Gather Us In hymn

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“Gather Us In” is a Lutheran hymn. I believe it was written by Marty Haugen, a Lutheran. I’ve never understood why Catholics would accept protestant hymns at a Catholic Mass. Sign of the times we’re in I guess. How the Church has changed!
 
I think the reason why people are so opinionated about this song is that people are just so opinionated period.

Some complaints are contradictory even. It is too complicated. It is too simple. For me, I don’t like the first line, musically. I bite the bullet every year or two and play it, but it is my least favorite entrance. The words are okay, as in “meh.” They remind me of the more classic hymn that seeks to include a lot of thought as opposed to poetic repetition.
 
I had one more thought for the OP. CAF is not very representative of Catholics. Just because most people here do not like it does not mean that most Catholics do not. In fact, the frequency of its use would indicate the opposite.
 
I have always wondered if they are referring to rich people and haughty people separately, or do they mean rich, haughty people?
 
Hi Theo2, It’s really not “too bad” to follow my conscience. It’s a good thing. If you hope for greater participation, you just are not going to get it with these tired wimpy folk songs. You will get better participation with better songs. We really go to Mass because we love and seek the Lord, and our deepest desire - because it’s how we were designed - it to praise and glorify God. So when we have songs that do that, the people will sing, because it will meet that deepest need we all have.

When we sang in my Evangelical Protestant churches it was about worshiping and praising God - not ourselves. And when I converted, I still worshipped and praised the same God! And i was not about to lessen my praise to God, and sing, instead, at Mass before God Himself, about myself, or about we the people, or pretending myself to be the voice of God.

I followed my conscience and the truth, in order to be Catholic. To sing these silly folky songs at Mass is to violate both my conscience and the truth. It’s not all about “everybody jump on the bandwagon”. If the wagon has a broken axle, better not get on it. I think I help our Church more by keeping quiet, because the silence can help usher in some improvement. Like, why not Gregorian chant? It’s not hard to learn and master. Unlike the complicated irish ditty melodies that so many songs are.

So I think your dream of everyone singing at Mass is unlikely, due to the songs, and due to other unsuccessful recent traditions, like the soloist who sings into a microphone so that you have to pretend you are singing a duet with them, as it’s the sole voice you hear. They sing the awful windy, long, sing-songy melodies well (mostly), but they are not designed for congregational singing, which is obvious every Sunday.

I felt sadness and emptiness at the “hymns” sung at Catholic Mass from the start. The discomfort never went away. At first I took it as a challenge to master the meandering folk melodies. But I felt empty doing so, and I stopped.

When stumbled on a used book, “Why Catholics Can’t Sing”, I was eager to read it. Wow, was that revealing. Yes, it made sense. It was that book that explained why the new tradition of having a lead singer with a microphone leading the songs was a key ingredient to a non-singing congregation. It’s a heady thing for a (usually) amateur solist, but it doesn’t help the parish worship. (I have also heard very good singers belting it out, microphoned. It’s horrible because of the maxed-volume. If they have the ability to belt out their voices, they certainly should not have microphones!
 
That book, “Why Catholics Can’t Sing”, has been out awhile, but it hasn’t led to very much change. A good thing is a few parishes have used it as a model for good church music, which can be very beautiful, holy and inspiring, whether it is very simple or more complicated. But the fact that most parishes are still stuck in music of 1972 I suspect has a lot to do with our floundering and unholy leadership - the bishops especially, that we are learning so much about in the news lately. So many have been so busy with - other things, sick things - and not the kingdom of God. And their preoccupation with sin and worldliness is directly reflected in the poor quality of music in the Masses. It just has not been on their priority list, this business of worship and praise in song…

