Ezigbo choir na -emebi m isi. I sing the mass entirely from A-Z whenever there’s a good choir. If I fail to praise the choir that took me to heaven, I will not eat the next meal.

Spiritually, I am elevated to the sacred any time I am with a good choir at mass. My second nature is music; don’t surprised because you will realize that pro bono publico in the future.

To some of you whose parish priests’ stop at the middle of the song during mass, so sorry🙏. However, there’s a tradition that you try to communicate with the priest that suppose to celebrate the mass on time, incase there are more inevitable activities which may affect the duration of the mass. This is because, charity demands that the mass should dismiss within a reasonable time to allow our beloved Catholics to be together with their families as on Sundays because Sunday is an opportuned day of family reunions after the weekly run-arounds.

Also, the Choristers should mind the kind of song they render during the liturgy because some of the songs these days are out of hand as if we are in a social club but this is liturgy which primarily means service to God. Failure to consider the appropriate songs may effect the intervention of the celebrant.

Also, it’s highly recommended that the songs reflect the theme of that particular Sunday which is evident in the collect, readings, gospel acclamation, etc.

The liturgy shouldn’t be a show such that the choir must accompany the people of God in the worship because God is present in the worshipping assembly itself and so , don’t overshadow the liturgy as if we are in a concert. The parish could organize a music concert in that regard but not within the mass.

There are many other good reasons for stopping a choir within the rendition, during the Holy Mass. However, the priests know that the liturgical function of the choir according to Musicam sacram is two-pronged and interrelated: to ensure the proper performance of the parts which belong to it, according to the different kinds of music sung, and to encourage the active participation of the faithful in the singing (art. 19). So, if and if the choir has to stop, it is within charity and love to signal the choir liturgically and this has more beauty even and commands respect for the liturgy.

Nevertheless, the above is not a defense but a contribution to the discussion on the importance of the choir in the Catholic Liturgy.

Dear people of God, Priests, Choristers and the Laity, this is our thing; we all are in this together because the liturgy is owned by us all irrespective of the position of the Chief Celebrant as the president of the liturgy within a particular mass.

To all the Choristers who feel bad that they are not allowed to render the songs they have practiced with sweat and sacrifice, I hope that you will in Christian Charity discuss this with your parish priests. If not, I therefore suggest that it will be good to do so, because you are all one family within a parish.

If you find it difficult to do so, come to my DM, let’s discuss as One family of the Holy , Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I love you all most beloved Catholic choirs all around the world. I can’t celebrate especially the Sunday Holy Mass without the choir because it doesn’t effect a living liturgy.

One Love!!!
One Family!!!
One Universal Church!!

Fr. Henrycharles Umelechi

Truth Series.