Singing the Mass adds less than 3 minutes to the length of Mass, yet it completely revolutionizes congregational participation. By directly engaging the congregation with simple dialogues and prayers, the priest cultivates a heightened liturgical experience.
- Preparations
- Talk to your people for a few weeks about how singing a text helps to set the words apart. Singing helps to raise our hearts to God. You wouldn’t think of SPEAKING the song “Happy Birthday.”
- Don’t worry your musicians. They don’t have to change their songs.
- Practice by yourself
- Open the Missal to Appendix 1 (various Chants for the Order of Mass) and sing
- the Greeting, Penitential Act – try the one that includes the Kyrie, Final Blessing, Dismissal
- Keep going
- Choose a Presidential Prayer Tone
- Sing the Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, the Preface Dialogue
- Tones for the Readings – introduction and acclamation
- The Lord’s Prayer – just Sing it
- Choose a Presidential Prayer Tone
- Reread Musicam Sacram for the Vatican II document that promotes singing the Mass.
- Here is a handy chart which shows how to build a sung Mass from the ground up.
Singing the Mass at Saint Peter’s Church, Omaha with Fr. Gregory Carl and Music Director – Zachary Turner.
- Open the Missal to Appendix 1 (various Chants for the Order of Mass) and sing
- Technological Preparations
- If possible, turn down your mics. Don’t overwhelm the acoustic sound of the congregation with an amplified voice (yours or a music leader’s). Remember, your singing voice carries better than your speaking voice.
- Ask your musician to NOT sing the responses into the mic. Let the congregation find and hear its own voice.
- For more insight into how congregational singing works, see the inspiring work of Alice Parker.
- Begin slowly with your congregation
- At first, you might have to sing the congregational responses with them, but you shouldn’t have to do that for long. Give them a good example to follow and then let them fly on their own.
- Start with weekday Mass – your spiritual warriors
- For two months
- Sing the Greeting, Penitential Act, Collect, Final Blessing, Dismissal
- Chant every “The Lord be with you.”
- Demonstrate that this is the new normative
- Be joyful even when you/they mess up
- Be consistent
- For two months
- After two months, begin to sing at the weekend Masses – all of the weekend Masses
- Remember, this is a no-cost way to help you and your people to grow in holiness
- Sing the Greeting, Penitential Act, Collect, Final Blessing, Dismissal
- Chant every “The Lord be with you.”
Nos encanta cantar la Misa! We love to sing the Mass! – Coro Guadalupano
- Remember, this is a no-cost way to help you and your people to grow in holiness
- Helpful reminders
- At first, the congregation WILL grumble, mess up, be timid, complain
- Keep at it. Joke around with them. Don’t be stern. Be consistent.
- Over the next 6 months to 1 year
- Hear how your congregation grows in confidence
- Listen to them unite their voices in melody and in rhythm
- Pray that the children in your congregation receive extra graces as they hear their parents and friends singing the Mass – think “future priests and sisters”
- Holy Days -Go the next step – Sing even more of the Mass – The Eucharistic Prayer
“Trumpets help us to sing the Mass.” – Sacred Heart Choir and Holy Day Brass