A Parishioner's Guide to Music

How to pray with music
when the music just isn't your jam.

Whether you find yourself in the pew or the choir loft, we all know the problem well... You walk into a church on Sunday morning, the musicians come out, and there’s "that moment". You hold your breath wondering whether or not to trust the musicians to lead you in musical prayer. So many thoughts rush through your head: "Man, this is nothing like at home", "I can't believe they're allowed to sing that here", "This just isn't my style of music". Having just traveled for a few weeks, I understand this problem well. Over many Masses I schemed ways to corner a music director to unabashedly share my musical opinions and musings.

At a recent Mass, the Lord humbled me greatly when, at the homily, the priest reflected deeply on the universality of the Church. He shared, “You cannot achieve unity through destruction.” I recognized how often my desire for beauty and excellence in the Church turns militant to a fault, and actually becomes antithetical to the unity God truly desires us to have in this great gift of music.

The Grand Paradox of Music

I just spent the last six years as a music director at a hyper-musically-diverse parish. This was a great gift, as it allowed me to both understand and work around the grand paradox of liturgical music. Any music director might tell you a similar story: after Mass they're approached by someone who didn’t pray well because the music was too contemporary... and approached by another because the music was too traditional. The irony is that in any given Mass, someone does and someone does not relate to the music. In this age of having musical abundance at our fingertips, our Western cultural ideology affirms that music is an individualistic experience; that music is something to be curated to suit the listener. But think about that for a moment... at no other time in history has that been a reality.

This point is so much so that only 100 years ago people viscerally hated some music (and made a point of it... check out the story of a night gone wrong during Stravinsky's time), but still valued the moment of experiencing it communally. The Church, too, elaborates on the treasure of music, "The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 1963).

We need to reclaim the full gift of music... (psst... head to our Meaning of Music film for this very purpose). Beyond that, however, we need to reclaim the communal nature of liturgical music. So... buckle up! Here's a few things to get you started.

**A disclaimer: For the clarity of this article, I encourage you to think beyond genre. While I have my own musical preferences too, I very intentionally leave those out of these musings!

1. One Part of the Whole.

The obvious place to start in unpacking the communal nature of liturgical music is... that it's communal! It's best when the individual parts submit to the whole, for the sake of the whole. As a parish music director, this was a daunting task. While I desired to see the Church singing this, I have to recognize that it might have just spent a generation or two praying with that, and in no way is my desire to sing this more important than someone else's desire to sing that. The task of entering into the communal nature of sung prayer becomes two-fold: discovering a path toward unity, and then entering into it with a full, conscious and active heart. Even as a music director, I was still only one part of the whole. Even from the pew, you are one part of the whole. Each of us brings something unique and beautifully unrepeatable to the whole... that is something to be cherished.

2. Full, Conscious and Active.

The Church, in Her wisdom, has much to say about music. (Nerd Alert: If you're craving a deep dive, spend time readingSacrosanctum Concilium (1963), Musicam Sacram (1967), Hymnody at the Service of the Church (2020)) Most relevant here is their desire to instill full, conscious, and active participation in the faithful. What does it mean to you to pray fully, consciously, and actively with music? For some, that might mean listening at moments, but for many that should resolve into a desire to sing... to bring praise to the Lord in triumphant song. Look at Psalm 150 for no better example (below). A critical element to praying communally – even if you are loaded with opinions about the music – is to enter song with a fervent desire to give praise.

Hallelujah!

Give praise with tambourines and dance,

praise him with strings and pipes

Let everything that has breath

give praise to the LORD!

Hallelujah!

3. How to Encourage Excellence.

Beyond the communal, and your participation in it, there's an important point to be made: communal musical prayer is at its best when the music strives for excellence. This word, excellence, is such a difficult word to qualify, because it, too, can be subjective and individualistic. We'll focus on the qualities of music and musicianship in future articles, because that's both large and worth unpacking in ways that build – not destroy – the Church and Her musicians. For now, let's explore excellence by simply looking at Luke's gospel account of Martha and Mary. Mary sits beside the Lord listening to him speak while Martha is burdened with much serving. Enter Jesus' iconic reply, ”Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her. Excellence begins with the heart. You might not know that your parish musicians are burdened with much serving... it's a demanding job with little reward.

Encourage your parish musicians... pray with them... pray for them... and together sit at the feet of Jesus; the One from whom all perfect and excellent things come.

Many still ask: but when do I speak up with concerns about my parish's music? While the Holy Spirit is still building a unified path forward in the Church's liturgical music, there are things that may be of grave concern, such as songs that convey incorrect theology, songs that glorify us instead of God, or perhaps secular music that has seeped its way into the Church. My advice, should you have concerns about this – which, by the way, are very valid and worth being concerned about – is to charitably (with the desire of building, not destroying) sit down to share these concerns with your parish music director and pastor together. The duty of liturgical musicians is to fulfill the Church's vision for song. While the degree to which we might be able to achieve these ideals for one reason or another might be affected by the community we serve, it is part of our job as musicians to help the community grow and move towards these ideals.

4. The Full Gift.

As we know well, the gift of music is vast, and as Catholics we all-too-often use Mass as the only platform for it. It’s important to remember that, while the Mass is our highest source and summit moment, there is much reason to pray with music at home and/or in devotional spaces... communally or individually. Find time to make music with others, communally. Receive the full gift of music in the day-to-day life of faith.