Morning and Evening Prayer: An interview with Bobby Fisher

This week, I continue in interview mode – and have the pleasure to present the talented guitar player extraordinaire Bobby Fisher. Bobby has appeared on many recordings as accompanist to such luminaries as David Haas, Marty Haugen as well as new comers Lori True and Tony Alonso.

Bobby Fisher has many collections of his own including Season of Peace [G.I.A Publications] and If We Dare To Hope [OCP Publications]. He has written books on liturgical guitar playing and is a seasoned workshop clinician.

Check out more info on Bobby Fisher at OCP [here] and at GIA [here].

Now…here’s Bobby to talk about his experiences on Morning and Evening Prayer.

Lucernarium: Do you, or have you, used music in celebrating Morning and Evening Prayer? What has been your experience of these ‘hinge’ hours of prayer? How has music enhanced these times for you and the gathered assembly?

Bobby Fisher: Yes, we currently celebrate Morning Prayer at my parish every Saturday at 8:00 A.M. I find both Morning and Evening Prayer to be excellent ways to begin a day and to reconnect spiritually in the evening. Music enhances these experiences by drawing one deeper into the prayer through the singing/chanting of the texts. We use simple chant tones at Morning Prayer and more familiar hymns/songs for our Advent and Lent Evening Prayers. Our Saturday Morning Prayer has been fairly well attended.

Lucernarium: What do you see as the challenges facing Morning and Evening Prayer in a parish setting? Are there other settings where it can be celebrated?

Bobby Fisher: The challenges of having Morning and Evening Prayer in a parish setting primarily deal with issues of time and the busyness of people’s lives. Other settings where Liturgy of the Hours can be celebrated would include individual prayer time, small group or community settings. I’ve had some wonderful experiences of this form of prayer at conferences, workshops, retreats with people of a number of ages. When celebrated well, I have found youth and young adults to enjoy this form of prayer.

Lucernarium: Is there a saturation of Eucharistic celebrations throughout the duration of any given week in a parish setting? Is there scope to balance the liturgical diet of the faithful by replacing weekday Masses with Lauds and Vespers? Comment.

Bobby Fisher: Given today’s climate with a growing shortage of priests, celebration of Lauds and Vespers is a most viable alternative. However, there are still a number of people who are used to attending daily Eucharist. At my parish when a priest is not available to celebrate weekday Mass, we have offered Communion Services, led by a deacon or other parish staff person, myself included.

Lucernarium: The developments in scriptural and liturgical music since Vatican II have been quite remarkable. In your opinion, where will we be in 10-15 years time? What developments do you think will occur, given present liturgical understandings and practice?

Bobby Fisher: At present there is a great deal of tension within the Church, liturgically and musically. After the initial renewal and growth brought about by Vatican II we see the institutional church pulling back on the reins in response to what has been perceived as some of the “negatives” brought about by this renewal. It’s hard to predict where we’ll be 10 to 15 years from now, but as a composer and liturgist I tend to mix the old with the new and my hope is that we’ll see a balance which celebrates both our rich heritage of traditional forms of music along with an ever expanding repertoire of new quality music for liturgical celebrations. I also hope to see an increase in tolerance and recognition that what might be deemed “inappropriate” stylistically in one culture might be appropriate and accepted in another culture.

Big thanks to Bobby for taking the time to do the interview. Next week - Tony Alonso!

Morning and Evening Prayer: An interview with Jerry Goebel

Recently, I have approached three well known figures in the liturgical music world and asked them to be part of a blog-interview. They have all been asked the same four questions – but as you will see – their responses are quite different and provide a fascinating insight as to how liturgical music is utilized in their experience of Morning and Evening Prayer.

This week I am presenting US liturgical musician and speaker Jerry Goebel [pictured]. Jerry has 6 music collections to his name and is an enthusiastic writer with 2 books under his belt too. His latest book is The Deepest Longing of Young People: Loved without Conditions and will be released next year through St Mary’s Press.

Jerry does sterling work in prison ministry and has created his own ministry outreach organization called ONEFamily Outreach.

Without further ado – here is Jerry….

Lucernarium: Do you, or have you, used music in celebrating Morning and Evening Prayer? What has been your experience of these ‘hinge’ hours of prayer? How has music enhanced these times for you and the gathered assembly?

