How great thou art

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Startingcatholic

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I come from a non denominational and southern Baptist background but will be coming into the church this Easter. But I was wondering if the song “How Great Thou Art” which I personally love was heretical or had a reason I shouldn’t sing it?
 
We sometimes sing that at our church. So if there is something wrong with it, I don’t know what that would be. 🙂
 
We sing it at church sometimes! I haven’t thought through the lyrics but nothing heretical comes to mind. Did something about the words sound “off” to you? Maybe share the section you’re concerned with.
 
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For the life of me, I cannot find anything even slightly heretical or un-Catholic about this hymn.

The closest I could come, would be to say that it refers to “other worlds” and thus sounds vaguely Mormon-ish (think of the hymn “If You Could Hie To Kolob”), but that would be really, really nitpicking and a huge stretch. That borders on trying to find something “wrong” with it, which I have no interest in doing.

I like HGTA very much myself. Here are the lyrics:

O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art

And when I think of God, His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And lead me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow with humble adoration
And then proclaim, my God, how great Thou art

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
 
it is a devotional song. It is not appropriate to liturgical music in the Mass, but is entirely appropriate to devotional music
 
Personally, I love the song. It is one my favorite traditional, gospel hymns. The parish where I sometimes go to Daily Mass sings it almost every day as a closing hymn.
 
GiftofMercy said:
it is a devotional song. It is not appropriate to liturgical music in the Mass, but is entirely appropriate to devotional music
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Why do you feel this way? What about the song is objectionable for liturgical use?
 
My parish is traditionally oriented and we sing that hymn, iirc, as the final hymn.
 
The hymn appears in both of the Catholic hymnals we use at my parish church, namely, The St Michael Hymnal and Oramos Cantando/We Pray in Song. Both hymnals are published with ecclesiastical approval.
 
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Startingcatholic said:
But I was wondering if the song “How Great Thou Art” which I personally love was heretical or had a reason I shouldn’t sing it?
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It’s in the current Catholic hymnals and is frequently sung at Mass. It was sung last Sunday at my church.
Therefore the Church doesn’t see anything wrong with it, and neither should you.

Some Catholics will likely have individual issues with it, either because they consider it a “Protestant hymn” or because they consider it inappropriate for Mass. As shown by all the music discussion threads on this forum, there are a wide range of opinions on what music is appropriate for Mass; some people even believe that Gregorian chant is the only music that’s appropriate for Mass. Please understand these are the opinions of individuals, not the position of the Church, which as I said permits the song to be used.

My only complaint with it is that Catholic organists often do not play the song in the tempo I’m used to hearing it, but rather in strict 4/4 time, which to me causes it to sound wrong and stiff.
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
The closest I could come, would be to say that it refers to “other worlds” and thus sounds vaguely Mormon-ish (think of the hymn “If You Could Hie To Kolob”), but that would be really, really nitpicking and a huge stretch.
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Actually, at least one Catholic hymnal I have seen it in apparently had the same concern and changed the lyric to “all the WORKS thy hands have made”. With an asterisk and footnote noting the change.

Which I thought was nit-picky and unnecessary, because obviously God has created more than one world, namely this world and the next…and other planets, galaxies etc might be considered other “worlds” as well. Oh well. A world is a work, so I can live with it, but still unnecessary IMHO.
 
I don’t see anything in the hymn that would seem questionable. Becoming the Archetype has my favorite version of the song:

 
It is the definition of liturgical vs devotional that I refer to. Liturgical music is for all the community and its lyrics reflect a ‘for all’ . ‘We’ , ‘our’, or of God speaking to us.

Devotional music , for example ‘Amazing Grace’ discusses the individual. It has words like ‘I’ and ‘my’ in the lyrics. These are still beautiful songs, but not suitable as hymns during the Mass. They are great for devotional practices. 🙂
 
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What part of it do you think might be heretical? Is there something specific making you ask this question?
 
That seems a bit overly restrictive, given that the Mass frequently uses Scripture readings that are very much in the first person.

The fact that the lyrics are not written with “we” does not mean we can’t collectively all join together in the sentiment, any more than we can’t all jointly listen and respond to a Psalm or other Scripture reading using “I” and “my”.

In any event, there are dozens of first-person songs currently in the approved Catholic hymnals, and while you might object to them all on the same grounds, “How Great Thou Art” is not unusual in that regard.
 
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Its the official definition of liturgical music. Liturgy being for the assembly, devotion being for the individual.

That is how the music of the Mass is viewed. The ‘we’ vs the ‘I’ And yes it is restrictive and that is the reason why. I am not the one objecting to first person hymns in hymnals, I am restating the liturgical case as written in that great musical document of the Vatican whose name escapes me at the moment.
 
I love that song and we’ve sung it at my Catholic church for as long as I can remember (since I was a little boy) so no need to worry.
 
Yes, well I am not a fan of the over-emphasis on “community” manifested in so much that’s come out since Vatican II. We have similar discussions on the “mass posture” threads which I have stopped participating in, and this thread is also reminding me that I shouldn’t be participating in music threads on here either because they do not inspire positive thoughts or emotions in me and are not helpful to me in my faith journey as a Catholic. The imposition of “community” in this overly micro-managed manner, where one has to worry about simple gestures and the pronouns in hymns, simply fosters in me a disdain for the concept of “community” overall as being some sort of bothersome politically-correct thinking forced unnecessarily upon us rather than evolving naturally.

I’m very happy that “How Great Thou Art” and many other songs with “I” and “Me” and other first person experiences of the Lord remain in many approved Catholic hymn books. I hope we will continue to have a wide variety of Mass music available for years to come. I will leave it at that and mute accordingly now.
 
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This hymn was my parents’ favorite, and was played at both of their funerals. In fact, Ralna English of Lawrence Welk Show fame emailed her Christian award-winning version to be used at mom’s funeral. Mom got involved with the Welk Noters after dad passed.

I believe we sang it as either the offertory or communion hymn this past Sunday. I have a difficult time singing it because of the sentimental value it has for me personally.

“Worlds,” to me, meant those other worlds we don’t know about out there. There’s also worlds as in anthills, etc.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/holyangels/id9.html/
 
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