Is your parish violating Musicam Sacram?

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po18guy said:
That’s also biblical!
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Yes it is. But as in all situations where it is claimed that Scripture is distorted, proof-texted, or misused, there must be a sound argument as to how this is done, lest all Scripture be disregarded and subjectivism rule. Most of what I spoke of is in perfect concert with the meaning and the words of Jesus, or of Paul.

I wonder if on balance the music of the Church mirrors the teaching of Jesus. After all, he went through most of his ministry without any focus on Calvary. Likewise, he taught more positive than negative, though he did speak also of repentance often. Yet he taught more on other matters.

Paul likewise spoke more on Christian living than on evangelism. Naturally, he was speaking to Churches. The Catholic Church is seasonal by nature. Lent and Advent are times of repentance, signified by purple. Ordinary time is time of teaching, signified by green. Christmas and Easter are time of rejoicing signified by Gold. I have heard it said we are an Easter people. I have never heard it said we are a Lenten people. Yet, we must have that time to reflect on our need for repentance.

I do not know if anyone has ever crunched the numbers, but it seems to me the liturgical calendar pretty well mirrors the emphasis from Scripture.
 
Edmundus1581 said:
It was music of an era - an era which was optimistic with the changes afoot in liturgy, ecumenism etc, and these musicians were contributing good music as part of a “movement”.
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This is excellent–absolutely spot-on! I was trying to find the right phrase, and you nailed it with “music of an era.”

For this reason alone–it’s worth keeping and singing the St. Louis Jesuits’ songs and other songs of the 1970s. Even the secular pop music of that time is happy and hopeful;e.g., the Carpenters, the 5th Dimension, the Monkees, etc.

Although many of us were still reeling from the sickness of 1968–the riots, the assassinations, and the Viet Nam war, the early 70s were a time before Watergate–although many of us disliked Pres. Nixon, we didn’t know yet what he was capable of, and so we still respected him and the Office of President of the United States. We can actually hear this trust and naivety in these hymns–that’s probably one reason why younger people today dislike the hymns so much–they have never known a time in their lives when they were hopeful and trusting of the government (even though Pres. Nixon was called "Tricky D—y by Democrats!).

And the Viet Nam war was over, most families were two-parent with a Daddy and Mommy, public schools were still teaching Christian-centered history and literature and saying Merry CHRISTMAS and singing Christmas carols in their CHRISTMAS program (right before the CHRISTMAS break!), and the Civil Rights Act was actually making a difference in the attitudes of white people towards black people.

To me, these 50 year-old Catholic hymns, so despised by many Catholics, are a picture of an era of hope and excitement and gathering on a hilltop to drink a Coke-A-Cola (not use coke, i.e., cocaine and crack cocaine) and wait for peace to rule the planets.

As for Catholicism–I believe 1972 was the date of the “I Found It!” campaign by Campus Crusade for Christ–and in our city, the Catholic parish that my husband and I are now members of (after converting in 2004!) was one of THREE Catholic parishes to join with 90 other Protestant churches and work to evangelize our city by presenting Jesus Christ to them!!! Now THAT’S hopeful! It was at that time that the pastor of my church became good friends, lifelong friends, with the priest at that parish, and I believe it was at that time, when i was a young teenager, that my accepting and respectful attitude towards Catholicism was developed through the example of my Evangelical Protestant pastor!

Good times. Stop disparaging them and the hymns that brings us back to that time of hope and optimism.
 
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I was shocked by the parody. It sounded to me like a jab at the image of Good Shepherd but you were joking so all is well?
Do you know why we don’t hear bad old hymns any more! Because we only hear ones that have withstood the test of time.
 
Mi_Rose said:
Do you know why we don’t hear bad old hymns any more! Because we only hear ones that have withstood the test of time.
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That’s not quite true. We hear the ones the choir director grew up with and those are the 1970s hymns.

Last Saturday, as every Saturday, we had no choir or musicians and two ladies with beautiful voices sang the Entrance Hymn (Immaculate Mary), the Gospel Acclamation, the Communion Hymn (Gift of Finest Wheat), the Recessional Hymn (Hail, Holy Queen). Guess which one most people didn’t sing and which one they all joined in heartily? If you guessed that few, if any sang, the Communion hymn but all joined in both the Immaculate Mary and even more heartily in Hail, Holy Queen you’d be correct. There is a love for the traditional hymns. It’s also the case where the average age of the congregation that day was probably in the 40s, brought down by the number of young immigrants who’ve moved to our parish in recent years. 5 years ago the average age at a Saturday Mass was probably 60.
 
The test of time? The majority of the hymns you hear date from 1970 something.

You were ‘shocked’ by a literal sentence?
You accuse me of jabbing at an image of the Good Shepherd?
Sorry, that is just unkind and unfair.
You know what? I’m erasing the original post if I can, not because of you or anybody else’s ‘shock’ and horror but because, believe it or not, I have feelings too.
I get hurt when people misunderstand. But I’d rather move on and ‘delete’ if it’s important to people, even if I KNOW it wasn’t meant meanly and even if some find it amusing or 'not a big deal.
 
By old hymns I mean “Immaculate Mary” etc. Those are the ones that have stood the test of time. In 100 years we may still hear a few 70s hymns or not.
 
Ah yes, the “I found it!” campaign.
So often answered with “I never lost it!”
Is it possible that the tacky sloganeering did more harm than good?
 
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In the 70’s, it wasn’t that tacky, though that is a subjective opinion. I do know the campaign helped a lot of people. Also, it was hardly the only ecumenical collaboration. Local Catholic parishes also contributed evangelical crusades here. These efforts may well have been, as they were for me, the first contact many had with Catholics, leading to an understanding that Catholics are Christian brothers, not some cult.

This has affected the demographics of my parish church. I wonder if we would be about half Protestant converts if not for these earlier efforts. These sort of demographic shifts is one thing that drives the culture of a parish. For example, my own parish is only marginally from the European tradition, what is thought of as traditional Roman Catholicism, or cultural Catholics. (I know my terms or loose and imprecise.) Instead, we are mostly Protestant converts, mostly more fundamentalist, less charismatic, and first generation Hispanic. This is impacts our liturgy in the area of music.
 
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