Noisy Parishes

At our parish, the noise level depends on which Mass you go to. Since I’m a cantor, I’ve gotten to all of them at one time or another. Saturday evening Mass is noisy beforehand as is 11:30 am on Sunday, 7:30 am on Sunday you can hear a pin drop, 9:30 am is a little louder. But the noisiest ones are the weekday Masses! The ones I most want to have quiet devotion before, because I’m coming to them with no children to accompany me and no job to do.

I am an inveterate “church shopper”, getting regularly to a fair number of parishes. I have not noticed high levels of “noise”, but have observed and suffered through many conversations quite near to me that have prevented my concentration.

But the biggest intrusions come from those musical groups who insist upon using the time before Mass as their rehearsal time. No matter how wonderful the music and it often is, it prevents those of us who arrive early for prayer from doing that.

Francis Cardinal Arinze wrote a letter to an UK group in London last Winter chastising musical groups who follow such practices.

Little kids–gotta love em.

But not when they kick their hard shoes on the pews!

And not when their parents bounce them up and down to stop them crying! (For some reason there were a lot of bouncers today.) AaaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA

Other than that, I just love to see them, even if they’re a little noisy. And when you get a bunch of them together, like at a school Mass, they make this kind of constant undulating motion. Gotta love em!

LOL yeah Kathy, a lot of bouncers this morning in my church as well, and the babies had their rattlers out making it more noisy.

OK, I’ll shut up now about the whole thing.

🙂

There’s a pattern that is emerging and it seems to be getting worse. People’s lives are becoming more hectic and noisy and time is rushing by faster than ever before. But many churches are not offering much quiet sanctuary from the onslaught of the modern rat race that people have to face during the week. Instead, masses are becoming nothing more than just another chatty social event to attend each Sunday. The noisy world outside is increasingly encroaching and our parish churches are caving in, along with the seemingly nonchalant attitudes of the priests overseeing them. Many of them don’t seem to see anything wrong with this worsening fact, even while they are presiding over mass. I think many priests prefer it this way; either they’ve lost or they never held the belief that the service should be a quiet and reverential time, focused solely on worshipping the Lord and not on each other. This is just another adverse example of the state of the 21st century Church.

While I loathe disrespectful adults, I have no problem with the noise of children. In my experience, the more faithful the congregation, the more children there are, and there is bound to be some “background noise”. I do not believe children should be taken out of Mass unless they are misbehaving or hysterical, and that people need to be more tolerant of baby noises and preschool whispers.

The best Mass I have attended at our parish was when the minstrals failed to show up. It was quiet, contemplative, and utterly beautiful. I believe this is because the Mass was simple and my mind was allowed to commune in earnest.

This is coming from a ten year professional musician: excellent minstrals know when enough is enough. And I want to be charitable here… but they also know when their instruments are in tune and how to play appropriately and when to be quiet.

So, while the hearts of the wonderful folks who volunteer to play are in the right place, listening to amateurs can be very, very painful and distracting.

I know I sound mean-spirited, and I really don’t mean to be. But my philosophy on music is this: it should lend itself to the moment and never, ever, detract from it.

Chatter in church before, after (I used to love to play the brief postlude as loudly as possible to help cull out the talkers), and of course especially during Holy Mass is one of my pet peeves. Here it used to be a sign of overcrowding or lack of faith formation in immigrant parishes, but now it seems that people in wealthy parishes are just there to hang out. At the 4:00 (!!) Sunday vigil Mass at my territorial parish, old ladies come one hour early just to socialize in a loud voice. This is during confessions in a building with exemplary acoustics.

I remember that one of my Disciples of Christ co-workers around 1992 remarked that she really respected the silence of Catholic churches and that she wished that her church were the same.

In a Roman basilica in 1983, the priest came out before Mass to tell people that they were in the house of God and their chatter was inappropriate. I certainly wish more priests would take the time to do that.

But the best line that I have ever heard of was passed on to me by the son of an Episcopalian who uttered it in the 1970’s or 80’s; I only wish that I had the courage to use it myself. He turned to some chatterers and said, “Would you please pray more quietly?”

Kevin, I really hope you’re not referring to the ringing of bells during the Consecration. That’s traditional and I thank God that it’s still done in our vicariate. My mother taught us small, squirmy children that we must kneel straight and be perfectly attentive during that time because the bells “let us know Jesus is here.”

As for me, I can handle all the squirmy kids and bawling babies (and even that redheaded boy who likes to hum songs looooong after we’re done singing). Just don’t subject me to adults acting like kids in a movie theatre.

I know that some bishops, such as the late Ken Untener of Saginaw, ENCOURAGED priest to let people to chat before Mass. I remember when I showed up at my hometown parish and couldn’t believe the racket! My parents had to explain (ironically after Mass) that the bishop thought it would build community. All it did was drag gossiping and flippant remarks into church.

At my parish, people usually hush because before Mass is when a Knight leads the rosary. Occasionally we get visitors who are from parishes where that directive went out. I had the misfortune last year of sitting a few pews in front of a pair of 50-year-old women who were AWFUL. (They used a few phrases I never want to hear in a church, and the MILDEST was “gold-digging whore”.) I actually turned around one Sunday and asked the “ladies” behind me, “Are you actually gossipping in church?” One said, “Yes. Why? Do you know anything juicy?”

I spent the rest of the Mass asking God to forgive me for wanting to cause them bodily harm.

More than once I’ve shamelessly “shushed” adults who were chattering in church during the mass. During Holy Thursday, I’ve shamelessly shushed a teenager and his siblings who were chatting and laughing in the presence of their approving mother.

I was an usher–that’s another story–and the previous Mass had been out some 30 minutes, but several groups of adults continued to chatter loudly as the next Mass, in Spanish, was beginning. It was a nice day outside, so I asked if they could continue there. One of the loudest answered, “No, it’s just the Mexican Mass.”
How can children learn rudimentary reverence if their parents carry on conversations with friends throughout the liturgy and permit the little ones to talk as they please and as loudly, play with toys in the aisles, and the teenagers to play with their Nintendos, etc.
More than once I have gone home after Mass with a roaring headache, and little recall of the Mass or homily.
Now we have a new pastor. He bounds out of the sacristy before Mass in casual layman’s clothing, chatting with people all around the church, leading cheers, and generally showing little respect for the Body of Christ reserved in the tabernacle, not to mention to those members of the congregation who just might be trying to pray.

Noise is quite minimal at Tridentine Masses.