"the Kyrie, the the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei", and of course the Gloria, are in the hands of the choir director (subject to the speed at which the parishioners will tolerate an increase in solemnity), as I understand it, so you would need turnover in both the pastor and the choir director (otherwise your point stands that the situation is unstable until a generation passes away.)
"the Kyrie, the the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei", and of course the Gloria, are in the hands of the choir director (subject to the speed at which the parishioners will tolerate an increase in solemnity), as I understand it, so you would need turnover in both the pastor and the choir director (otherwise your point stands that the situation is unstable until a generation passes away.)
Solution: Hire someone under the age of 40 who knows chant to direct the choir. Points if you make it a special youth choir alongside the regular choir.
2. It's actually really hard to make good solid change in situations where a parish is used to garbage. Nothing can be done permanently by one priest because people know to wait for his successor. It takes a good run of consistent direction before people get the hint that the Good Times may possibly be stopping Rolling and they should try to accept orthodoxy. And that in its turn requires the bishop to care about the parish's spiritual welfare enough to assign tonally consistent priests.
1. point taken. But you need someone with both energy and enough experience to stand up to parishioners charitably.
2. is the reason to make it a special youth choir. People tend to be more tolerant of new things when young people do them, and a youth choir also doesn't have to sing at every Mass, which helps with not overstepping peoples' patience. Youth are also less likely to be dismayed at the prospect of learning chant. Some older people tend not to like the necessity of making mistakes and being confused. And, while you're boiling the frog slowly with older parishioners, you're getting at least the chorists something very solid. It's not like we can ignore the youth until the older people die off and have the problem magically solved. They need good formation, and they need to not wait 20 years until we have virtually the same problem, with different generations, to get it.
The only way out is through, and you have to take the backsliding along with all the other obstacles.
I'm not sure how we got from choir directors and bishops/pastors to saintly old ladies who probably prayed the younger priests' vocations into existence (if only so that they themselves could be assured of the possibility of last rites and a proper Mass of Christian Burial - everyone remember to tell one's heirs "if you cremate me and put me on the mantlepiece I *will* haunt you") but I, at least, would definitely like nice ziti dinners when I am old.
the bad music people are almost always Boomers, who need a ziti dinner and a hearty handshake from Father for all their years of service to St. Joseph the Worker and St Lawrence combined parish.
heh. I hope that no one imagines, just because I am GenX, that I didn't once spend several years playing guitar at a young people's guitar Mass, and couldn't play Anthem or City of God even now, if handed a tuned instrument and sheet music. Generation X however, is tired and has to get up early in the morning.
"the Kyrie, the the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei", and of course the Gloria, are in the hands of the choir director (subject to the speed at which the parishioners will tolerate an increase in solemnity), as I understand it, so you would need turnover in both the pastor and the choir director (otherwise your point stands that the situation is unstable until a generation passes away.)
Solution: Hire someone under the age of 40 who knows chant to direct the choir. Points if you make it a special youth choir alongside the regular choir.
1. Doesn't have to be under 40.
2. It's actually really hard to make good solid change in situations where a parish is used to garbage. Nothing can be done permanently by one priest because people know to wait for his successor. It takes a good run of consistent direction before people get the hint that the Good Times may possibly be stopping Rolling and they should try to accept orthodoxy. And that in its turn requires the bishop to care about the parish's spiritual welfare enough to assign tonally consistent priests.
1. point taken. But you need someone with both energy and enough experience to stand up to parishioners charitably.
2. is the reason to make it a special youth choir. People tend to be more tolerant of new things when young people do them, and a youth choir also doesn't have to sing at every Mass, which helps with not overstepping peoples' patience. Youth are also less likely to be dismayed at the prospect of learning chant. Some older people tend not to like the necessity of making mistakes and being confused. And, while you're boiling the frog slowly with older parishioners, you're getting at least the chorists something very solid. It's not like we can ignore the youth until the older people die off and have the problem magically solved. They need good formation, and they need to not wait 20 years until we have virtually the same problem, with different generations, to get it.
The only way out is through, and you have to take the backsliding along with all the other obstacles.
Yes. These younger pastors have to get more comfortable shuffling these blue haired old ladies off with a nice ziti dinner in the parish hall.
I'm not sure how we got from choir directors and bishops/pastors to saintly old ladies who probably prayed the younger priests' vocations into existence (if only so that they themselves could be assured of the possibility of last rites and a proper Mass of Christian Burial - everyone remember to tell one's heirs "if you cremate me and put me on the mantlepiece I *will* haunt you") but I, at least, would definitely like nice ziti dinners when I am old.
the bad music people are almost always Boomers, who need a ziti dinner and a hearty handshake from Father for all their years of service to St. Joseph the Worker and St Lawrence combined parish.
heh. I hope that no one imagines, just because I am GenX, that I didn't once spend several years playing guitar at a young people's guitar Mass, and couldn't play Anthem or City of God even now, if handed a tuned instrument and sheet music. Generation X however, is tired and has to get up early in the morning.