I’ve read many blog pieces from music ministers who all say the same thing when it comes to music ministry week to week: that it only gets harder and harder. In a Protestant service, as a musician you have to keep upping your ante. You have to get everybody fired up! And learn new and better songs to keep up with that pace. It’s exhausting work, both to mention the time away you need to give yourself to refresh so you don’t get burned out from the demands of ministry.
on the contrary as a Catholic liturgical musician, I don’t have to get people fired up in the same way to receive that Sunday’s message because ultimately the Mass’s central take away is not reliant on me but in Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Can I use music to draw people in? Of course! Can I use music to make their experience at Mass even more powerful? Yes, indeed!
But the difference is at Mass unlike a Protestant service, it’s just God and my soul. A Protestant service requires my emotions; I must be emotionally wrapped up in it. A Catholic Mass doesn’t require that of me, but rather an attitude of prayer. In other words, if I’m having a bad day or even a good day, I don’t have to pretend anything, I don’t have to put on praise or worship, I just have to be present.
the Mass remains the most consistent form of prayer we have access to, praise be to God.