CONVERTS: Do you miss the old protestant hymns?

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djrakowski:
AMEN! I’m still attending a Protestant evangelical church, but have attended a number of Masses at our local (very orthodox) Catholic parish. This parish still employs an organist, and most of the hymns have been agreeable, but I wish they’d include SATB arrangements in the hymnals.
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DJ – if you ever settle down in a parish, the hymnals can be purchased in the choir edition, which has the parts. I’m an alto and bring my own book (I won’t join the choir because I simply can’t subject myself to the AWFUL music – we use Gather – more than once a week.
 
I was raised in the Methodist Church, with a lot of Southern Baptist thrown in for good measure! I LOVE the old hymns, and have to admit that hearing them often brings me to tears. So many memories…
**I also love the new Praise and Worship music. Praise and Worship music is sung in the evangelical Church of Christ my husband and the rest of our family attend…I really enjoy singing this music. The funny thing is that some of this wonderful music has found its way into Mass at my parish. One of our songbooks contains a few of the same same songs sung at the Church of Christ I mentioned. **
 
Okay I am weak, but I sincerely miss my old hymns. I have litterally changed my tune :). I miss not needing to find the songs because I already knew all the worlds and some old favorites that helped me through tough times will always have a place in my heart. The good thing is that many protestant hymns were lifted from catholisism anyway so there are many common songs that I still enjoy. There are a few lds songs like “If I could hie to kolob” that I can happily leave in the past, and some new catholic treasures that I can’t imagine not knowing. Maybe the rest will come with time.
 
puzzleannie said:
I’m a Catholic and I miss the hymns described above, especially the 17th through 19th century hymns that while written by protestants are theologically sound and musically inspired. Why we as a church are being punished by having to ban beautiful music and replace it with insipid music, poorly performed by largely untalented amateurs singing banal lyrics is a question for moral theologians. Undoubtedly it is part of the great chastisement that we should suffer this way.
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Thankfully our lovely Irish Pastor has barred the doors to the great chastisement, since those are the hymns we sing most regularly. He loves Wesley! 😉
 
Meggie said:
I am not a convert but I do miss the hyms in my old church that I grew up with…“Jesus Christ has risen Today” “Sing to the Mountians” and the list goes on…
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I’m from the infant version of the Tiber Swim Team Class of 1967:D 😃 !

What I do miss (because my new parish doesn’t sing this stuff–they’re trapped in OCP and P&W) is:

Alleluia, Sing to Jesus
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Jesus Christ is Risen Today
(believe it or not) Christ is Made the Sure Foundation
Attende Domine (with the older, more accurate translation)
The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns
Lift Up Ye Heads, O MIghty Gates
All Glory, Laud and Honor
Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether
I Received the Living God
Lord, Whose Love In Humble Service
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
For all the Saints
At the Name of Jesus
At that First Eucharist
Lift High the Cross
Salve Regina
Pangia Lingua Gloriosa
On Jordan’s Bank
Creator of the Stars of Night (with the older, more accurate translation)
O Sun of Justice (with the older, more accurate translation)
All Creatures of our God and King
Draw Near and Take the Body of Your Lord

I know that this is about converts missing Protestant hymns, but those of us who are cradle Catholics miss a lot of the solid, theologicall ground and liturgically appropriate hymns.
 
Sword_Brethren said:
I don’t miss any thing from that false religion.
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Well that’s an interesting way of putting it.:o

I miss:
How Great Thou Art
Crown Him with Many Crowns
To God be the Glory
All Hail the Power of Jesus Name
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Come Christians Join to Sing
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Grace that is Greater than Our Sin
The Nail Scarred Hand
I Surrender All-this was almost always used for the alter call
He Lives
Victory in Jesus

Every now and then we do sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” in our processional.
 
Oh, yeah, I do! I grew up going to mainline protestant churches in Cincinnati. Lots of good, German hymns, as well as some rousing gospel.

I think my alltime favorite is “He Lives” just because it’s so upbeat and happy.
 
