The Recovering Choir Director

…I can hardly hear myself pray!

Yesterday I attended the Ascension Thursday Holy Mass at a Long Island parish. The organist and a cantor were present to lead the congregation in song. The organist was top-rate, and the cantor had none of that operatic ostentation that I’m sure Thomas Day was lambasting in his book Why Catholics Can’t Sing. The church in its recent restoration lost its nave carpeting, so it was quite a live room. The music was a blend of classical Protestant and Catholic folk hymnody, which is certainly allowed.

And due to the fact that the church was only 25% full and the organist still pulled out all the stops for final verses, it was certainly loud. I left Holy Mass last night with a splitting headache.

Can we extend pastoral sensitivity to organ registration and sound system volume level, please? The organ would have been easily heard with only two or three carefully selected voices. The cantor would have been easily heard without the microphone. Save the pyrotechnics for the most-attended Eucharist.