Are Protestant Hymns Allowed at Mass?

[Sy_Noe]

Hello all. I did a search for this question and couldn’t find anything. I’m wondering if Protestant Hymns such as contemporary Christian and Gospel are allowed at Mass? Please note: I’m not looking to debate the musical merit of these genres of music- I enjoy these genres at home, in the car, etc.- I’m just asking if they’re allowed at Mass.

Thank you in advance.

I enjoy contemporary Christian music as well. As far as at Mass, I have never attended a Lifeteen Mass but what types of music and instruments are played at those Masses? I do recall a Roman Catholic parish I attended that had a men’s contemporary choir (with keyboard) sing at it’s 9am Mass. This was oh, probably 5 yrs ago though. And I remember them singing “Shout to the Lord”. And everyone’s different of course. But I actually like the idea of offering a variety of services for whichever form best speaks to a person. I recall yrs ago the guitar Masses that were more common in the Catholic Church back then. And finding myself being more uplifted.

 

[signit]

The majority of music that one hears at Mass such as On Eagle’s Wings, Gather Us In, All Are Welcome, or those “Praise and Worship” songs such as I Lift Your Name on High are not appropriate music for Mass, as they are secular in nature and not sacred music.

Coincidentally, we just sang “On Eagle’s Wings” last night at the Vigil Mass. First time I ever heard it, and I thought it was very moving.

 

[Sy_Noe]

Coincidentally, we just sang “On Eagle’s Wings” last night at the Vigil Mass. First time I ever heard it, and I thought it was very moving.

I agree. I actually chose “On Eagles Wings” to be played at my mother’s Catholic funeral.

 

[ccmcmg]

Hello all. I did a search for this question and couldn’t find anything. I’m wondering if Protestant Hymns such as contemporary Christian and Gospel are allowed at Mass? Please note: I’m not looking to debate the musical merit of these genres of music- I enjoy these genres at home, in the car, etc.- I’m just asking if they’re allowed at Mass.

Thank you in advance.

The Sunday evening Mass (designated as ‘LifeTeen’) at our parish is led by the youth, and is always contemporary Christian songs, including Matt Maher, who is Catholic.

 

[Phemie]

Oh goodness, I hope not. Praise songs are pretty dreadful, in my opinion. Give me a good Anglican hymnal any day, and we will gladly share with you. Without being too boastful, I think that Anglicans have the best church music going. We really know how to bring music into the Liturgy.

Who knows the hymns of John Rutter? ‘For the Beauty of the Earth,’ ‘The Lord Bless you and Keep you,’ He is wonderful.

youtube.com/watch?v=PO17DIeI7Ec&list=PLF479DC86F9D1CF58

Of course you have Don Schutte, who is here in San Francisco. I love his ‘Here I am, Lord.’

I love Rutter’s arrangement of “For the Beauty of the Earth”!
youtube.com/watch?v=-0qQyW0W0Rw

Unfortunately, I don’t share your feelings when it comes to that Schutte hymn, or for most of his stuff actually.

 

[Sy_Noe]

The Sunday evening Mass (designated as ‘LifeTeen’) at our parish is led by the youth, and is always contemporary Christian songs, including Matt Maher, who is Catholic.

Thanks Christina. I was wondering about Lifeteen and that’s what I thought. There are many Catholic parishes in my area. A few I know offer Lifeteen as well. From my understanding not only for or attended by teens so then apparently for anyone preferring contemporary Christian songs. To my knowledge they are on Sun evening as well. But the closest 4 parishes to me do not offer Lifeteen Masses. My actual geographical parish is too traditional for me. One of the 4 closest I know used to offer a “teen” Mass once a month but I don’t believe affiliated with the Lifeteen program. It was the most recent parish I attended but never did attend that particular Mass. Not sure if they still do or not.

