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Church services can be incredibly distracting places, especially for leaders—you’re in the choir, you’re reading the scriptures, you’re leading prayers, you’re preaching the sermon. What does it mean for us participate with our hearts—not just our lips!—when we’re busy with mundane things like adjusting a microphone or remembering a last minute announcement?
Dr. Mary Catherine Levri, Music Director at the Atheneum of Ohio, brings wisdom to this topic and draws us to a heart of worship. Mary Catherine speaks from her personal faith and comes to this topic from her background in music and theology, including earning a D.M.A. at the University of Notre Dame. As part of her position at the Atheneum, she instructs seminarians in music.
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Key Takeaways from the Conversation
- Think of “active participation” as the coupling of two things—our interior, in-our-hearts participation, and also our exterior, what-we-are doing participation. To paraphrase Isaiah 29:13, we should approach God with both our lips and our hearts.
- Active participation for those of us leading the service (as pastors, readers, cantors and so on) can include our participation prior to the service—Scriptural reading ahead of time, singing hymns thoughtfully as we practice, praying the prayers that the congregation will pray together.
- If you are selecting music for your church, focus first on the music you sing most often. The congregation will always have that music to sing well, whether or not they join in on other pieces. And you will welcome young children to participate, since they can learn this music by rote.
Resources We Mentioned
- Tra le sollecitudini, a motu proprio issued by Pope Pius X in 1903
- St. Cecilia
- Why Catholics Can’t Sing by Thomas Day
- Carrie Allen Tipton on early Lutheran congregational singing
- Harrison Russin on the musical training of Eastern Orthodox seminarians
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