One thing i hate is the way so many parishes sing the Gloria. That LAST thing it sounds like to me is glorious! I feel offended, and deflated when we sing it that way. It does make me wish we could just speak it rather than sing it. So when I saw a Facebook group named “Society for a Moratorium on Music of Marty Haugen” I was amused - but also sincere, and signed right up. One interesting thing that came through was about what I will post in a link below. (Not sure this was the original source or not). That Gloria melody I abhor? It’s a dead-ringer for "My Little Pony! You can listen to them both on this link:

pblosser.blogspot.com

Dan Schutte's "Glory to God" and <i>My Little Pony</i>

Jeff Ostrowski, " Why Can't We Use Secular Music During Mass? " (Views from the Choir Loft, February 13, 2014), includes this remarkably t...
pblosser.blogspot.com pblosser.blogspot.com

I don’t mean to make people discouraged. we cannot be discouraged because with God all things are possible. Better music at Mass. Bishops who repent and do penance. Good priests and bishops who are willing to speak the truth no matter the cost. People who go to Mass and love the Lord and seek his will. With prayer, all things are possible. Think how discouraged Jesus must have been at times seeing the world around him. And seeing ahead how bad it cold get. But He kept on going, and kept loving and doing God’s will anyway.
 
Because it is about adoring God, and the deepest desire of your heart is to do so.
 
I get it. But sometimes our new mass is a bit watered down. Again, most young people ancient Christianity. Not a modernized Christianity. I am thinking about joining the Eastern Rite myself for this reason.
 
Here is a good article on why Dan Schutte’s My Little Pony Mass is so awful. I include it especially because the author has links for better music for Masses.:

www.ccwatershed.org

Dan Schutte's “Missa My Little Pony” (2nd Part)

My original article was shared 4,000 times and generated a surprising amount of hate mail.
www.ccwatershed.org www.ccwatershed.org
 
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I want to mention though;
I have been to a few Novus Ordo Masses that actually were very holy. The singing and choir was beautiful, they used the organ, the sanctuary before and after mass were dead silent, people stayed after mass to thank God for his sacrifice.

It is possible to have a Novus Ordo Mass that really feels like the angels and saints are in our midst.
 
It is certainly a less-bad Marty song. I love 23rd Psalm. Marty’s “Shepherd Me” is the 23rd with a little “extra me”… that is what makes me also not want to sing it. But it is certainly less offensive.
 
I don’t understand. Isn’t it BOTH? How can you receive the Lord in communion and not see the private intimacy of that?

It seems to me that you are instead saying that Mass is EITHER communal OR private (and its NOT both) - and that it is ONLY communal.

This idea cannot be right. It HAS to be both!

And I think the idea that its “either/or” and NOT “both/and” is the theological error of this day and these times that causes us to sing annoying hippy dippy happy songs during communion - the time at Mass most critical to be privately collected and PRAYERFUL. But you have to compete with Marty-music, or some hip song about “our meal”! Believe me, I am not thinking of a MEAL during communion. I ALWAYS wonder why communion is not silence, or at least very, very subtle background music to support where our minds are at that moment. Is communion not the WHOLE CENTRAL POINT of the Mass? It is! If it weren’t, I would still be Protestant! The music is better and holier, believe me!

Not having appropriate music during communion is one of the things that makes me saddest about the Masses in these (sad) times.
 
Thanks for this. As an artist, i agree with the article on the modern art. I know I do not like the modern music, pop and rock and worse, heavy metal and such, so much of the modern songs. There were very few popular songs growing up that i liked. I was just not a fan personally of music, and untrained as a musician anyway. I feel sad for so many of the young who are musically inclined and who have so little to choose from in music, and get hooked on disorder in this disordered world. I don’t know music well but I know what is beautiful and what is not. I get the feeling from it, the modern stuff, that it is disordered, so I completely believe it can be explained as you explained it.
 
If nothing else, can we at least agree that not all music is equally appropriate and effective in lifting our hearts in worship to God?
Or is it all relative…
 
Still the best:


The snare of the Fowler will never capture me! evil laugh.
 
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Godfollower said:
Well, let’s not go down that road, or someone might point out that you can sing the lyrics of “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Theme from Gilligan’s Island.”
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It can, but it works much better to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun”.

D
 
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