John's pics.
 

Sayers Common Music Weekend 

The last Friday in October saw singers from all over the Diocese assembling at Sayers Common for the annual music weekend. In total there were 35 residents and 17 day participants. Some of the latter came for the whole weekend whilst other dropped in for a day or part of a session. The weekend was led by John Lillis, with Father Martin Jakabus.
John provided us with an excellent selection of music, some old and some new. The Music sessions were divided between repertoire when we all sung and played together and workshops when the singers and instrumentalists separated to work on their own skills.

Our focus for the lectures was the Prayer of the church.
The first lecture was entitled “A Temple Tradition”. We were reminded that the early Christians engaged in six actions – having all things in common, prayer, teaching, witness, service, and Eucharist.  They would gather each day in Solomon’s porch at the temple to pray and give witness. The prayer of the Church has evolved from the temple prayers, which were based on the psalms and scripture.
As time went on and during the time of Constantine when the church was no longer being persecuted the initial enthusiasm waned and prayer developed in two ways. Some withdrew from the world to become monks in religious communities they prayed without ceasing; prayer became their life’s work. The second strand was parochial or Cathedral prayer where clergy and lay met to pray at certain times of day, and prayer sanctified the work they were doing.

In session two we heard about the “Breviary” this with the Roman Missal was the private prayer book of the Roman Curia. 1568 Pius V had it adapted and published for use by the whole church. Over the centuries in spite of the changing world and the spreads of the faith into the farthest corners of the world this remained unchanged. In 1903 Pius X emphasised the peoples participation, said that the Credo and Pater Noster should be sung by everyone. By the time of Pius XII in 1943 for the first time in 300 years the faithful were encouraged to join in and celebrate vespers on feast days.
Over the centuries the Breviary, the Office as the prayer of the church was called, had become the exclusive prerogative of the clergy and religious. It had reached the point where priests could say their “Breviary” all in one go, there was no order or specified time for their prayers.  Vatican II in 1963 exhorted  the church to:

·        Pray without ceasing

·        To revise the prayers to take account of modern life

·        Sanctify the day

·        And to make the prayer of the church available to both priests and Lay people.

In 1972 further revisions were instituted

·        The prayer of the ‘hours’ were to be prayed at specified times

·        The psalms were distributed over a four week period

·        Morning and evening prayer were tied to the time of day.

·        The office of Readings and midday prayer were included.

The revision also included

Morning prayer is to sanctify the day and evening prayer to give thanks for the day.
It might be queried whether the introduction of one prayer book for Priests and Laity was a workable solution.
Session three was entitled “A diversion”. We watched a video of a parish celebration in a church in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It was a strange parish in that it was not based on a geographical area or specific community. The community came from a number of areas, some as it was said, making a great sacrifice to come – no one lived in the locality. They were a group of people drawn together to form a worshipping community on Sundays. This led to some stimulating discussion on “community” and customs associated with celebrating Mass.

After Evening Prayer everyone relaxed for the annual Concert where once again there was a display of the considerable musical talents of the group.
The Sunday afternoon session was devoted to an exploration of the ways of being Church. In the last 50 years the emphasis has been on the Mass, the introduction of evening Masses has meant that a vast expansion in the number of Masses being said and a decline in Sunday afternoon devotions  (Rosary and Benediction). Now we are in a situation where there is a great decline in the number of ordained priests and we have to rationalise our services.
 Bishop Kieran speaks of “Realistic Christian Communities” –what are they?  They will need to have some catechesis, care and service, justice awareness of big issues, not to be simply a Mass going community. We have to be prepared for Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest. Services of The Word and Communion will have to be far more widely accepted. Various formats for these services were discussed including celebration of Communion with Divine Office. It was pointed out that it was not necessary to be a Eucharistic Minister to lead one of these services.
Sunday Morning was devoted to our final liturgical celebration – Mass. A final Repertoire session in which the final touches were put to the music. Our concluding Mass was very special with everyone playing their part in the community.
The weekend concluded with a Brains trust, which included questions and discussions over a wide range of subjects.
Our thanks go to John Lillis, Martin Jakabus and all those who put so much time and effort into organising this very special weekend.