A Simple Suggestion

[TeresaBenedicta]

[quote name='dominicansoul' timestamp='1308293072' post='2254981']
...one morning, during Mass (which, because of my Doms, the school had Mass every morning rather than once a week,) the priest was raising the Host during Consecration...suddenly, a little kindergartner started singing the "Tantum Ergo." When her little voiced bellowed out the hymn, ALL the children joined hers...in perfect Latin, with all their little hearts!!! The priest didn't move, he kept the Host elevated until the children finished...and then he continued with teh Mass...

[/quote]

This absolutely just made my day!!!!

[KnightofChrist]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1308292888' post='2254980']
People can learn anything they want to. That's a fact of life. The converse is also true. People will not learn something they don't want to learn. How many of the laity (and I'm not talking drive 90 minutes each way every Sunday to attend a Traditional Latin Mass type laity, I'm talking pack the kids in the Suburban and drive to St. Nearby's type laity (which make up the overwhelming majority)) do you suppose would set aside the time necessary to learn plainchant? Some would, maybe, but probably not many, and certainly not most. Who would teach it? I wouldn't think that most priests would know it (maybe I'm wrong, I usually am), but even assuming that every priest in the US knew it and could teach it, our priests are stretched thin already. My priest at home was responsible for every mass (once daily, two on Saturday, three on Sunday), for all of the pastoral duties like ministry to the sick and reconciliation and so forth, and then had all the other parish priest stuff to do...and was quickly approaching 80, with no other priests in the parish (and it was a decent sized parish, too). When would he squeeze chant lessons for the parish in there?
I'd wager that most people who want to know how to sing plainchant already have learned how, and indeed, already do on a regular basis.
[/quote]

Excuses excuses excuses. The plain Jane Suburban St. Nearby N.O. Parish I attend was able to grasp a plain chant version of Salve Regina (in latin) in about 10 mins, the Cantor sang some lines then the laity repeated those lines. Not perfect the first couple of times, but we got a handle of it.

The laity will go where they are lead by the Church. It just takes someone to step up and lead. Plain and simple.

[Cam42]

[quote name='KnightofChrist' timestamp='1308327110' post='2255064']
Excuses excuses excuses. The plain Jane Suburban St. Nearby N.O. Parish I attend was able to grasp a plain chant version of Salve Regina (in latin) in about 10 mins, the Cantor sang some lines then the laity repeated those lines. Not perfect the first couple of times, but we got a handle of it.

The laity will go where they are lead by the Church. It just takes someone to step up and lead. Plain and simple.
[/quote]

But where is the love in that? If someone steps up and leads, then someone has authority over another and the whole communal aspect of church is out the window. Also, Latin? Really? That is a dead language and nobody speaks that ol' language anymore. Why, we should sing plainchant in English. I mean the Anglicans do it and they do it well...I'm sure that Archbishop Williams would appreciate the ecumenical gesture. It would show that we respect our sisters and brothers in the Anglican tradition....

A Mighty Fortress is our God, after all....

It is about loving our neighbors and showing them that we love them by embracing their musical styles....

[Cam42]

[quote name='TeresaBenedicta' timestamp='1308327009' post='2255061']

[quote]..one morning, during Mass (which, because of my Doms, the school had Mass every morning rather than once a week,) the priest was raising the Host during Consecration...suddenly, a little kindergartner started singing the "Tantum Ergo." When her little voiced bellowed out the hymn, ALL the children joined hers...in perfect Latin, with all their little hearts!!! The priest didn't move, he kept the Host elevated until the children finished...and then he continued with teh Mass...[/quote]

This absolutely just made my day!!!!
[/quote]

Mine too!!!! I love how we Catholics don't suffer the little children....they should be innovative when doing Eucharist with Father!!!! That innovation is what will take us forward...but the child should have sung it in English. To sing it in Latin must mean there is some sort of repressed fear of the Church to hang on to an antiquated tradition like that. Latin is only for old people and weirdos.....not the little children.

I love that they sang it with Father though...they were really participating with him during the Mass.

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='Cam42' timestamp='1308327708' post='2255068']
It is about loving our neighbors.
[/quote]
Good call!
[quote]Matthew 22:36-40

36 Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.

38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.

39 And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

40 On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.[/quote]

[Cam42]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1308328005' post='2255072']
Good call!

[/quote]

Thanks!!!

I love YOU too...

[Lil Red]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1308326739' post='2255059']
You don't have to argue that to me, I'm merely trying to presenting the point of the "average" parishioner (who, you must concede, make up the majority of Catholics in this country).
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