Folk Masses

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liturgylady

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For me the folk mass was what prompted me to a deeper involvement in my church. I am forever grateful for it. Sure the music wasn’t always top notch in composition and we have already seen that it did not endure the ‘test of time’ but that is not what was important. What it did was open the door for me to really enter into a relationship with my God…If it wasn’t for the folk era, I’m not sure where I would be spiritually right now. Having been guilted into attending mass as obligation, I might still be going out of fear of the fires of hell and the manipulation of the 'mea culpa" mentality…but I don’t think I would be feeling God in my heart. Now at 58 years old, I still play guitar at mass, and relate more to the comtemporary music, it is so much more sophisticated than the early folk years and I see it as part of the journey…will these songs still be here 500 years from now? Who knows and who cares? If it creates a community of worshippers who are in awe of the real presence of Christ in our midst then it is a great thing and should be respected as such.
That said, believe it or not I do still enjoy a booming organ, a beautiful voice singing Ave Verum, Panis Angelicus etc…but not all the time. The beauty of our church and the legacy of Vatican II is that we do have a choice and that we are not all cookie cutter Catholics and we are diverse and bring much to the table of the Lord. There is nothing wrong with that in my book.
 
liturgylady said:
For me the folk mass was what prompted me to a deeper involvement in my church. I am forever grateful for it. Sure the music wasn’t always top notch in composition and we have already seen that it did not endure the ‘test of time’ but that is not what was important. What it did was open the door for me to really enter into a relationship with my God…If it wasn’t for the folk era, I’m not sure where I would be spiritually right now. Having been guilted into attending mass as obligation, I might still be going out of fear of the fires of hell and the manipulation of the 'mea culpa" mentality…but I don’t think I would be feeling God in my heart. Now at 58 years old, I still play guitar at mass, and relate more to the comtemporary music, it is so much more sophisticated than the early folk years and I see it as part of the journey…will these songs still be here 500 years from now? Who knows and who cares? If it creates a community of worshippers who are in awe of the real presence of Christ in our midst then it is a great thing and should be respected as such.
That said, believe it or not I do still enjoy a booming organ, a beautiful voice singing Ave Verum, Panis Angelicus etc…but not all the time. The beauty of our church and the legacy of Vatican II is that we do have a choice and that we are not all cookie cutter Catholics and we are diverse and bring much to the table of the Lord. There is nothing wrong with that in my book.
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🍿
 
malphono said:
I don’t know about the popcorn … maybe a tuna sandwich. Resurrecting a 2 year old thread just seems a little fishy to me. 🤷
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😃

Maybe.

A CAF member, currently suspended, would have been quick to say “Bait”!
 
not fishy…I only just stumbled upon this thread while doing research for my master’s thesis. I didn’t look at the age of the posts only the content. It was a sincere opinion posting not baiting at all.
 
liturgylady said:
not fishy…I only just stumbled upon this thread while doing research for my master’s thesis. I didn’t look at the age of the posts only the content. It was a sincere opinion posting not baiting at all.
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I’m not saying it’s baiting. 🙂

The popcorn is because folk/guitar masses are a hot topic of debate here on CAF.

And of course those who tend to hang out on the Traditional Catholic Forum are not too warm and fuzzy about these types of masses.

Welcome to CAF, by the way.
 
liturgylady said:
not fishy…I only just stumbled upon this thread while doing research for my master’s thesis. I didn’t look at the age of the posts only the content. It was a sincere opinion posting not baiting at all.
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Don’t worry, for some reason the the trend on this forum this week is to accuse posters of trolling and posting bait. I’m sure the posters who did that just accidentally neglected to notice that it was your first post and to say “Welcome to the forum!” instead, much as you omitted to notice that this thread was from several years ago.

Welcome to the forum!
 
While my personal preference is for more traditional music in Mass, I’ve come to realize that different styles are important for lots of other people.

When I read the title of the thread, I was thinking of the “folk band” that often plays at our Mass. This is a local group that plays Irish and Bluegrass music and as most of the members are musicians in our church, they frequently can be found in some form playing at our masses. Granted, they generally play hymns from the regular hymnal, with somewhat of a “folky” flavor and not anything like Simon and Garfunkle, but my finace who is a music minister finds the practice entirely distasteful.

Last week, the entire group played and they passed out a worship aide that declared it as a “bluegrass Mass”. My fiance was absolutely outraged by it. His main objection was that most of the hymns were from a protestant background. (As far as I could tell, none of them seemed to express teachings counter to the beliefs of the Catholic Church.) I pointed out that he has been known to play a Bach piece as a prelude before and whip out Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, and he conceeded that was a fact but the conversation with his opinion that the music wasn’t reverent enough for a Mass. Curiously enough, he didn’t find the same exact group at all offensive during St. Patrick’s Day.

Anyway, I guess my point is that the “bluegrass Mass” seemed to be a huge success in my opinion. The music was very well played. The congregation was involved in the Mass. There were over twenty parishoners directly involved in the music of the Mass as well as four young people who were not Catholic who brought their families. The music minister that planned the Mass was careful to choose appropriate music for the lituragy that day. None of the ordinary of the Mass was changed in any way. The Eucharistic hymn was clearly more solumn and reverant. (Though I will agree that the text was not really about the Eucharist.) My question is, what is the problem with this? Is it just a matter of taste or is there really a concern? From what I saw, the music incresed attention and involvement in the Mass and was beneficial.
 
liturgylady said:
not fishy…I only just stumbled upon this thread while doing research for my master’s thesis. I didn’t look at the age of the posts only the content. It was a sincere opinion posting not baiting at all.
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If you have a genuine interest in the early history of the so-called “Folk Mass” I highly recommend the book Keep the Fire Burning by Ken Canedo. You can begin by listening to the free podcasts he provides which go with each chapter in the book.

I don’t think the Traditional Catholicism section is the correct section of CAF for this topic. You might ask the Mods for help in finding a more useful location for a new thread on this topic.
 
Allegra said:
Anyway, I guess my point is that the “bluegrass Mass” seemed to be a huge success in my opinion. The music was very well played. The congregation was involved in the Mass. There were over twenty parishoners directly involved in the music of the Mass as well as four young people who were not Catholic who brought their families. The music minister that planned the Mass was careful to choose appropriate music for the lituragy that day. None of the ordinary of the Mass was changed in any way. The Eucharistic hymn was clearly more solumn and reverant. (Though I will agree that the text was not really about the Eucharist.) My question is, what is the problem with this? Is it just a matter of taste or is there really a concern? From what I saw, the music incresed attention and involvement in the Mass and was beneficial.
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I don’t think it’s up to us, but to the bishop, to decide whether there is a problem with it. All we can do is to register our feelings with him and the pastor.
 
ProVobis said:
I don’t think it’s up to us, but to the bishop, to decide whether there is a problem with it. All we can do is to register our feelings with him and the pastor.
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Maybe there’s something else to be done, too: people can also vote with their feet. 😉
 
ProVobis said:
I don’t think it’s up to us, but to the bishop, to decide whether there is a problem with it. All we can do is to register our feelings with him and the pastor.
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Fair enough. My question is why do certain people “feel” it’s a problem?
 
liturgylady said:
Who knows and who cares? If it creates a community of worshippers who are in awe of the real prese
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But did it create a generation of worshippers who are in awe of the real presence? What role do you think the music played in that, if any?

Do you happen to have a link to a Youtube of a particular mass folk song you liked back in the day?
 
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