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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

How to Stay Prayerful as a Church Musician

Keven Smith · October 13, 2020

ITHOUT QUESTION, it’s a struggle every church musician faces: trying to remain prayerful at Mass while also providing the music for Mass. For us choir directors, the situation is even more intense. We must divide our attention amongst perhaps 20 or 30 people while we strive to follow the liturgical action and remain in communication with God.

I’ve heard various suggestions on how to overcome this challenge, and all of them are good:

  • Remember to pray the text you’re singing.
  • Look over your missal before Mass so you can begin to connect with the contents of that liturgy.
  • Work extra hard in rehearsal and personal practice so that the music will feel easier—and take up less of your focus—on Sunday.
  • Maintain a spirit of detachment from your work, so that you won’t be tempted to view Mass as a performance.

I can recall our President of Corpus Christi Watershed, Jeff Ostrowski, advising church musicians to designate one Sunday Mass as their “own” Mass to simply sit in the pew and worship. This, too, is a very helpful suggestion. But some musicians may find this approach impossible due to their family life, parish Mass schedule, or the fact that they are involved in the music at every single Mass their parish offers.

And regardless of whether one can set aside a “personal” Mass, I think we all want to avoid having any Mass feel more like work than a participation in the sacred. It’s a struggle that can cause a great deal of anxiety for any Catholic who has high spiritual and musical standards.

An Unlikely Solution to a Common Problem

I’ve found that the answer lies in focusing not on what I do at Mass, but on what I do with the rest of my waking hours. It all boils down to recollection.

When we stay recollected, we remain aware of God’s presence in our soul. While it’s doubtful that anyone manages to think of God every minute of every day, the goal is to remain in constant conversation with Him.

I’ve found that if I fall into the bad habit of letting my busy life take over and only communicating with God during designated prayer time, it’s very difficult to suddenly flip on the “prayer time” switch when a sung Mass begins. But if I’ve been doing a good job of communicating with God throughout the day, then He doesn’t feel so far away when I begin playing or singing a Mass.

These were things I found hard to articulate until I recently read a wonderful little book: The Practice of the Presence of God. The book is made up of conversations with, and letters by, one Brother Lawrence, a lay brother with the barefooted Carmelites in Paris in the late seventeenth century.

Little more than a pamphlet, this book would be easy to dismiss as too “simple.” But that’s the genius of it. In just 39 pages, Brother Lawrence describes his spiritual life in terms that anyone can understand. For example:

“[A]ll consists in one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead to GOD; that we might accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him, with freedom and in simplicity. That we need only to recognize GOD intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment, that we may beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful, and for rightly performing those which we plainly see He requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have done.”

Sounds like a good plan for anyone who’s singing Mass this Sunday! But here are the passages that really hit me—paragraphs in which the book’s compiler describes Brother Lawrence’s prayer life:

“[P]rayer was nothing else but a sense of the presence of GOD, his soul being at that time insensible to everything but Divine love; and that when the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with GOD, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he passed his life in continual joy….”

And:

“[W]ith him the set times of prayer were not different from other times; that he retired to pray, according to the directions of his Superior, but that he did not want such retirement, nor ask for it, because his greatest business did not divert him from GOD.”

So, for Brother Lawrence, work time flowed into prayer time and vice versa. They were all times of recollection. Now, we church musicians in the modern world may find it difficult to achieve this degree of recollection as we juggle church music with family life and perhaps a day job. But it’s encouraging to think that perhaps, with some consistent effort, we can remain just as recollected during a sung Mass as we would be during an hour spent silently adoring the Eucharist.

Your Computer Can Help You Stay Recollected. No, Really!

At the risk of seeming eccentric, I’ll share one final tip with you. When I’m not directing our choir and playing organ, I work as a freelance writer. Between that and preparing for rehearsals and music classes, I spend many hours at the computer. It’s easy to get glued to the screen and forget that God is present. So I’ve configured an app to pop up and remind me to stay recollected. Every 10 minutes, I see a little message for 10 seconds. That means I’m giving God one minute for every hour I spend at the computer—certainly not an amount of time that will cause me to miss deadlines.

That annoying little popup has made such a difference! But if it’s too weird for you, at least check out the Brother Lawrence book. You won’t be sorry.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: recollection Last Updated: October 13, 2020

