Organists and communion

Well it does to the people who post here... dispassionate and reasoned debate, with a good deal of humour thrown in for good measure.

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asb
Posts: 251
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:09 pm
Location: Gone away :(

Re: Organists and communion

Post by asb »

If it were physically possible for me to get to communion I probably wouldn't anyway, as i do not feel that, having been playing the organ and directing the choir, my mind has been totally on the spiritual/devotional side of the mass.
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VML
Posts: 727
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:57 am
Parish / Diocese: Clifton Diocese
Location: Glos

Re: Organists and communion

Post by VML »

So you go to another Mass when you can concentrate? The way we are going, you will be lucky to be somewhere where there is more than one Mass. We used to have an organist who felt like that, but, apart from the fact that family life would make two Sunday Masses for Mum a bit difficult, I have always made my music ministry my offering to God, and (when I remember,) I pray that that is acceptable.
asb
Posts: 251
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:09 pm
Location: Gone away :(

Re: Organists and communion

Post by asb »

VML wrote:So you go to another Mass when you can concentrate? The way we are going, you will be lucky to be somewhere where there is more than one Mass. We used to have an organist who felt like that, but, apart from the fact that family life would make two Sunday Masses for Mum a bit difficult, I have always made my music ministry my offering to God, and (when I remember,) I pray that that is acceptable.


We have 3 masses each weekend, and I play for all of them!
Southern Comfort
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Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:31 pm

Re: Organists and communion

Post by Southern Comfort »

asb wrote:If it were physically possible for me to get to communion I probably wouldn't anyway, as i do not feel that, having been playing the organ and directing the choir, my mind has been totally on the spiritual/devotional side of the mass.


A lot of people think this way, and in my opinion they are wrong. You pray through your ministry, whatever that happens to be, and this includes all the practical preoccupations that fill our minds when we're serving the assembly as a minister - even a music minister. (I've even known priests who have been heard to say things like "I'm too busy to pray when I'm presiding at Mass"....) This is what liturgical spirituality is all about: the whole assembly prays together to God, and for and with each other, as they celebrate God's wonderful works and minister to each other in so doing.

In this sense. going to another "quiet" Mass could be seen as a denial of the fact that it's the whole assembly that celebrates, which would be bad ecclesiology. I hate to caricature it, but it feels a bit like getting one's own private "fix".
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