WESTWOOD -- Thirty-five parish musicians from the Archdiocese of Boston and beyond attended an all-day Catholic musicians' workshop at St. Margaret Mary Church in Westwood on March 25.

Patrick Krisak, the Archdiocese of Boston's director of faith formation and missionary discipleship, said that the workshop was meant to provide more support to parish musicians than they usually receive.

"Hopefully, this is not a flash in the pan, but this is a step in the process of doing more to support and foster ... excellence in sacred music and liturgy here in the Archdiocese of Boston and beyond," he said.

The workshop, sponsored by the archdiocese and The Vigil Project music ministry, included a Mass, Holy Hour, and breakout sessions on chant, ordinaries and propers, adoration music, and other topics. The opening session, "Our Call as Catholic Musicians," was presented by Vigil Project Cofounder Greg Boudreaux.

"For most of us, God has given us extraordinary talent, and maybe he has not called us to the grand stages of the arena in downtown or something like that," Boudreaux said. "He's called us to the quiet, the still place, definitely the more beautiful place of serving in our parish, in our parish life, or in our community."

The session was an exercise in synodality in the spirit of Pope Francis. The participants were encouraged to listen to one another and the Holy Spirit, expressing disagreements in a constructive and open-minded way. Boudreaux said that every attendee of the workshop had a different perspective and that liturgical music could be a divisive issue.

"Let's assume that there's a lot of value to be drawn from the people near us, regardless of the difference," he said. "So I'm not saying we can't argue. I'm not saying we can't ask hard questions. But instead of dismissing each other, let's actually listen today. Let's actually dialogue today, okay?"

He began the meeting by asking everyone what their favorite breakfast food was. After that, he said that music inspires wonder, a sensation unique to human beings. Recently, his five-year-old son was walking in a river and asked, "Who put these rocks here?" His son was wondering about God.

"When you and I have wondered, we have this unique capacity to see God in all of his creation," Boudreaux said, "not just in nature, by the way, but in the sciences, in the arts, in music, in the person next to us, in the liturgy."

Music, he said, is how humans express what words cannot -- encounter with God. He asked the musicians to remember the first time music filled them with wonder. For one, it was "The Sound of Music." For another, it was "O Holy Night." For a third, it was "Kumbaya."

"Music was not something I gave to myself," Boudreaux told the musicians. "Music was something that God gave to me. Music was something that God gave to you."

The next session was "The Heart and Mind of the Church," presented by Vigil Project Mission Advancement Director Andrew Goldstein. Goldstein cited research showing that half of all parishioners are not satisfied with the music they hear in church. Seventy-five percent of parishioners chose their church because of its music. Sixty-five percent said that some instruments are more appropriate during Mass than others. Goldstein quoted Pope Pius XII's encyclical "Musicae Sacrae," in which he wrote that music in Mass is not solely written to please the ear, but must also bring the listener closer to God. Everything about the music at Mass must be integrated -- mind, body, and soul -- for a communal experience of praise. The Church has a "treasury" of music to work with, Goldstein said, but that doesn't mean that Catholics shouldn't be writing new music.

"It is amazing that with 12 notes, we continue to make something beautiful that reflects something of God," he said. "We need people to be writing good music for all of those moments, for the sacred, for the devotional, for the secondary."

He said that some music isn't appropriate for Mass but is still helpful for private devotion. As Catholic musicians, those at the workshop have to use their discernment to tell what is and isn't appropriate for each setting. Goldstein joked that the Beatles' "Let It Be" may not be appropriate for Mass, and "Dies Irae" may not be appropriate to play at a party.

The most important thing, he said, is that musicians believe what they are singing and playing, and that the lyrics "draw us deeper into the realities of faith." He said that there is "a Eucharistic crisis" in the Church, with fewer and fewer Catholics saying they believe in the Real Presence. Goldstein partly blames this on hymns which refer to the Eucharist merely as "bread" and "cup" rather than as the literal Body and Blood of Christ.

"When we sing, we actually become part of that very thing that we're singing," he said. "And those feelings, the emotions, the words, they actually all become part of us."

Goldstein cited a 2020 document by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which urged parishes to look at hymn lyrics that may be theologically incorrect.

"If we're just saying 'bread,' we're not necessarily giving the full picture all of the time," he said. "Please don't cancel your hymns that say 'bread' only, but just balance it with a sense of where are we then saying 'body.'"

The Catholic Church considers Gregorian chant to be the purest of all liturgical music, because it is sung in unison and relatively easy for singers to pick up. Goldstein said that chant "draws the heart and mind in prayer" better than any other form of sacred music. That's not to say that the Church has no place for other forms of music, as long as they are liturgically sound. Once again, Goldstein said that it is the musicians' responsibility to determine how best to advance sacred music in a stepwise manner within the pastoral context of their local parish. As for instruments, he said the pipe organ is the most highly-regarded for sacred music.

"It's the choir of pipes, all of you together, moving air out," Goldstein said. "The organ is so very similar to us, that's what makes the organ so special."

He added that "the organ is the most likened to the human voice, air pipes, movement, joy, expression, unity, harmony."

He said that more modern additions to liturgical music, like the guitar, are not necessarily bad. A guitar can serve the human voice the same way that an organ can. Perhaps, Goldstein said, guitars will loosen their secular ties and become more synonymous with churches over the centuries, the same way organs have.