Monday, July 28, 2008

visiting priests

well, some of you are probably thinking I'm going to say a lot more about this than I actually am. Don't get too excited.

Whenever I have to play organ with a priest I have never worked with before, I go up to him beforehand, and briefly let him know what I am planning on doing in terms of music, and/or ask him what he would like or is planning on having sung.
It seems that about half the time he is like, "Oh that sounds good, what about this...etc."
But the OTHER half of the time, he either acts like he doesn't care at all, or worse, seems to be like, "and why are you talking to me and telling me this and asking me this?"
I HATE it when I get that kind of reaction! I mean, it's hard enough as it is for me to go up and talk to a strange person I've never met before!
And it really baffles me. I think that I'm doing them a favor by giving them a quick run-through of what to expect, and even asking their opinion!
Do these priests who act like they don't care seriously want me to not talk to them before Mass? Like, the time for the Kyrie will come, and I'll look at you, and you look at me, and everything will stop, and then I'll start to play and you'll start to speak it at the same time. yeah, that makes a lot of sense, but could have been prevented really easily... (That's never actually happened to me, since I always do talk to the priest beforehand, but I wouldn't if I knew he didn't want to talk to me, but of course I never know that until I'm actually talking to him!)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Just a tiny reminder that when you state, "I think that I'm doing them a favor by giving them a quick run-through of what to expect, and even asking their opinion!" you must remember that the priest is in charge of the liturgy, not the music director. Ideally of course the priest would discuss with you the music you are planning to play, but if he does not initiate the conversation, you are performing a great service by approaching him. I doubt that you really meant to say you were doing him a favor.

Mara Joy said...

I'm not sure that I really see the difference between "doing him a favor," and "performing a great service." They both mean pretty much the same thing to me.
And if I didn't think the priest was in charge of the liturgy, I wouldn't be asking him if he wanted me to do any particular parts of the Mass!

Unknown said...

Thank you for clearing up the point. I see there was just a difference in semantics and interpretation of the phrase, "doing a favor". I'm sorry if you took offense to my comment as I did not intend to offend.

Anonymous said...

Having served as acolyte, MC and sacristan for many priests under the Novus Ordo / Ordinary Form, all I can say is: "Thank God for the Traditional Mass!". That is all I serve nowadays, and there are far, far less complications; priests don't inject their personal preferences about where to stand at such and such a time, or where they're going to receive the lavabo water and bowl for the washing of the hands.