Michael Jordan Laskey writes:

My 4-year-old son—rascally, chaotic—is better behaved at church than he is anywhere else….

We have to be sitting as close to the choir as humanly possible. And Mr. John, the bald, bespectacled Boomer who plays the drum set at this Mass, can’t be out sick or on vacation. If all these conditions are in place, our son will ask me to hold him the whole time so he can see the drums and cymbals from an elevated vantage point. He will watch Mr. John—whom our son calls “the priest,” having figured out “the priest” means “important person at church”—for an hour straight.

When we get home, our son will spend a good chunk of the afternoon listening to our cellphone recordings of the 10:30 choir while singing Alleluia and Hosanna and drumming along. He will mimic Mr. John’s distinctive playing style, including the groovy shoulder-roll move he does. He will drum for hours over the course of the week, accompanied only by our bootleg church tracks….

My son’s focus on liturgical music has forced me to ask big questions about it too. Our parish has a vibrant music ministry and a highly talented choir director. I have wondered what would happen if the director took the singers, the engaging multilingual music and the drum set with him to another parish. At this point in our family life, we’d follow them wherever they went.

And that raises a larger point: The music we hear at Mass makes a difference….

At this point, liturgically traditional readers may be shifting uncomfortably in their seats. A drum set at Mass is a bold choice and not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s fair to wonder if our son is being formed as a Catholic with a sense of the sacred or just becoming a fan of loud music. And I am sympathetic to church-drum-set skepticism because I share it. I’m more of a high church, “smells and bells” aficionado than a praise and worship guy….

If you had told me 10 years ago I’d be going to Drum Set Mass—and not just going, but sitting as close to the drums as possible while filled with relief and gratitude—I would not have believed it. But children make you flexible in ways you never would have imagined. Thanks to my children, I can appreciate, and even enjoy, liturgical music in my not-favorite style. I can acknowledge my preferences are just preferences and not universal truths. I can happily accept with no sarcasm whatsoever the fact that we are part of a big church with plenty of room for people and instruments of every shape, size and volume level. And any aesthetic concerns pale in comparison with the main point: Our son, age 4, has already found a home here. In today’s Catholic Church, that’s a story that folk Mass, chant Mass, jazz Mass and organ Mass fans should be able to make joyful noise about together.