Jerry: Most of my work is with the incarcerated nowadays. I do outreach concerts but also I have ongoing ministries with local juvenile detention centers, jails, and prisons. In the jail and prisons I do a great deal of morning and evening prayers with the men. We use the Psalms mostly and the inmates tend to be more attuned to contemporary music as my groups are ecumenical and often new to the Christian faith.

Lucernarium: What do you see as the challenges facing Morning and Evening Prayer in a parish setting? Are there other settings where it can be celebrated?

Jerry: Fortunately, I have a “captive audience.” People want to come early and they want to stay as late as they possibly can. Yet, they don’t have to come back on a regular basis. We started a 24/7 Christian community in a local jail almost a decade ago and it is very much like a monastic approach to life. We can only take 64 guys and we have a waiting list of well over 80 right now. Men want the order in their life. They respond to it and it changes them. Often times—after being there a few days and feeling the emotional and physical safety of their surroundings—they will spontaneously break into sobbing. They truly sound like newborn babies and everything stops while those around them pray and hold them (I have pictures of this on my web site—it is truly the movement of the Holy Spirit).

For people who have known nothing but chaos most of their life; this is a huge change.

With the kids we do something different. We work with them on gratitude lists that they read every morning and every night in their cells. I tell the kids that all dysfunctional behavior (including addictions) begins with a lack of gratitude and the words; “What about me?”

Their morning and evening prayers are to go over their lists and remember what they are grateful for. We also tell them that the world is wide open to the person who can express gratitude to others. They practice this daily and it changes lives incredibly.

That’s our morning and evening prayer.

Lucernarium: Is there a saturation of Eucharistic celebrations throughout the duration of any given week in a parish setting? Is there scope to balance the liturgical diet of the faithful by replacing weekday Masses with Lauds and Vespers? Comment.

Jerry: Not being in the parish setting I am not sure I am much help here. Also, I cannot be particularly denominational in our approach to worship and biblical study. However, we look at what Christ did at the Eucharist and the very essence of the word: Eucharisteo.

That term literally translates into good (meaning whole and holy) gifted or thankfulness. Christ takes the bread, breaks it and says something amazing; “Thank you (Eucahristeo).” “This is my body; it has been broken for you.”

It is stunning that Jesus would thank God for the privilege of being broken for us and… as Paul would say, “While we were yet sinners!”

Our emphasis with the guys is learning to become thankful anywhere and everywhere to God. I always ask them: “Are you a prisoner of the State or a prisoner of the Lord? Paul called himself a prisoner of the Lord and never a prisoner of Rome.”

Can we thank God for being broken for others on his behalf?

Lucernarium: The developments in scriptural and liturgical music since Vatican II have been quite remarkable. In your opinion, where will we be in 10-15 years time? What developments do you think will occur, given present liturgical understandings and practice?

I think the church faces a time of turmoil. Mother Theresa said something like: “The closer we are to the wounded body of Jesus; the closer we are to God.”

I deal largely in ecumenical and even secular circles most of the time; especially in my work with expelled, incarcerated, and recovering kids. The closer I am to them; the more I have to present a simple, relational gospel.

We tell them that the Hebraic tradition and the gospels are both personal AND communal. We want them to be change-agents for Jesus in their neighborhoods, schools, institutions, even their gangs. It is much like Jesus sending the man possessed by a Legion of demons back to his town or the woman at Jacob’s well running out to her city. With no ritual, background, or biblical study; they changed an entire culture. How? All they said was: “You know what I was; now look at who Jesus made me.” No one could argue with that.

We put it like this; “Don’t be Christian; be Christ.”

It seems that the further we get from the wounded body of Jesus; the more religious and ritualistic we become. I pray that we can find a way to reconcile the two into the type of church laid forth in the 10th Chapter of Matthew when Jesus says who will receive the prophet’s reward. 1) The Prophet (the one who pro(forward) claims his community for Christ; 2) The righteous (the one who makes what is wrong—right); 3) those who feed and house the prophetic and the righteous (providing the emotional, spiritual, and financial support for the prophetic and righteous to do their work; and 4) the one who goes way out of their way to go down to the well and get a fresh glass of living water for the least, little (micros in Greek) one.

It takes everyone…

Here ends the first of a three part interview series of blogs focusing on the role of music in Morning and Evening Prayer. Special thanks to Jerry Goebel for sharing his experiences. Next week I will be posting an interview with that wondrous guitar player from Cincinnati – Bobby Fisher!

