it’s becoming a bad habit. every Friday night after work i wander off to some classical concert, indoors or outdoors, and each concert always seems to feature a mass. And i get all excited, thinking… this will be so cool. there will be like 10,000 singers and i will be swept up (raptured?) into this massive wave of glorious sound. but the very moment the mass begins, it hits me .. uh-oh, i think i know what’s coming next. it’s usually something along the lines of

Kyrie – Chorus and S Solo
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Gloria – Chor
Gloria in excelsis Deo,
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Laudamus te, benedicimus te,
Adoramus te, glorificamus te.
Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis,
Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Miserere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
[Suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris,
miserere nobis.]
Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus,
Tu solus altissimus, [Jesu Christe.]
Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris,
Amen.

Gloria – Chorus
Glory to God in the highest,
And peace on earth to men of good will.
We praise You, we bless You,
We worship You, we glorify You.
We give You thanks for Your great glory.
Lord God, King of Heaven,
God the Father Almighty.
Lord only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
You who take away the sin of the world,
Have mercy on us.
You who take away the sin of the world,
[Hear our prayer.
You who sit at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.]
For You alone are holy, You alone are Lord,
You alone are the Most High, [Jesus Christ.]
With the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father, Amen.

For over an hour. Sometimes an hour and a half. Almost non-stop.

And it gets very frustrating because i am never swept up by anything and my mind goes everywhere but the stage, be it indoor or outdoor, i just tune it out, almost instantly. it doesn’t matter if it’s Beethoven Missa Solemnis or Schubert’s Mass in G Major. i’ve been to both and i honestly could not distinguish one from the other. Which is so strange because choral music can be so beautiful and it is possible to be swept away, but not when 10,000 singers are singing the exact same words at the same time. maybe if they sung different words. that might be helpful to me.