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Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

The last month has been absolutely nonstop, one big event after another and weekends packed with a crazy number of duties. For any emails I have failed to return or anyone I didn’t get to thank sufficiently (because we can’t do any of this alone), my apologies.

One of the things I haven’t gotten to express sufficiently is how beautifully you sing at Mass recently. Maybe it’s because we are using more piano lately – that organ pumps out a lot of sound to reach the back pews of the church and it is literally six feet behind me – but you sound really good. Some churches, even some Catholic parishes, think of the choir as entertainment, something that is there to enhance the experience of the assembly. We have worked really hard to show that the choir is not there to replace your singing, but to encourage your singing. It seems to be working! Especially that triple, Great Amen at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer which is entirely yours (it isn’t sung by the priest) is beautiful. I’m holding up the hosts and the chalice and sometimes I just have to smile: Your singing is very satisfying and I feel like we’ve done something very right.

Of course, we choose music carefully according to the text and context of the Mass so that they really become a substantial part of the prayers that you pray during the Mass. A couple of weeks ago we sang Dan Schutte’s “These Alone are Enough,” which is based on one of my favorite prayers of St. Ignatius Loyola:

Take my heart, O Lord, take my hopes and dreams.
Take my mind with all its plans and schemes.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

Take my thoughts, O Lord, and my memory.
Take my tears, my joys, my liberty.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

I surrender, Lord, all I have and hold.
I return to you your gifts untold.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

When the darkness falls on my final days,
take the very breath that sang your praise.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

I find 7am Masses frustrating because with few people spread out to all corners our massive church, it is mostly hard to hear responses to the prayers. It is hard to see who is even in that back row.

Active participation, as you know, was the principal goal of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II. The Mass belonged to the priest and most of “his” prayers were prayed at a level of voice which was not meant to be heard by the assembly, not even the Lord’s Prayer. Imagine the time before microphones! I am so glad that this is no longer the case.

But silence is also important. The Opening Prayer of the Mass is called the “Collect” because when the priest presider says “Let us pray,” there is a pause. This is when you offer your intentions and petitions privately, and after the pause the presider says the prayer that literally collects all of your prayers and presents them to God. In that silence you are still active, perhaps doing a most important part of the Mass, pouring your hearts out to God so he can pour his into you.

Gestures, too, are important. I have been meaning to speak about genuflecting for a long time. It is often forgotten today but it is still an important part of the Tradition. When you genuflect, you touch your right knee on the floor, back straight, as a gesture of reverence to the Presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. This is done before entering the pew at the beginning of Mass, and again as you leave the pew at the end. Many forget to do this, perhaps because they aren’t thinking much about how Jesus is truly present here. You could think of it as a hello coming to Mass, and a goodbye at the end. When you see a friend, you always have a greeting, nobody just ignores a friend. It’s like that.

If you are like me and have knees and feet ready to go bad at any minute, the Church teaches a profound bow may be substituted for genuflecting. This is more than just a bow of the head, it is a bending at the waist. It is an equally good reverence.

Sometimes you see people genuflecting after receiving Communion. This is a misunderstanding. For one thing, Jesus isn’t present in the tabernacle at that moment. He is in you.

The Lord be with you,