Towards a Theology of Inspiration: Part 2

The sixth Annual Manning Clark Lecture was delivered by Hugh Mackay at the National Library of Australia, Canberra on Thursday 3 March 2005.

It was a fascinating breakdown of societal developments since World War II and how these various developments have aided and contributed to the current world we find ourselves in.

Towards the end of his speech, Mackay insisted that in the not too distant future [he predicts] – we will see a rise in a number of individuals who will ‘enlarge’ the vision[s] for society – rather than narrow and restrict it with dogmatic rules and regulations. These will be, he suggests, leaders in our society who will inspire us all. And while he does not know from which quarter of the community these individuals will emerge, he is confident of their imminent appearance.

While Mackay’s speech refers to the secular world – I am convinced much of what he advocates is relevant to our Church and precisely the kind of discussion and language necessary for a revitalization of current liturgical practice.

Liturgically speaking, the Church is in need of significant inspiration…and as I mentioned in last week’s article, the idea of participation that is ‘full, active and conscious’ is no longer a good starting point for liturgy in today’s Church.

In the immediate post-conciliar Church, such a point of view as expressed in Sacrosactutm Concilium was appropriate, satisfying a desire and real need to participate fully by the laity.

That has now changed – as has the Church and its demographic.

Members of any congregation [whether they be regular members of the assembly or the ‘Christmas and Easter’ clientele] – now have different needs than to merely ‘participate’. To get to that point – they need encouragement.

They need to be inspired.

And…unfortunately, this is not happening.

Now, I acknowledge that high quality, theologically appropriate and contemporary liturgical music is not the panacea to the Church’s woes. Nor is it an answer to fledgling congregation numbers over the last few decades.

But it would help.

It would help a great deal.

And unfortunately, over the last number of years, there has been a complacency developing where liturgical improvement is seen as less important compared to say… building developments…or economic rationalism [even within the Church!].

Liturgy is in need of major help – and the issues are endemic throughout all stratum of the Church…from the way the hierarchy conducts itself right through to the administration and liturgical implementation at a local parish level.

…and so to the tough questions.

When it comes to us celebrating Liturgy - what causes us to be inspired? And what are the effects of this inspiration on us?

A simple response to the first part of this question is that God is our source of ultimate inspiration – and through Jesus and the movement of the Spirit, we are constantly inspired by a very beautiful and incomprehensible Mystery of Love.

But how is this Mystery of Love made known to us? The celebration of Liturgy is certainly an excellent way to be spiritually nourished and inspired – but within these moments of ritual – who inspires us to be inspired enough to engage in ‘full, active and conscious participation’? Is ‘participation’ our ultimate objective? Or is it something else?

Scriptural evidence abounds that displays the cause and effect of inspiration.

In Exodus 15, we witness the flight of the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and free from the armies of Pharaoh. Immediately following this, Moses and the Israelites sing a song of praise to God. A similar act of praise quickly follows in the form of Miriam’s Song.

What is happening here?

Moses and the Israelites have experienced the saving power of God. Through this salvivic act – they are in awe of God. They are awe-inspired. [!] And through this inspiration, they raise their voices in song and then participate fully, actively and consciously as one unified assembly to God. Their inspired song has become a source of our inspiration too.

Essentially, the very act of inspiration is catching and infectious. It [inspiration] compels us into actions and gestures that recapitulate our way of being and give us a renewed sense of meaning [as seen in Ex 15]. This gives us wonderful purpose to want to celebrate and participate in that celebration. And then, having participated, we are then further inspired to go forth and live out this inspiration in the world we live. In short, [and to connect back to Mackay], we become the inspirers.

We might view this ‘Cycle of Inspiration’ like this:

GOD=inspiration=participation=inspiration=GOD

The song of Miriam [Ex 15] also displays the way in which those inspired can have an effect on others to stimulate inspiration and consequently active participation.

We watch Miriam as an inspired person taking on a leadership role and [in an act that resembles Psalm 150] playing tambourine. This encourages the other women to take up tambourines too and dance and sing to the Lord a triumphant song of praise.

And this very act of Miriam singing, dancing and playing an instrument as seen in the scriptures has continued to inspire people throughout time. People have been inspired to mimic her actions and those as described in Psalm 150 to inspire them in their prayer life.

I recently wrote a piece looking at this highly interactive way of praying the psalms. It is an inspirational way of living out the scriptures in a jubilant way. It inspires us to want to participate.