Sword_Brethren said:
I don’t miss any thing from that false religion.
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:eek: I won’t go as far to say false like you did…

But NO!!! I don’t miss them. They bring back so many memories of guilt and going up to the Altar Call just so we could all go home!

Just As I Am…will send me running out the back door, no matter what church I’m attending.

Gives me chills. I had a bad experience in the Southern Baptist church.
 
“Just as I am!” That’s another alter call favorite. I miss the music…After all, I listened to it for the better part of 30 years.
 
some of my favorites:

Blessed Assurance
It is Well With My Soul
I am Resloved
Because He Lives
 
Honestly, no, I don’t miss them at all. In fact, when the popular praise choruses are sung at the Sunday evening Mass at the campus religious center here, I kinda cringe. 😛

But heck, they can sing all the praise choruses they want as long as they DON’T sing “Gather Us In”. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

😃
 
Oh boy do I miss the old hymns!!! Be Still My Soul is probably my absolute favorite hymn. Luckily I do hear that every once in awhile. But the others I rarely hear. We always sang every verse to every hymn as well. In most parishes people complain if more than 2 are sung. And actually, one of my other favorites is “It Is Well With My Soul” but I never heard that growing up either. That one I discovered through an evangelical radio station (it was the only station that consistently played Christian music…and they also had the most gorgeous verison of St. Francis’ Prayer as well).
 
Nope, I miss the old Catholic ones that I thought I would hear. “Gift of Finest Wheat” is nice, but not quite the ticket for me.
 
There are a few hymns I miss from my days as a tweenaged fundamentalist. Fortunately, my parish uses the catholic Book of Worship III hymnal, so some of the hymns i love are in there. I don’t think much of the CBWIII’s inclusivising some of the language. But that is a different rant.

I would love to hear some of the 19th century hymns again, such as:
In the Bleak Midwinter
It is Well With My Soul
 
Catholic_Heart said:
I was raised in the Methodist Church, with a lot of Southern Baptist thrown in for good measure! I LOVE the old hymns, and have to admit that hearing them often brings me to tears. So many memories…
**I also love the new Praise and Worship music. Praise and Worship music is sung in the evangelical Church of Christ my husband and the rest of our family attend…I really enjoy singing this music. The funny thing is that some of this wonderful music has found its way into Mass at my parish. One of our songbooks contains a few of the same same songs sung at the Church of Christ I mentioned. **
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Although P & W music is most acceptable in an evangelical ecclesial community, it is not quite so with the Catholic Church. Sacred Music must conform to Catholic doctrine and liturgical theology. In his document, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict makes this point:
  1. In the ars celebrandi, liturgical song has a pre-eminent place. (126) Saint Augustine rightly says in a famous sermon that “the new man sings a new song. Singing is an expression of joy and, if we consider the matter, an expression of love” (127). The People of God assembled for the liturgy sings the praises of God. In the course of her two-thousand-year history, the Church has created, and still creates, music and songs which represent a rich patrimony of faith and love. This heritage must not be lost. ***Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another. ***Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration (128). Consequently everything – texts, music, execution – ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons (129). Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed (130) as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy (131).
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As Cardinal Ratzinger, this is what he had to say about introducing popular music into the liturgy:
On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (populus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. “Rock”, on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments.
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One could, under circumstances, use P&W in a retreat, non-liturgical setting. However, the very nature of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass calls for a particular kind of music that must be in line with Catholic doctrine and liturgical theology. It must be of a universal nature.
 
I miss hymn sings, actually. I miss singing “The Old Rugged Cross” and “In the Garden” but they weren’t really sung much anymore at the United Methodist church I was attending anyway.
 
I grew up in the Campbellite Churches of Christ and there are a few hymns I miss, but mostly I miss the style in which they were sung–four part harmony, acapella, using the shaped notes.

On a side note–I’m in the parish handbell choir and we played an accompaniment to Crown Him with Many Crowns last Sunday.
 
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