 

[BiffRuffle]

I was listening to a program on Salt and Light Radio a while ago (the Salt and Light Hour) talking about music in the mass, and the guest was saying that prior to the 1960’s or so, there were practically no english Catholic songs (as up to that time the mass was said in latin, or predominately so, anyway.) The only available english songs were by necessity written by protestants.

 

[ProVobis]

I was listening to a program on Salt and Light Radio a while ago (the Salt and Light Hour) talking about music in the mass, and the guest was saying that prior to the 1960’s or so, there were practically no english Catholic songs (as up to that time the mass was said in latin, or predominately so, anyway.) The only available english songs were by necessity written by protestants.

How about…

Holy God We Praise Thy Name
Come Holy Ghost
O Lord I Am Not Worthy
Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All
O Sacred Heart Surrounded
Immaculate Mary

and others?

I know there were plenty in Polish as well.

 

[Jennifoo]

Can you give an example of what type of “Protestant hymn” you’re talking about? When I think of hymns, I think of hymns such as All Creatures of Our God and King and Christ is Laid the Sure Foundation, both of which are Anglican hymns but sung in Catholic Churches as they are not heretical.

The Church has said a lot about what kind of music is to be used during Mass. Gregorian Chant has pride of place, as it is the music of the Latin Rite Church, but it does make allowances for polyphony. Hymns may also be used, but Gregorian Chant is to be preferred to all other music.

The majority of music that one hears at Mass such as On Eagle’s Wings, Gather Us In, All Are Welcome, or those “Praise and Worship” songs such as I Lift Your Name on High are not appropriate music for Mass, as they are secular in nature and not sacred music.

This was emphasized in Vatican II.

Hi there. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to respond but the week got away from me a bit. As for Protestant Hymns, I’m aware of the more traditional ones that are in our hymnals. For my post I was referring to Christian Rock, as in “How Great Is Our God”, “Awesome God”, and the like. We got the new music calendar on Monday and it lists the hymns you mentioned in this post.

To fill in the story, we have a new choir director. These are the hymns he’s choosing. I’m torn because our former choir director, who was with us for one year, did chant and more traditional hymns and antiphons. Most were in English, but we also sang some in Latin. We had some complaints, even though he was sensitive to the congregation and used a very gradual approach to teach them.

With our new choir director, it’s been a big change. I’m not at all trying to be negative or legalistic. It just seems like the new choir director was chosen to replace the former because the congregation prefers more contemporary, whether it’s good for the Mass or not: it just seems as if the music is being chosen for them as opposed to being faithful to what Holy Mother Church wants for us, and that what isn’t supposed to be allowed is being allowed.

 

[Jennifoo]

I suspect that what the OP means by “hymns” is stuff you hear in Protestant Sunday services with electric guitars, drums, bass, keyboards etc, not Praise to the Lord the Almighty and the like.

Yes that’s exactly what I mean. I’m well aware of the more traditional Protestant hymns in our hymnals, and those I thoroughly enjoy.

While contemporary Christian Rock is something I listen to in the car, at home, at work, I’m in doubt as to whether it’s really allowed at Mass.

 

[Jennifoo]

Thanks to everyone who has responded. My apologies for not responding sooner, but I’ve had a busy week. As for what is being sung at Masses, I guess I was interested in understanding what Holy Mother Church teaches so as to be fully aligned with that. I’m certainly not trying to be divisive or legalistic- just correct. It’s also been my understanding that the Church wants us to return to our musical heritage of chant, which really went under due to misinterpretations of Vatican II. Our former choir director, as well as some priests I know are concerned with too much contemporary music in the Mass for a lot of reasons.

I hope to learn more in the coming weeks.

Pax Christi.

 

[victrolatim]

I was listening to a program on Salt and Light Radio a while ago (the Salt and Light Hour) talking about music in the mass, and the guest was saying that prior to the 1960’s or so, there were practically no english Catholic songs (as up to that time the mass was said in latin, or predominately so, anyway.) The only available english songs were by necessity written by protestants.