In this Advent season, it is appropriate to look at the Magnificat as an inspirational piece of evidence in our discussion.

Mary was inspired by God. Her amazement of God at her own pregnancy, as told to her by the angel Gabriel is evident in the scriptures. Further, her cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy also astounds her with Gabriel saying to her:

‘For nothing will be impossible with God’

Here stands a most inspired woman. A woman very much in tune with her God and inspired enough to proclaim her inspiration in a most beautiful and dramatic way as seen in the Magnificat [Luke 1: 46-55].

Like Miriam and Moses, we see the figure of Mary as a figure of inspiration to all of us. Her song has become our song. It inspires us to participate. My experience of Evening Prayer earlier this year, has given me a renewed appreciation for Mary through singing the Magnificat every week. Her yes to God was total – and is a wonderful model for all of us seeking God’s will.

Mary’s song inspired me to sing – and then the gathered assembly were inspired by my leadership to sing and participate. This experience of Evening Prayer has lingered with many of us at my parish and has propelled us forward into a prayer filled life.

Having said this, can we say that our celebration of Liturgy is as inspiring as it could be?

As a teacher, I often have discussions with my students who are very quick to tell me of their frustrations with current liturgical practice.

There major reason for not going to Mass is that it is devoid of inspiration. To them, Mass is ‘boring’. They site extremely uninspiring music as a major source of their dissatisfaction. Coupled with this is an inability for the vast majority of priests to engage meaningfully with their world view to make relevant connections.

My students will ask me questions such as ‘How are we meant to be inspired to go to Mass – if the Mass and the music and the priest are not inspiring us’?

These are valid questions…and the questions are real. They reflect truths that lie behind the questions that, to my understanding and knowledge are not being serious addressed by the Church.

I have lost count of the amount of Diocesan-level conferences and meetings I have been to where the catch cry is hailed; ‘We must read the signs of the times!’

From my point of view, [and most certainly from the point of view of my students] – the Church are simply not reading the ‘signs of the times’. One could argue, the Church have become illiterate on this front. And there is proof of such an assertion.

In a recent article from http://www.chiesa/ , Mosignor Grau, president of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music has gone on record to say:

‘I would go so far as to say that without Gregorian chant, the Church is mutilated, and that there cannot be Church music without Gregorian chant.’

There are other statements made in the article that are reason for concern. A Church that prides itself on reading the ‘signs of the times’, are not doing themselves any favours when such divisive and exclusive words as these are spoken and posted around the world via the internet.

An insistence on Gregorian Chant by individuals such as Grau is exactly the kind of music and liturgical diet that so many young people [and students I teach] find repellant. They struggle so much with current practices which they see as restrictive, old fashioned and irrelevant. The insistence on Gregorian Chant is like adding insult to injury. They are crying out to be inspired!

They will be the first to tell you they do want to sing and be involved in liturgical music – but in a genre that speaks to them and inspires them to want to participate.

And so…they don’t participate.

A Perth Marist Brother who lectures at Edith Cowan University last month delivered a report that claimed almost all students who graduate from Catholic education regard the Church as irrelevant. Regarding Sunday Mass obligation, the majority of students (62.4%) did not agree that missing Mass on Sunday was sinful, nor did they agree with the Church's teaching on Sunday Mass. [Br Luke Saker: The Record]

This is precisely the reason why the Vatican II clarion call of ‘full, active and conscious’ participation is not an appropriate starting point for liturgists, musicians and catechists. The Church is saying one thing. Young people [and also other people who aren’t necessarily young] are saying another thing. There is a lack of connection.

Inspiration could be the key to the connection being made.

We need to invest heavily in devising ways of inspiring people into wanting to participate in our liturgical life. I feel an important way of going about this is through the inspiring power of music.

The role of the music minister is vital to this revival of inspiration. With dwindling numbers of priests and also a rapidly aging and ailing priesthood – who will be able to inspire? In my diocese, the average age of priests is 65. Where will our priests be in 5, 10, 15 years time? As figures in the community who have traditionally been seen as agents of inspiration and spiritual leadership…who will replace them when they are infirmed…or dead?

If the Church continues to hold the stance of not changing the conditions of ordination, then it will become the responsibility of the people like the music minister to take up the role of leadership and inspire people to want to participate.

But, we need not wait until that point.

We can start inspiring people – now.

