Our "What Did YOu Hear" thread is crackling down there, and I’m so pleased. I think one of the things I’m going to try to do over the next month is to gather all of those threads from the past year and have one page up with links to all of them. It will be interesting reading, for sure.

The recurring theme is music, naturally enough, given its importance in worship, period, and especially during Christmas. My point on the carols was simply this: I’m not against carols, by any means. Far from it. It’s just that there is a bit more to the Catholic music library "under Christmas" than the five hymns we know, love, and sing over the next two weeks. It strikes me as too bad that they seem to have been disappeared, even as it is excellent to have the familiar sung enthusiastically and loudly, particularly for those who rarely come to Mass.

One commentor below noted that those who complain about music should help out – well, I’d say that some of our most vociferous critics of music in contemporary Catholic liturgies are those who are indeed musicians themselves, or have been (believe me, I have done my share in both simply participating in parish music and leading it, God help the congregations). The point is this: preparing music for liturgies takes time and practice. Even the dreaded Haas/Haugen repertoire takes practice, and I know the choir in our parish takes time to practice their more elaborate solo turns, each of which, it seems to me, would be well-suited to the Presbyterian church down the street – musically and lyrically, they do no suggest "Catholic" at all, which does not surprise, considering our music director isn’t Catholic.

My husband tells of one of the loveliest Christmas liturgies he attended – at a parish in Somerset, Kentucky, at which the accompaniment was, I believe, guitar, flute and piano. Simple, quite fitting for the time and place, but not obtrusive. Preparation – yes. Excellence – yes. Ego…no, if we can help it!

The preparation time is formidable…so what’s the harm in reaching back just a little deeper, or out a little more widely…as I said, for one or two hymns? Why not? Not all of what’s out there is beyond the reach of the ordinary choir, at all. Even my favorite, Gaudete! which actually seems fairly simple, after the Latin’s mastered.

If you’re not familiar with it: here are the lyrics

A snippet here, on the recording which is in the #2 spot on my CD player. As is my wont, my favorites are the more jubilant, even raucous tunes – #2, 5, 9 13 and 21 on this disc.

God bless our musicians as they work so hard to bring us wonderful music to help us worship God, as they try  – and help their fellow musicians – to keep the music out front in a way that communicates beauty and love of God without giving the impression that they think of themselves as (in the words of a commentor below) "all that and a bag of chips!"

o.