It was hard to sleep last night thinking about the papal Mass yesterday, how upsetting it was, how much reaction it received from sacred music people, my own response to it, and what I'm trying to do to help the cause of restoring the sacred to the liturgy.  What made me so sleepless was in part feeling guilty that I may have been too strong in what I said in my blog entries.  I was kind of caught up in emotions, but there is no denying that it was embarassing to me personally as a musician of Catholic sacred music in this country.  However, I have to admit that only recently have I learned enough to know better.  There was a time when I would have gotten behind at least the gospel music that was used at the Mass.  I would have seen nothing wrong with the mariachi music.  I would have bought into the notion that multicultural is good... and believed that those who said so really had multiculturalism at heart and not a bottom line for their music publishing company (see an enlightening piece written by Jeffrey Tucker on the NLM blog). 

In a way, I feel for the singers and musicians involved with the music for the Mass, because many of them are soon going to experience a new awakening to what sacred music is, and they will look back at this with chagrin.  Even now, the Holy Spirit is blowing through America restoring the sacred by bringing about an interest in Gregorian Chant and polyphony, as evidenced by the great attendance for the CMAA's colloquium and the multiple chant workshops taking place in parishes.  Personally, I see it in the good things happening in our parish music program, and in events like yesterday's Mass with the high school students who wanted to assist at a Mass in Latin.   Seminarians are being trained in singing the Mass, and priests are going to workshops for training in singing the Mass in English and Latin that they did not receive in seminary.  As a product of this new awakening, I know what it is to look back on your past misconceptions and the music you played and sang at Mass because of those misconceptions.  Mea culpa. 

So all negativism aside, maybe this is just the opportunity I needed to motivate and cajole my husband to dig through our post-remodel clutter in the basement to find the DVDs we made of the Colloquium '07 videos I shot lost summer.  We are in the process of uploading them to YouTube, to my channel at http://www.youtube.com/catholicsacredmusic.  So if you are looking for a breath of liturgical fresh air and a truly profound musical experience, check out these videos.  You will see what is possible.  It's amazing, and what a blessing to have been a part of the experience.  Tell all your friends, show your pastor and music director, send these around, let's get the word out: sacred music is possible, and it's worth the effort! 

God bless you.