Towards a Theology of Inspiration: Part 1

Earlier this year, I was responsible for coordinating the Liturgy of a major celebration marking a 100 years of Loreto education here in my home town of Adelaide. Nearly 3000 people attended and celebrated Eucharist together.

I am happy to say all went well – and afterwards – in the Vesting Room – I had a couple of minutes with the Archbishop and Vicar General. The tone of the conversation was congratulatory and relaxed. I mentioned to the Archbishop my studies in Liturgy and he casually suggested that I perhaps look at a theology of participation.

It’s not every day you have a conversation with your local Archbishop – so I have not forgotten our conversation – nor his suggestion.

Of course - the suggestion of a theology of participation is not really surprising coming from a Catholic Archbishop [or any Catholic for that matter with a passing interest in Catholic Liturgy].

The Second Vatican Council spoke very explicitly in Sacrosanctum Concillium 14 for ‘full, active and conscious participation’ of the gathered faithful in the Liturgy.

This has been a catch cry of many liturgists and musicians in the post-conciliar period of renewal – in their attempt to galvanise the assembly so that sung prayer [and Liturgy in its completeness] may be fully experienced and participated in by all.

I have, for some time now, agreed with this idea of ‘full, active and conscious participation’ as a goal [but also a starting point] to aspire to when charged with the responsibility of ministerial leadership of sung prayer. I have presented numerous workshops and seminars where - from the outset – I have said that it is our aim as Catholics [in concordance with the ideas presented in Sacrosanctum Concilium] to participate fully. Holding this up as the ideal and ultimate liturgical aim – we are somehow encouraged to work towards this with conviction and gusto.

For me, things have changed.

What does participation actually mean or imply? ‘Full, active and conscious participation’ seems to imply that everybody can participate…that everyone wants to participate…and that everyone should participate. Does this actually happen? Is it the reality? I will return to these important questions in greater detail in Part 2 of this blog-article.

We need to put such language as ‘full, active and conscious participation’ into a historical perspective and understand what its authors were trying to convey in 1963 when it was written.

The desire for such enthusiastic participation – was [and perhaps still is] a response to the changes in the use of the vernacular for the celebration of the Liturgy. Up to that point in time - all members of the faithful had experienced Liturgy in Latin - and one would question to what extent participation was ‘full, active and conscious’.

Liturgist Gabe Huck argues that there was a distinct lack of participation by the assembly in the pre-Vatican II Church. In an article from the National Catholic Reporter dated January 16 2004, he puts forward the argument that there was ‘the quiet anonymity of the old rite’ where one was ‘left alone to pursue your own prayerful thoughts’.

Hardly a picture of what we might consider ‘full, active and conscious participation’. [!]

Similarly, Bill Huebsch from his 1997 book ‘Vatican II in Plain English’ says this about participation [or lack of] in the pre-Vatican II Church:

‘The Latin made the Mass seem to belong to someone else. It was the bishop’s or, more likely the Pope’s Mass and we were guests there, watching them do it. We “attended” Mass, more than we “celebrated” it then.’

And then later, he continues:

‘There were no missalettes then. No song books. Nothing in the pews to help us understand.’

All of this paints a fairly grim picture of the participation factor in the Tridentine Rite – and perhaps explains why such a big deal was made of the clarion call of ‘full, active and conscious participation’ by the Council Fathers which coincided with the massive changes that came out of the Second Vatican Council.

It was a concerted effort to reverse past liturgical practice – and – this catch-cry, which was part of a larger, theologically stellar document, acted as a force of propulsion into a new age…an age of participation.

Things have changed.

I am no longer convinced that a theology of participation is a viable starting point for our discussions where liturgical music is concerned. While participation may be our ultimate goal – something needs to take place before this happens.

And it is this particular starting point [before we even begin to talk about participation] that I think is missing in a major way.

To say to people ‘Ok everyone – our aim is to participate fully in the liturgy’ is not enough. People will need to want to participate. They need to be inspired to do so. Then – sure! – they will participate…but not before. Participation is not spontaneous! It doesn’t just happen! It needs a significant trigger!

What I believe is absent in all of this discussion is the development of a theology not of participation – but of inspiration.

One only needs to look at numbers of Church participants [!] on any given Sunday as a guide for levels of inspiration in our Churches. Parishioners are voting with their feet! And have been for some time – and will continue to do so!

So the need for action is crucial.

Here ends Part 1 of ‘Towards a Theology of Inspiration’. Part 2 will be posted next week.