Church Speak

In the monastery when we pray the psalms in chant, we are not seeking information, or moral instruction or even a good feeling, though any one of these may happen at any one prayer. The wording of the prayers are not in the ordinary syntax or cadence of our rather blunt direct way of talking. That way of talking gives information or conveys a mood. Psalm chant is to transform me. Our communal way of praying is to open me to God's transforming grace that will bring forth my potential to be another Christ.

At it's best, this is what the new prayers and actions of the revised Roman Missal are trying to do. The prayers are at times more poetic, less direct, and more of them are chanted. "But chant is not natural to our way of praying," we say in rebuttal. Precisely. The mass is group/communal prayer that is supposed to be different from the way we pray privately. Communal prayer in the mass is part of this attempt to be more open to being transformed by grace. You do things that you don't normally do. You chant.

I go to the monastery to pray in a very different fashion than when alone or at a parish mass. At first it is a stretch, but day by day I grow into it. The words are not all that logical in their patterns. Some seem archaic, and they are. They are from Latin prayers. I am praying to God in a certain pattern that is supposed to open me to being moved by how they are chanted and in what tone. God already knows what I need. Our monastery prayer is not "chat time" with God. I can do that alone.

All the monks buy in to this prayer. Everyone chants together. This is what makes the process work. If one monk leads the prayer but everyone else stands there mute and disliking the process, it won' t work. There are a bunch of conspiracy theories about why the Church changed the mass. Who knows? I simply give the reason why I buy in.