Gearing up for the Big Event

We now have less than two weeks to go until we have the scholas from 3 Fort Collins parishes join together to sing a single Mass on November 15th.  Actually, I found out that we can claim four parishes, because a gentleman has joined us from Greeley who is the “one person schola” for his parish.

It’s a bit of test for our faith.

First, we only have ONE chance (next Sunday) to practice together as a single group, and no doubt a lot of decisions are going to be made that afternoon.  The Ordinaries are different (Mass XI) than what my group is used to, so they’re having to learn this in a short period of time.  The group has also found out how much I re-draw each of the songs, because now we’re singing some straight out of Parish Book of Chant and other sources.  It’s not like I do a lot, but even subtle things by putting the end of each line at a breath mark – that’s throwing people off.

But we have to learn sometime, this is as good an opportunity as any.

It doesn’t help that my group is also singing a Mass next Sunday, so we had to spend most of the practice time yesterday on THAT music (which is sounding great!) rather than the music for the 15th.

I’ve learned to trust in the Holy Spirit, and to remind myself:  We don’t have to be perfect.  Our job is to remind the congregation that GOD is perfect.

And it helps to have a sense of humor, not to take it all so seriously.  We’ll do fine.