It probably wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if I were to tell you that I didn’t learn to pray the rosary at church, it was my mother who taught it to me. She was quite devoted to the rosary and prayed it daily. In one of those moments of clarity she spoke to her friends in our home parish and she started up a “Rosary Circle” which would meet in someone’s house every Monday night where we would pray the rosary and then have tea and as much cake as you could eat. It wasn’t an “official” “ministry” and no-one assumed the style and title of co-ordinator, minister, or director. It was a group of families who would simply meet and pray.
That group was small, it lasted a good few years until my mother’s health failed, and it probably never made much of a direct impact at parish level, but in the souls of those who met and prayed I think it will have left some impression or other.
The Holy Father speaks of the need for popular piety and prayer amongst the faithful. There are probably little prayer groups that meet in parishes all over the world. Some of them may meet in your homes, you may meet in the homes of your friends. The thought then occurred to me: if we want to reclaim our Catholic heritage, if we want to re-introduce the singing of psalsm and chant and our parish “directors” of this and that are wedded to their own ideas and agendas that do not include the form of piety that matters to us, then one way to circumvent this is with small prayer groups. Let’s call it the Tea Party of Chant.
Now if we were to try and set up a Monday evening schola we probably wouldn’t get very far, but two forms of common prayer amongst the faithful are ther rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Why not , if you are able to do so, introduce some simple plainsong Marian hymns each week in your prayer groups? Embed the notion of singing the Ave Maris Stella, or the Salve Regina, and the idea will likely take hold.
If any of you have access to EWTN at home and have heard the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song then there is a version, in English, that is chanted quite wonderfully. It’s even on their website for download in audio format. Why not start a weekly chaplet? Then chant it. My PP is open to the idea, yours may be also.
On this feast of the baptism of the Lord I pray for those of you, who like me, are parents trying to pass on to their children the wonderous traditions of our church.
The EWTN recording of the Chaplet can be downloaded here:
What a wonderful idea – many thanks to Keith for this delightful article!
Hello. This is my first post (and btw, I love this site!). Though not Roman-catholic, I am Anglo-catholic and have been doing this very thing you mention for a number of years. We chant a 1 1/4 hour version of the Anglican morning prayer every Sunday before Mass, after sharing breakfast together. All of the people involved are under 30 years old and come without any liturgical background. We started 100% spoken as people were first getting used to liturgical prayer. Gradually I began adding more and more sung portions. We chant the psalms and canticles using Anglican Chant (some of the chants based on gregorian psalm tones). We then started using plainsong versions of the apostles creed and our father as well as chanted litanies and responsories. I also chant the collects and the gospel reading. In the Anglican tradition we use the Gloria as a canticle and in our litany we use the Kyrie and Agnus Dei, so I am currently teaching them the plainsong settings from one of the gregorian ordinary sets. Next I will introduce the office hymns using the plainsong melodies.
It has been thoroughly enjoyable and extremely edifying. There has been a strong learning curve for everyone involved but surely worth it. I think it goes to show that despite what he naysayers say, there actually are young people interested and engaged in traditional forms of spirituality. We don't just like guitars, we love to chant!
I have been chanting the rosary for some time now. This was because I wanted to learn the rosary prayers and the only way I was able to do this was to sing them. I find them easier to remember that way. I am not sure how to chant the apostles creed since it is different than the nicene… cant find any online either, so I wind up just improvising.
i am part of a movement that is promotes chant through prayer meetings. It has been most effective. The call of Pope BXVI for the para-liturgical has borne much fruit that will last from age to age.
Chant the rosary! Chant the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Chant other prayers. Chant the Litanies!! ….and let it all resound.
As Richard suggests, small prayer groups can also benefit from chanting parts of the liturgy. I think that Compline is particularly good; it is briefer than Vespers or Lauds, and much briefer than Matins. It can be chanted to the same text every day of the week (that is even the historical way; differing texts for each day of the week at Compline was an innovation under Pius X), It can be chanted in Latin, but there are also several English versions. I have made one myself, which we use at the Colloquium. If anyone wants a pdf of its text and music in square notation, they can send me their e-mail address, and I will send it to them; send it to mahrt@stanford.edu). I prefer to use the old form of Compline, since it includes a few more items that have been the hallmark of Compline.
A small group from my choir sing parts of the office together on Sundays; we began with Vespers (also in the old rite, from the Liber Usualis); at first I wondered whether singers would want to come Sunday after Sunday, since the text is constant for the ordinary Sundays except for the antiphon to the Magnificat. But this was a benefit–they seemed to take to the repetition of the same text and music; it was the occasion for getting into the office more deeply, and not having to worry about how to perform it, but rather making it be the vehicle for prayer. When we first started, one of the members volunteered "I will cook dinner for anyone who comes to sing." That was 1974, and she is still cooking dinner! After dinner, we sing Compline at her house. Later we added Lauds Sunday morning before the rehearsal for Sunday Mass. We sing Lauds at 9:45 at my house, have some coffee and pastry, and go to the rehearsal at 11:00 for the 12:00 Mass. It makes for a wonderful Sunday.
Each group will surely find what suits the group best. Another event that I have participated in was a Sabbath meal, adopting the Jewish meal on Friday evening in anticipation of the Holy Day. It includes songs and blessings to be done in the course of the meal, and the point is to celebrate a fellowship that focuses upon the sacredness of the day which is to follow. I would consider doing this sometime, but on Saturday evening instead, anticipating the Sunday. We have on rare occasions sung Matins of the Sunday, following long-standing custon of anticipating it on Saturday evening.
I see a continuum from the simplest chanting such as the Divine Mercy Chaplet to the celebration of whole hours of the Divine Office. For the chanting of the rosary, I would suggest the possibility of adding Gregorian antiphons as meditations on the mysteries, sung before each Our Father. There are very appropriate antiphons for each mystery. (I have put together a set of 15 antiphons to be sung for the traditional set of mysteries; I could send a pdf of these: send your e-mail to mahrt@stanford.edu.) Quite appropriate antiphons could be assembled for the luminous mysteries as well.