Just speaking of the first verse, I don’t see how it’s praising anyone except God. God provided the created natural environment, and to me it has always been a song of gratitude (first half) and prayer (second half). How on earth is it self-praise?
For the second verse, as a Catholic and a Virginian, I’m not as keen on pilgrims as the author of the lyrics, but again, certainly not self-praise. And the second-half is an excellent prayer:
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Difficult to explain other than what has been said. It’s a little bug-bear. I think, as posters have mentioned, that a prayer is different to a song, in the sense that one is praying TO God For America. But this song seems to be singing to America with the inclusion of God. Also, God transcends human law, though human law and authority is of God. But the difference between worldly law and God’s law are not always in sync.
I think too, there is a danger of bringing too much of the…oh, how lovely is creation…sort of thinking into what is a mystically-founded, though visibly instituted Church, meant to be focused on the Sacrifice of the Mass, that heals us, and restores us, spiritually.
In my mind, praise in Church is fitting for the subject of God and His saving plan, inclusive of those who have undertaken this plan, with unbending faith and commitment.
Allegory, metaphor etc…within hymns to God, is a different scenario, because creation reflects the beauty of God, as opposed to the subject being about a country as the object, with God as the secondary subject.
The third and fourth verses are iffy to my mind, but who gets that far? Certainly I agree with others that it would be appropriate only for the recessional, but you seem (please pardon me if I am misunderstanding) to think there is something wrong about singing it at all. That singing it would be praising ourselves and hinder our feeling of brotherhood with people in other countries.
Yeah, maybe I do.
There are places in the Mass, in the Bidding Prayers, where it would be entirely suitable to pray for one’s country (for example).
I can’t imagine singing in Church about the U.K; the only sentence I could think would be appropriate after this intro, would be: “be converted…and quick about it!”.
I’m not knocking the song as a song in itself, but just being sung in Mass; I think such a scenario would make me shift uncomfortably. I am sure America is a country that is greatly blessed with a great and firm faith to accompany it, from what I have read.
Well, in our parish, we pray every week for our bishop and the faithful of the diocese. Is this wrong too, hindering our feelings of brotherhood with people in other dioceses? I don’t personally think so. I think we have a responsibility to pray for our diocese and our country, not to the exclusion of all others, but in the same way that we pray for our own families. Sometimes that prayer can be in song.
I think this is a slightly different scenario, because when this is the case, you are praying for the Church, and wider world, within the context of the Mass.
Just my opinion, btw…