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    PDF Comparison Chart • “Serious Problems with the Lectionary Translation”
    EARS BEFORE truly revolutionary changes were introduced by the post-conciliar reformers, Evelyn Waugh wrote (on 16 August 1964) to John Cardinal Heenan: “I think that a vociferous minority has imposed itself on the hierarchy and made them believe that a popular demand existed where there was in fact not even a preference.” We ask the kind reader— indeed, we beg you—to realize that those of us born in the 1940s and 1950s had no cognizance of Roman activities during the 1960s and 1970s. We were concerned with making sure we had the day’s bus fare, graduating from high school, taking care of our siblings, learning a trade, getting a job, courting a spouse. We questioned neither the nuns nor the Church.1 Do not believe for one instant any of us were following the liturgical machinations of Cardinal Lercaro or Father Bugnini in real time. Setting The Stage • To never question or resist Church authorities is praiseworthy. On the other hand, when a scandalous situation persists for decades, it must be brought into focus. Our series will do precisely that as we discuss the Lectionary Scandal from a variety of angles. We don’t do this to attack the Catholic Church. Our goal is bringing to light what’s been going on, so it can be fixed once and for all. Our subject is extremely knotty and difficult to navigate. Its complexity helps explain why the situation has persisted for such a long time.2 But if we immediately get “into the weeds” we’ll lose our audience. Therefore, it seems better to jump right in. So today, we’ll explore the legality of selling these texts. A Word On Copyright • Suppose Susie modifies a paragraph by Edgar Allan Poe. That doesn’t mean ipso facto she can assert copyright on it. If Susie takes a picture of a Corvette and uses Photoshop to color the tires blue, that doesn’t mean she henceforth “owns” all Corvettes in America. But when it comes to Responsorial Psalm translations, certain parties have been asserting copyright over them, selling them for a profit, and bullying publishers vis-à-vis hymnals and missals. Increasingly, Catholics are asking whether these translations are truly under copyright—because they are identical (or substantially identical) to other translations.3 Example After Example • Our series will provide copious examples supporting our claims. Sometimes we’ll rely on the readership for assistance, because—as we’ve stressed—our subject’s history couldn’t be more convoluted. There are countless manuscripts (in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin) we don’t have access to, so it would be foolish for us to claim that our observations are somehow the ‘final word’ on anything. Nevertheless, we demand accountability. Catholics in the pews are the ones who paid for all this. We demand to know who specifically made these decisions (which impact every English-speaking Catholic) and why specifically certain decisions were made. The Responsorial Psalms used in America are—broadly speaking—stolen from the hard work of others. In particular, they borrowed heavily from Father Cuthbert Lattey’s 1939 PSALTER TRANSLATION:
    *  PDF Download • COMPARISON CHART —We thank the CCW staff for technical assistance with this graph.
    Analysis • Although certain parties have been selling (!!!) that translation for decades, the chart demonstrates it’s not a candidate for copyright since it “borrows” or “steals” or “rearranges” so much material from other translations, especially the 1939 translation by Father Cuthbert Lattey. What this means in layman’s terms is that individuals have been selling a translation under false pretenses, a translation they don’t own (although they claim to). To make RESTITUTION, all that money will have to be returned. A few years ago, the head of ICEL gave a public speech in which he said they give some of “their” profits to the poor. While almsgiving is a good thing, it cannot justify theft. Our Constant Theme • Our series will be held together by one thread, which will be repeated constantly: “Who was responsible?” Since 1970, the conduct of those who made a profit by selling these sacred texts has been repugnant. Favoritism was shown toward certain entities—and we will document that with written proof. It is absolutely essential going forward that the faithful be told who is making these decisions. Moreover, vague justifications can no longer be accepted. If we’re told they are “making the translations better,” we must demand to know what specifically they’re doing and what specific criteria they’re following. Stay Tuned • If you’re wondering whether we’ll address the forthcoming (allegedly) Lectionary and the so-called ABBEY PSALMS AND CANTICLES, have no fear. We’ll have much to say about both. Please stay tuned. We believe this will end up being the longest series of articles ever submitted to Corpus Christi Watershed. To be continued. ROBERT O’NEILL Former associate of Monsignor Francis “Frank” P. Schmitt at Boys Town in Nebraska JAMES ARNOLD Formerly associated w/ King’s College, Cambridge A convert to the Catholic Church, and distant relative of J. H. Arnold MARIA B. Currently serves as a musician in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. Those aware of the situation in her diocese won’t be surprised she chose to withhold her last name.
    1 Even if we’d been able to obtain Roman journals such as NOTITIAE, none of them contained English translations. But such an idea would never have occurred to a high school student or a college student growing up in the 1960s. 2 A number of shell corporations claim to own the various biblical translations mandated for Roman Catholics. They’ve made millions of dollars selling (!) these indulgenced texts. If time permits, we hope to enumerate these various shell corporations and explain: which texts they claim to own; how much they bring in each year; who runs them; and so forth. It would also be good to explore the morality of selling these indulgenced texts for a profit. Furthermore, for the last fifty years these organizations have employed several tactics to manipulate and bully others. If time permits, we will expose those tactics (including written examples). Some of us—who have been working on this problem for three decades—have amassed written documentation we’ll be sharing that demonstrates behavior at best “shady” and at worst criminal. 3 Again, we are not yet examining the morality of selling (!) indulgenced texts to Catholics mandated to use those same translations.
    —Guest Author
    “Music List” • 17th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (27 July 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Communion • “Ask & You Shall Receive”
    All of the chants for 27 July 2025 have been added to the feasts website, as usual under a convenient “drop down” menu. The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (both text and melody) are exceedingly beautiful and ancient.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    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

Random Quote

This was first breach in the walls of a fortress, centuries old, stoutly built, strong and robust, but no longer capable of responding to the spiritual needs of the age. [N.B. the “fortress” is a liturgy which nourished countless great saints.]

— Annibale Bugnini (19 March 1966)

Recent Posts

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  • “Music List” • 17th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
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  • Communion • “Ask & You Shall Receive”
  • Jeff’s Mother Joins Our Fundraiser

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