Everybody has an opinion on how Mass is celebrated. We each prefer different styles of celebration and experience joys and frustrations, moments of deep prayer, and moments of distraction in our liturgies. Some favour modern music others more a traditional form, and still others would choose no singing at all. Cardinal John Henry Newman, who may soon be canonized, had a vision that, whatever our preferences, there should be an educated laity in the Church. That education begins with a deeper understanding of the mysteries we celebrate Sunday by Sunday.

This year, the Society of Saint Gregory celebrates 80 years promoting just that, a greater understanding of and participation in our liturgies, and especially the music which is an integral part of them. Quite often, when people speak of liturgical renewal, they look to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, but this celebration of 80 years reflects the important fact that those reforms were very much the fruit of work going back long before then.

The Society of Saint Gregory produces a quarterly magazine Music and Liturgy which has a worldwide readership. It runs an annual Summer School, (this year to be held at Ditchingham in Norfolk), which appeals to a wide audience, from talented musicians and composers to those who simply love music, or have a genuine thirst to know more about the liturgy.

Why not find out a little more about the Society of Saint Gregory at www.ssg.org.uk, contact your local diocesan rep Val Goldsack valgoldsack@btinternet.com or contact membership@ssg.org.uk for a free copy of Music and Liturgy. Perhaps come along to a society event and be uplifted with the enthusiasm that others like you have for our praise and worship of God.

Nothing but the best is good enough for our life of public prayer and the Society of Saint Gregory promotes just that. Why not be part of this 80th anniversary?