Saturday-anticipated-Catholic- mass

I been attending Saturday anticipated mass for more than a year now. It is a late afternoon mass advancing parishioner’s Sunday-mass attendance. I don’t know why I stopped attending Sunday masses. Not that I’m avoiding some Sunday-people, but I guess just a matter of convenience. Weekends are lazy days of indulgence, and one of them is to be late on bed. Sunday mass is best if it you can attend the morning gatherings. Since indulging on lazy rituals prevented me from Sunday-mornings, I ended up attending the late mass on the afternoon. And making-up on Sunday-afternoons is like finishing a newspaper about a news-less day.

Since attending the anticipated mass, I notice something special on how the mass is celebrated. If you arrive 15 minutes earlier, the head priest will be on the altar, practicing the hymns and encouraging the people to sing with the choir. Sometimes, I’m not sure if he is scolding the choir for singing hymns that are difficult to follow , or the people for not singing with the choir. The choir sings very well, and can make easy rendition of difficult pieces. But blaming them may be too sly. At times, he reminds the parishioners the cost of projector if it will not help mass singing

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The priest has the right to complain if people do not sing during the mass. Firstly, singing hymns is praying. And secondly, it is participation. If I don’t sing, I don’t pray and, don’t participate. This made me ask, why do people don’t sing hymns during the mass. Are the pieces too tough to follow? Or there is already a choir that does the singing for them? Or simply they do not know the significance of mass singing?

The third question is easy to answer. Priest had already addressed its significance. The first, I think is easy too. With the popularity of sing-a-long during parties and social occasions, singing hymns are peanuts. This brings me to the second question, does the presence of choir hold-back mass singing? This is tricky. But I will tell you a story:

Years ago, in my hometown in Obando, Bulacan, I attended a children mass when the youth’s choir sounded anything but in-unison. Their dissonant voices filled the church hall, and the parishioners were uneasy. Many gave the choir a bemused look and that made its members to bow their heads and hide their faces. The priest, which were then too old, did not bother to care. Age may had stolen some of his spiritual fire, looming to existentialist resignation. But parishioners did care how the hymns were sung. Knowing that the choir could not relied upon to sing their beautiful hymns, they started to sing and join-in, guiding the choir how the hymns to be sang. This made the parishioners to pitch-in, making each hymn to be alive with different voices singing. The church was alive, and the old priest, as if awaken from half-sleep, amazed at people participating to his mass, guessing that he might said something really good during his sermon.

The lesson is: bad choir made parishioners sing. So the answer to the second question is pretty obvious. Good choir singing beautiful hymns is enjoyable to listen to. For parishioners to pitch-in and spoil the beautiful choir’s rendition may not be a good idea at all. Specially for us Filipinos, putting high premium to beautiful music.

Start: 9:53 pm November 9 Sunday
End: 12:12am November 15 Saturday
@ home, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines