Gregorian chant ‘lifts the heart andsoul to God’

The sacred sounds of Gregorian chant, a centuries-old tradition of the Church,are creating new excitement at one Edmonton church.

The distinctive monophonic chant may have the traditional “pride of place” inCatholic liturgy, but it has been relatively rare at masses in Edmonton, heardonly at one Sunday morning Mass at St. Joseph’s Basilica and at the city’s onlyTraditional Latin Mass.

Now St. Andrew’s Church in northwest Edmonton is offering a Gregorian chantMass once a month, and parishioners are loving it.

Karen de WeeKyle Greenham, Grandin Media

“The support from the congregation has been overwhelming,” said Karen de Wee,St. Andrew’s music director.

“I’ve had people hug us after Mass. One lady was crying and hugging me sayingshe had never experienced something this beautiful. Others thanking us forbringing this music back, and how good it is to have access to this beautifulmusic. People have been phoning the parish office, demanding to know when thisMass is happening.

“It’s reaching people on a very spiritual level.”

Dating back to the 9th century, Gregorian chant is produced by a choir of voicesin a unified melody and key, singing prayers and texts taken directly out ofthe Scriptures. Although it is not mandatory to use, the Catholic Church listsGregorian chant as the music most suitable for worship.

Roderick Bryce

For Roderick Bryce, music director at St. Joseph’s Basilica, chant lifts theheart and soul to God in a way that is unmatched by any modern instruments andmelodies.

“Chant itself is a sort of musical incense, it spirals up to heaven in the wayincense does in the liturgy,” said Bryce, who was immersed in the world ofGregorian chant as a child, singing in his home parish in Edinburgh. “Even ifyou don’t understand the Latin … it can lift you and transport you to heavenlyplaces.”

When hymns at church sound like something you might hear on the car radio orlisten to in ordinary life, he said, “there’s no separation between holinessand the secular. Chant has that unique sound that you associate immediatelywith Church.”

St. Andrew’s Gregorian Chant Mass is celebrated every third Sunday of themonth. Since it started in September 2018, word has spread and attendance hasgrown to about 300, including people from across the Edmonton area who comespecifically to experience the celebration.

When de Wee started as music director at St. Andrew’s over a year ago, she wasgiven a list of proposals from the pastor, Rev. Andrew Bogdanowicz. One stoodout to her — a Mass with Gregorian chant held every month.

“I’d taken lessons on reading Gregorian chant as part of my music degree, but Ididn’t know how to put together a Mass with it,” she said. “I really liked theidea of taking on this challenge – extending my music knowledge and my faithfurther.”

She started her research in the north Edmonton parish of St. Edmund, where theVital Grandin Chaplaincy Latin Mass Community gathers for worship. She soonbegan singing at the Latin Mass and even directed the choir last summer toprepare for her work at St. Andrew’s. Her interest in Gregorian chant grew froman assignment into a deep spiritual passion.

“It feels like a pilgrimage; the music has really caught my heart,” deWee said.

“I’ve grown as a musician, as a director and as a Catholic through thisexperience. I went into this to create this choir and I came out with a deeperunderstanding of my faith, as well as a deeper understanding of the history ofthe Catholic faith.

“There’s a beauty unique to this music that I hadn’t experienced ever before.It brings the emotions of our faith out more clearly, without anything extrabeing added to it.”

Matt Long

She put together a 12-person choir, drawing members from within and outside theparish. Matthew Long had heard about it through a friend and decided to checkout the choir in early January. Up until then, his singing experience began andended with karaoke nights at Rosie’s Bar & Grill.

Now the Gregorian chant has brought his faith and admiration of the Church to awhole new level.

“It just presses upon the historicity and universality of the Church — justhow long these traditions have been going on faithfully and joyfully,” he said.“We’ve been worshiping the Lord in this consistent way for centuries. It’sreally awe-inspiring to the faithfulness of the Church and how beautiful itis.”

Kevin NaporaKyle Greenham, Grandin Media

Kevin Napora, who has been singing in the Latin Mass for 11 years, decided tolend his voice to St. Andrew’s as well. His love for Gregorian chant has onlygrown stronger over the years — even when he’s on the road, he’ll often rockout to 9th-century jams on his car stereo.

“It can be very uplifting,” he said. “Especially when you’re in a Church,there’s some beautiful reverberations. It’s powerful because your voice isresonating these prayers and bouncing them throughout the Church.”

Despite Long’s lack of musical experience, learning chant came surprisinglyeasy. The choir members receive their music a week in advance of rehearsal sothey can familiarize themselves with the melodies and particularly with theLatin words.

At 35, he is part of a growing demographic of millennial Catholics who aredrawn to the more ancient and reverent customs of Catholicism.

It’s something Bryce has noticed in his ministry at the Basilica. The youngerparishioners are often the ones most interested in Gregorian chant, and hebelieves this revived interest can lay the foundation for bringing it to otherparishes in the Archdiocese of Edmonton.

“There is a greater interest in reverent liturgy in general, not just in musicand chant, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “I’ve personally wanted to seethis for a long time, and we’re seeing it now in the young laity and the youngpriests being ordained these days.”

Young people drawn to traditionBoth Long and Bryce believe young people are drawn to Gregorian chant becauseof how authentically Catholic it is. It’s a style of music that fully embracesthe Church’s traditions and gives them a definitively Catholic identity.

“I think it has to do with ownership — they’re taking back what is rightfullytheirs and has actually been denied them, really, by some of the oldergenerations,” said Bryce. “Younger folks especially want that identity andchant gives them that. It inspires them. It calls them into the Church. Itcalls them closer to God, to holiness, to an increased sanctity in their lives.It bring us closer to that love song that the Trinity sing to each other.

“It doesn’t blur the lines between pop music and the things you hear in secularsociety; it’s uniquely the music of the Church.”

Archbishop Richard Smith has identified worship as the focus for his teachingin the third year of reflection on his 2017 Pastoral Letter, Living in the Wordof God, and the importance of sacred music will be part of that focus.

Not all parishes are prepared to embrace chant as part of their music ministry.The common obstacles Bryce has seen are the language barrier and the perceived

difficulties in singing chant. As well, many priests are not familiar with themusic, and often music directors have no experience or training in it.

The choir at St. Andrew's church practises Gregorian chants under thedirection of Karen de Wee.Kyle Greenham, Grandin Media

But St. Andrew’s approach has made this ancient language and sacred music moreaccessible. Through chant, the Mass incorporates elements of the Latin, orExtraordinary Form Mass, into what is still a Novus Ordo Mass.

“We take the Novus Ordo framework and take out the English music portions — the Lord Have Mercy, the Glory Be, the Gloria, the Holy, Holy, Holy — andinsert the Latin Gregorian Chant pieces in their place,” de Wee said. “What itdoes for the congregation is it allows them to have a gentle understandingalong the way as to what is happening in the Mass and to easily understand theprayers. It also makes everyone feel comfortable enough with singing some ofthe Latin, because they know the presiding parts are still in English.

”People feel like this Mass is attainable for them. They can understand it, andI think that’s important that people understand the words of the Gospels thatday.”

Through this format, Bryce says the use of Latin chant may come more naturallyto some. There are also songbooks like the Graduala Simplex available that

offer a simpler and more accessible form of Gregorian chant.

“People sometimes say, ‘If it’s Latin, we don’t know what we’re saying.’ Well,you’ve been speaking these same words in English for years, so you do know whatyou’re saying,” he said.

Step 1 to any change in the liturgy is to start a dialogue between pastor,parishioners and music director, says Bryce. Even in a parish that hashesitations about Gregorian chant, he stresses that it’s important musicdirectors stand up for the liturgical laws of the Church.

“The Church tells us very clearly, and has done so for well over a hundredyears, that chant is the music that has pride of place in the liturgy,” saidBryce. “It doesn’t exclude other things or disparage those other forms ofmusic, but it may be that those others are not as wonderfully suitable for theMass.

“We all have a responsibility as the body of Christ to respond to thepriest when he says things and for us to be active participants in theliturgy. We have to give of ourselves, and by singing, we are giving aheightened expression of ourselves.”

The Gregorian chant Mass at St. Andrew’s is currently on a short summer breakbut will return on Sept. 15. As she prepares for its second year, de Wee aimsto grow the choir and Mass attendance even further this fall.

The positive response from St. Andrew’s is something Bryce hopes will encourageother parishes that have an interest in chant. It offers a particular benefitin a multicultural country like Canada, he says.

“Many masses have people who do not speak the same native language, especiallyin Canada. Here Latin and Gregorian chant can be a force of unification betweenChurch members.”