vigils of the Church. These Vigils include:

1. Easter

2. Christmas

3. Pentecost

4. Ascension

5. Nativity of St. John the Baptist

6. Saints Peter & Paul

Option 2: Arrange for the more festive music for certain Holy Days of Obligation. These feasts include:

1. Mary, Mother of God

2. Ascension

3. Assumption

4. All Saints

5. Immaculate Conception

6. Christmas

The goal of both options would be to help catechize the congregation about progressive solemnity and to reinforce the importance of either the Vigils or the Holy Days.

If you were this pastor, which option would you choose? If you were his music director, what recommendation would you give him? If you had the funding to add music to 2 or 3 more Masses in addition to Christmas at midnight and the Easter Vigil, which Masses would they be?

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Beauty in the Catholic Liturgy, Progressive Solemnity, Simple Steps To Improve Parish Music Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

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Random Quote

“Chants closely related to the readings should, of course, be appropriately transferred for use with these readings. For pastoral reasons also there is an option regarding the chants for the Proper of Seasons: namely, as circumstances suggest, to replace the text proper to a day with another text belonging to the same season.”

— Ordo Cantus Missae (1971)

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