Lift up your hearts to the Lord

‘Lift up your hearts to the Lord’ is declared by the priest after the offertory and as the community is invited to turn its attention fully to God.  We are about to enter into the great prayer of thanksgiving and join our voices with those of the heavenly host in the great ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ or Sanctus.  It is entirely appropriate to sing this part of the mass as often as we can.  It should not be just left to the choir.  Yet, that is often the case. 

I was inspired to join a male choir in a local parish a few years ago when I discovered the impact of a choir on the celebration of the mass. In a way, I was missing the congregational singing that was so typical of the parish where I had joined in worship for many years before moving to this part of Ireland.  The special prayer for this choir posted on the side of the organ goes like this:

Dear Lord, who are praised and glorified by even the smallest action performed for your greater honour and glory, accept, we beseech you, the homage we seek to render you by offering our music as an act of love and worship to you.  May it rise to Heaven as a hymn of praise, to mingle with the music of the heavenly choirs; and may we, by your grace, dear Lord, be able to join them one day in singing your mercies for ever.  Amen.