Monday May 7th
SPRING SUNDAY
The fine spring weather was much too good to waste, so with Jamie spending the day playing cricket, I packed some sandwiches and walked all the way to Carshalton (bike has puncture, so couldn't use it). Stopped at a local parish for Mass on the way. Packed church, lots of young families - much very well-intentioned and extremely noisy music led by a hearty dad with a guitar...This is the sort of style that seems to work well for young married couples and their children, but isn't terribly appealing to young singles (although of course, in the London suburbs, these do have the option of going elsewhere, esp to one of the big London churches with a v. different style). These families are exactly the sort with whom I get on best - they're the ones whose values I share, whom I meet at Catholic events, to whom I give talks and who buy my books. They support the pro-life movement and are active in lots of good things in the local and wider community. They are there in force at big events like "Celebrate!" where they enjoy family-based activities, inspiring talks, calls to evangelise neighbours, and a sense of mission. The church notice-boards were crammed with items promoting EWTN, Days with Mary, a retreat at a traditional-style monastery, information on vocations to the priesthood, pro-life material. But the guitar throbbing, the microphones, the beat, the sheer noise....Can't we get something going in the spirit of Sacramentum Caritatis, to get people singing some Latin, and enjoying something of a great heritage of music that belongs to the Church and us all? Is this guitar-beat enough to sustain a generation's faith in what could be very tough times ahead?
CARSHALTON HOUSE
I met Mother as planned outside Carshalton's old church (where there was a wedding going on, which was nice) and we enjoyed an afternoon looking round Carshalton House. THis is an 18th century house with some lovely rooms, open to the public on guided tours from time to time - and I was at school here, St Philomena's. As we passed the swimming-bath, I rushed to see if my name was still there, carved into one of the bricks and it is, it is!!! It took me some while to do it, one summer term when I was in the Lower V1, and we used to spend lunchtimes sitting and talking on the steps in the sunshine.
We visited the Hermitage in the grounds - which we girls used to call the Grotto, a lovely 18th century folly, set into the rise of the hill overlooking what used to be the lake (I have a picture of my sister posing as a saint in one of the niches there!). This corner of the grounds is badly in need of some care - massively overgrown and if water did start to return to the lake, which is sometimes does depending on the water-table, it would just be a mess because it's all filled with grass and trees and tangled growth. Difficult to get funds to enable maintenance work to be done on the scale needed - and in its wildness it was all rather glorious anyway.
The tour finished in the Water Tower, which M. and I had visited last week. We had tea there and I got chatting to the Chairman of the Friends of Carshlton Water Tower - would like to help with their fund-raising etc.
9 comments:
Perhaps the large number of young families present at the Mass you attended means that they don't mind guitars as much as you do. I suspect that some of the unmarried young Catholics you know are destined to become eccentric bachelors and embittered spinsters, of whom there are already too many in the Church.
I think it's a bit catty to claim that anyone who doesn't like guitars and tambourines in Mass must be either eccentric or embittered. I am 17 years old and I prefer to have a rather more reverent liturgy when I go to Mass, but I am also aware that this is purely a matter of taste. I just resent this assumption that if a young person prefers the organ to the guitar then they must be abnormal in some way. As to your comment that there are too many such people in the Church today, I must point out that the Church is Catholic and is therefore open to all, regardless of their race, age, gender or... dare I say it.... taste in music.
I know how you feel about the guitars. Not all the young families like them either - my own children - the ones who go to Mass - loathe them. One is a young married hoping for children, one is single with little hope of children [an illness will prevent this] and one a young married with three children. It's a pity we can't have some of the old as well as some of the new. Amette
I'd hazard a guess that any Catholic church with a large number of young families in attendance also has a nearby Catholic primary school which is oversubscribed and requires displays of uncharacteristic piety from parents who wish their offspring to be admitted.
Just bear in mind that these young families are ones with whom Auntie J claims to share values- I hope that you're not suggesting that she goes in for "displays of uncharacteristic piety" for personal gain? A little less cynicism, please.
In Our first service in church there are mostly "older" people in attendance so the old hymns are played with traditional organ music. The second service-younger families and college age young adults attend so we are blasted out with a "praise and worship band" which is nothing short of a garage style rock band. Just because I like to take my time a little and not rush about on the weekend I have to endure this! I am not the only one who feels this way. Sometimes churches will make assumptions on what style you like when that is not the way it is at all, and folks just do not want to complain, so they endure.
Cynicism? No, realism. Cosy little Catholic World is often not what it may seem.
Most of the young families that go to Mass regularly have probably been used to guitar accompaniments and modern church music all their lives and know nothing different. Both have been used generally for nearly forty years. The chant and Latin would be as strange, even alienating, to them as the new music was to the generation that remembers when it was the norm. Of course there are exceptions, and if they live in London they usually travel to churches which have traditional worship. But few are in a position to do so without huge disruption to the day.
If you are single or have no children it is easier to be mobile and worship as you like, especially if you live in London or large cities where there are more options. The majority have no choice and few seem to mind that much. The Catholic Church is big enough to provide many alternatives. Remember that the Holy Father's latest exhortation is only a few weeks old and will take time to have an effect. In the meanwhile, thank God that these young families are present at Mass at all and introducing their children to worship. Only God knows how His grace is received in their souls and comforming their lives to His will. Remember, too, that it was a young father who was playing the guitar and leading the singing.
Whilst I agree wholeheartedly that it is great to see young families getting involved at Mass, I think sometimes people don't realise how off-putting bad church music can be. Like Auntie Joanna, I have occasionally come out of guitar-accompanied Masses reflecting more on how distracting the music was than on the meaning of the Mass, which is rather counter-productive. I'd rather go to an ordinary said Mass than one in which I was going to spend the whole time being annoyed by the music.
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