Men-folk, Sing!

H/T: http://romancatholicvocations.blogspot.com/

The author of that worthy blog that I make my best effort to be even a poor imitation of, writes this:

I’ve been meaning to write about how beauty promotes vocations (particularly beautiful liturgies). Until then a hat tip to New Liturgical Movement for finding and posting this video.

Eight young men in a schola (Farther Along Octet) singing Palestrina’s “Adoramus Te, Christe” - eight men - and listen to how beautiful it is! You can not tell me that if we heard and saw this in our churches more often that there would not be many more young men hearing God’s call to the priesthood. No, music won’t in and of itself create priests, but in today’s world this is so clearly prayerful and sacred that upon hearing it more young men might incline their ears to something other than the drumbeat of the world. Unfortunately what they get instead is weekly doses of the most banal music possible, or worse. (My not so humble opinion of course.)

here here.

To me this is timely. I could not get to my Byzantine parish today so I opted to walk a mile or so to the Dominican parish in my city. Reverent liturgy with folks lined up for confession, and a host of venerable Dominicans lined up to hear them. The music at the Mass was good - not of the “Glory & Praise” variety I grew up with in parochial school (blech!) BUT here was my problem - I simply could not sing along. The two or three female cantors leading the music were alto-sopranos.

Mostly the women of the parish were singing - and the men were divided between those with the good sense not to try, and those with the good faith to try. Bless the latter’s hearts… but I thought a few of them would pass out in their efforts.

Men, get involved with the music of your parish if this is a situation you face. MUCH has been written in the areas of the blogosphere that I meander about the “Feminization of the liturgy”. In this post I don’t want to get into all the polemics and arguments and concerns of all that. I want to simply say, men-folk, get involved. Find out how you can help. If you would like to be able to sing the “Alleluia” without having to wear under-pants 6 sizes too small, gently broach the matter with the appropriate folks at your parish, and get singing.

Catholic brothers! Grab your hymnals and show them how you do!

This entry was posted on August 27, 2007 at 3:18 am and is filed under Liturgy and Worship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Men-folk, Sing!”

  1. NiceneHobbit Says:
    August 27, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    To witness a beautifully celebrated Mass, watch the Mass from Notre Dame Basilica (South Bend, Indiana), Sunday mornings, on the Hallmark Channel. The hymns are usually of the Anglo-German style with swelling organ and full choir and the Communion anthems include pieces both in English and Latin. There is also a kind of natural dignity in their celebration of the Mass, often lacking in modern Catholic Liturgies. The Mass at Notre Dame is simply executed, but not “homey” or “touchy-feely”.
    It’s such an aesthetic relief that REAL hymns are making a come back (you know, the big, full-bodied ones like “All Creatures of Our God And King”, “Now Thank We All Our God”), as well as more pieces from our incredibly lovely Latin repertoire.
    And, yes, if and as parishes are exposed more to the old muscial treasures, especially male choirs, I think there will be more men open to “the call”.

  2. NiceneHobbit Says:
    August 27, 2007 at 4:14 pm

    By the way, those eight young men singing…!! LIke angels of God! The tears just welled up and fell, it was so beautiful.

  3. A Simple Sinner Says:
    August 28, 2007 at 3:56 am

    Here is a little secret, buried in the combox of a post a day or two old… Can’t advertise it too much.

    Ready?

    Men love to sing.

    Butch men. Football watchin’ men. Change-your-own-oil kinda men.

    Problem is, a lot of us wer always insecure about our voices, our grade school music teachers - if we had them - were women, and the girls excelled in those classes better than we did.

    I know some manly priest-men types - Vietnam vets, football watchers, old timers with some Navy tattoos. They can sing, they can chant. As a Greek Catholic, you show me a priest who can’t sing, I will show you priests who used to always be strategically placed in parishes with GREAT cantors. And that’s just a few of them - our guys can sing!

    So here is the deal - on top of all that we have to deal with, we have to teach our guys to sing. Look at these young men. They are loving it.

    You pull a younger man aside and put him in a group after you have evaluated his range and his talents, than go from there.

    Men do love to sing when you teach them how to do so, and give them music they can love to sing.

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