I would greatly disagree with this. Any copy of the St. Gregory Hymnal or St. Basil’s Hymnal has hundreds of English language hymns, many are fairly obscure by today’s standards but those were published long before the 60’s

 

[JWH123]

Unfortunately, I don’t share your feelings when it comes to that Schutte hymn, or for most of his stuff actually.

Of course you know that Schutte is not a Protestant by any stretch of the imagination. He is a Jesuit.

 

[Phemie]

Of course you know that Schutte is not a Protestant by any stretch of the imagination. He is a Jesuit.

I really didn’t give that any thought, I was simply expressing my opinion of his music, particularly when compared to Rutter’s – who, I’m well aware is not everyone’s cup o’ tea either.

 

[SecretGarden]

I have been to many masses and countless Protestant services where they have sung the same hymns. Both churches have hymns that are very beautiful that speak of God’s majesty and wonder that they transcend church divisions because the song writers were inspired by God to write them. For instance “Amazing Grace” is sung by both churches. I have been to some charismatic Catholic churches which have sung worship music that one normally finds inside the Evangelical churches. Christmas hymns also transcend church divisions.

Music unites us in Christ therefore it would be a shame to label a beautiful hymn as Catholic or Protestant because music has this amazing ability to reach us in our darkest moment and pulls us closer to God.

 

[ComplineSanFran]

Of course you know that Schutte is not a Protestant by any stretch of the imagination. He is a Jesuit.

I believe that Dan Schutte is an ex-Jesuit. He is still a composer at the University of San Francisco, which is a Jesuit university, but has left the Order.

 

[ProVobis]

I would greatly disagree with this. Any copy of the St. Gregory Hymnal or St. Basil’s Hymnal has hundreds of English language hymns, many are fairly obscure by today’s standards but those were published long before the 60’s

Indeed there were. And what about Polish hymns before Vatican II? I doubt if many of those were written by Protestants.

 

[ZellieFan]

I have a great love of hymns, Protestant and Catholic. I love the great sacred masses composed by Bach, Schubert, etc. I also love contemporary praise and worship music. I personally feels hymns and mass settings are appropriate for mass. Praise and Worship for worship outside of mass, including adoration (although sometimes I prefer adoration to be silent).

 

[signit]

Though I have never heard it sung during Mass, I have seen “A mighty fortress is our God” once in a hymnal in the pews of a Catholic church. I cannot remember if it was my parish or a different one. I actually like that hymn.

One of the first hymns I ever heard at Catholic Mass. My mother commented that in her day it was one of those hymns as a Catholic you weren’t supposed to sing.

As I’ve said before, I prefer the “no frills” Mass where they substitute short prayers for the hymns.

But, since the topic has been brought up, two of my favorite hymns are “generic” Christian hymns (neither exclusively Catholic nor Protestant); one from the Sunday morning religious music show of my childhood, and one I sang as part of a school show in sixth grade:

“Church in the Wildwood” (sung here by Andy Griffith and others

youtube.com/watch?v=ZcZcDHRGyOs

“The Green Cathedral”:

youtube.com/watch?v=WVbsldVRuXQ

 

[liturgyluver]

I would greatly disagree with this. Any copy of the St. Gregory Hymnal or St. Basil’s Hymnal has hundreds of English language hymns, many are fairly obscure by today’s standards but those were published long before the 60’s

However, these hymns were primarily for use at Morning Prayer, Vespers and Benediction. Whilst Germany and France in the development of the dialogue mass started to develop hymns to be sung at mass, other parts of the catholic world did not until the early 1960s. What catholiscm lacked were solid Eucharistic hymns such as Let all Mortal Flesh keep silence, We Pray thee heavenly Father. O thou who at the Eucharist didst pray that were developed for High Mass in the Church of England, and there are some Lutheran gems like Deck Thyself my Soul with gladness that knock the spots off many modern catholic Eucharistic hymns developed since the 1960s. Having just completed my first trip to the USA, I was dismayed by the quality of the music I found at mass.