Liturgical music?
I am amazed that with the Church’s nearly 2000 year treasury of liturgical music, the standard for liturgical music, at least in some parishes, took only around 40 years to reach its current low state.
I am not a cradle Catholic, and to the best of my knowledge, I never attended a Catholic mass before the liturgical reforms of Vatican II. My earliest spiritual development was in Methodism in the 1960’s, and more recently in a continuing Anglican (conservative Anglocatholic) church. Both had a rich English hymnody. I am not a musician, and I realize that my preferences have been shaped by experience and familiarity; but I believe that beyond mere preferences there are objective standards for music, and that I can, to some extent, differentiate between the good and the bad. When I came to the Anglican church, I discovered hymns that were unfamiliar, but that were musically moving and which had reverent lyrics. When I determined that I was being called to enter the Catholic Church, I thought I was prepared for what I knew would be a change in the liturgical music, but my experience last Sunday proved that to be wrong.
At the Mass for the second Sunday in ordinary time, the processional was “Sing a New Church.” When I heard the opening strains of Nettleton, I hoped for the best. I got through the first stanza , but when we got to the line “Sing a new church into being” in the refrain I was somewhat taken aback. As I listened to the remaining lyrics, my perception grew that we were not singing a hymn to our Creator, but rather an ode to ourselves. For the remainder of the introductory rites I was more occupied with trying to figure out what it means to “sing a new church into being” than to attending to the liturgy. Is not this the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church? Can we “sing a new church into being?” If we could, should we?
A few weeks ago the responsorial psalm was Bobby Fisher’s All the Ends of the Earth. I don’t have a real problem with this as a song, and I wouldn’t mind hearing it on the local contemporary Christian radio station, or at a Gaither gospel concert, but it does not seem to fit within the context of the Mass. The combination of the jarring piano accompaniment and the sight of the cantor’s swaying to the rhythm managed to jolt me out of an attitude of reverence into an attitude of annoyance that persisted until we candidates were dismissed.
I know that the Mass is not about me, and I pray that I am not assisting at the Mass for my entertainment, but we are offering our worship and praise to our Creator, and I cannot believe that these hymns are the best that we have to offer.
I am convinced that the fullness of truth is found in the Catholic Church, and this will not deter me from being received into the Church, but I will need God’s grace to keep me from being distracted by some of the music. In fairness to the parish musical director, I have not heard anything else as bad as these two examples. And I know that it could be worse.
Warning: you may find this video painful to watch.
Just in case you think that the video is faked, this Mass took place at the 2008 West Coast Regional Call To Action Conference in San Jose April 25-27, 2008
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Friday, July 06, 2007
Creed or Chaos?
I am not familiar with most of the work of Dorothy Sayers. I know she was the author of the "Lord Peter Wimsey" detective series, but have not read them. When I saw her name on a little book titled Creed or Chaos? (Sophia Institute Press, ISBN 0-918477-31-X) in the religion section of a used book store, I was intrigued enough to thumb through it. I’m glad I did. It is a collection of wonderful essays that, although written over 60 years ago, are still fresh. The thread running throughout the collection is the importance and relevance of Christian dogma as expressed in the three great creeds of the Church.
I hope the following excerpts will convey the flavor and the power of her writing.
The Greatest Drama Ever Staged
“We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine – ‘dull dogma,’ as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man – and the dogma is the drama.”
“We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him ‘meek and mild,’ and recommended him as fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old
ladies.”
The Dogma is the Drama
“Christ, in his Divine innocence, said to the Woman of Samaria, ‘Ye worship ye know not what’ – being apparently under the impression that it might be desirable, on the whole, to know what one was worshipping. He thus showed Himself sadly out of touch with the twentieth-century mind, for the cry today is ‘Away with the tedious complexities of dogma – let us have the simple spirit of worship; just worship, no matter what!’ The only drawback to this demand for a generalized and undirected worship is the practical difficulty of arousing any sort of enthusiasm for the worship of nothing in particular.”
Creed or Chaos?
“It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe. It is hopeless to offer Christianity as a vaguely idealistic aspiration of a simple and consoling kind; it is, on the contrary, a hard, tough, exacting, and complex doctrine, steeped in a drastic and uncompromising realism. And it is fatal to imagine that everybody knows quite well what Christianity is and needs only a little encouragement to practice it. The brutal fact is that in this Christian country not one person in a hundred has the faintest notion what the Church teaches about God or man or society or the person of Jesus Christ.” This was written in the England of 1940. Sadly, the situation does not seem to have improved in England or in the United States.
“The thing that is in danger is the whole structure of society, and it is necessary to persuade thinking men and women of the vital and intimate connection between the structure of society and the theological doctrines of Christianity.
"The task is not made easier by the obstinate refusal of a great body of nominal Christians, both lay and clerical, to face the theological question. ‘Take away theology and give us some nice religion’ has been a popular slogan for so long that we are apt to accept it, without inquiring whether religion without theology has any meaning.”
I think it’s a worthwhile read for anyone interested in religion and society, especially our current society where tolerance of anything and everything has become the eighth great virtue.
I am not familiar with most of the work of Dorothy Sayers. I know she was the author of the "Lord Peter Wimsey" detective series, but have not read them. When I saw her name on a little book titled Creed or Chaos? (Sophia Institute Press, ISBN 0-918477-31-X) in the religion section of a used book store, I was intrigued enough to thumb through it. I’m glad I did. It is a collection of wonderful essays that, although written over 60 years ago, are still fresh. The thread running throughout the collection is the importance and relevance of Christian dogma as expressed in the three great creeds of the Church.
I hope the following excerpts will convey the flavor and the power of her writing.
The Greatest Drama Ever Staged
“We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine – ‘dull dogma,’ as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man – and the dogma is the drama.”
“We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him ‘meek and mild,’ and recommended him as fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old
ladies.”
The Dogma is the Drama
“Christ, in his Divine innocence, said to the Woman of Samaria, ‘Ye worship ye know not what’ – being apparently under the impression that it might be desirable, on the whole, to know what one was worshipping. He thus showed Himself sadly out of touch with the twentieth-century mind, for the cry today is ‘Away with the tedious complexities of dogma – let us have the simple spirit of worship; just worship, no matter what!’ The only drawback to this demand for a generalized and undirected worship is the practical difficulty of arousing any sort of enthusiasm for the worship of nothing in particular.”
Creed or Chaos?
“It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe. It is hopeless to offer Christianity as a vaguely idealistic aspiration of a simple and consoling kind; it is, on the contrary, a hard, tough, exacting, and complex doctrine, steeped in a drastic and uncompromising realism. And it is fatal to imagine that everybody knows quite well what Christianity is and needs only a little encouragement to practice it. The brutal fact is that in this Christian country not one person in a hundred has the faintest notion what the Church teaches about God or man or society or the person of Jesus Christ.” This was written in the England of 1940. Sadly, the situation does not seem to have improved in England or in the United States.
“The thing that is in danger is the whole structure of society, and it is necessary to persuade thinking men and women of the vital and intimate connection between the structure of society and the theological doctrines of Christianity.
"The task is not made easier by the obstinate refusal of a great body of nominal Christians, both lay and clerical, to face the theological question. ‘Take away theology and give us some nice religion’ has been a popular slogan for so long that we are apt to accept it, without inquiring whether religion without theology has any meaning.”
I think it’s a worthwhile read for anyone interested in religion and society, especially our current society where tolerance of anything and everything has become the eighth great virtue.
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