Least Favorite Songs at Mass

[mercygate]

Didn’t St. Augustine say,“When you sing you pray twice”?
Actually, I believe he said, “He who sings well prays twice.”

 

[AmandaCatherine]

Fr. Frank:

Anyone have a source for Bach’s piece described? I’d love to listen, if it is in English especially.

You can buy it online or probably anyplace that sells classical music. It is a couple of CDs long, but I highly recommend it!

Bach also wrote St. John’s Passion, not as famous but also good.

 

[Becky]

What are your least favorite songs at Mass? I would like to nominate “Lord of the Dance” and “How Can I Keep from Singing”.

What’s wrong with “Lord of the Dance”??? In my exploration of the RCC that is one of the little jewels that I have found that I will take with me as I explore other denominations :yup:. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the other one though, but I haven’t come across a church hymn that I don’t like!

Okay, I thought of a song that I don’t like-it was something like the Salve Regina-too much emphasis on Mary IMO.

Becky

 

[Carmetta]

Any song I sang the senior year of High School (Catholic). I loved my priest, but he would choose the same songs, every single mass (once a week). And too make it worse it was like a request mass, you would submit your favourite songs and he would use them in the mass. Maybe that is why I don’t like:
Eagle’s Wings
Sing A New Song
If I Were a Butterfly…haven’t heard it here are the lyrics, plus we did the actions.
Lord of the Dance (only because I’ve heard way too many times)
Kumbaya
Here I am Lord (cute for kids not the adults)

I have to admit as an adult I do not like anything that sounds new age or “in the times”, I like hearing traditional music minus our music director attempting to vamp it up to draw in a “new crowd”.

 

[Lance_O]

:crying: I dislike all NON-Catholic songs sung in Mass, but which have made its way into the Liturgy. Such as “Amazing Grace”, on “Eagles Wings”, “here I am Lord”, and all the other feel-good psychotherapy songs. Note I say songs, not hymns, which they are NOT.
Cardinal Arize’ Help US!!!:crying:

Eagles Wings…Can’t stand that song!!!

But “Here I am Lord”… a Protestant song? :crying: I really like that song too.

 

[boppysbud]

In my opinion we should be singing hymns in church exclusively, and never songs.

There is a reason that the church uses the phrase “sacred Hymnody” while “songs” are what one hears on the jukebox.

My least favorite hymns are what the author of “WHY CATHOLICS CAN’T SING” calls the “voice of God” hymns like:

Lord of the Dance
I AM the bread of life.
On Eagle’s wings.

Why can’t Catholics sing Catholic hymns at Mass, Like Ave Verum Corpus, or Holy God we praise thy Name with such and old-fashioned thing as an Iccky old pipe organ to accompany?

 

[Fr.Frank]

Lance O:

Eagles Wings…Can’t stand that song!!!

But “Here I am Lord”… a Protestant song? :crying: I really like that song too.

Actually, “Eagle’s Wings” was written by a priest. He was just a few years ahead of me in the Seminary.

I do not know if he is still active as a priest, though.

Sorry, but it is a Catholic composer.

 

[misericordie]

Fr. Frank:

Actually, “Eagle’s Wings” was written by a priest. He was just a few years ahead of me in the Seminary.

I do not know if he is still active as a priest, though.

Sorry, but it is a Catholic composer.

Seems like a “catholic” composer who was not very familiar with Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concillium, which states that Gregorian Chant, and secondly polyphony, together with the organ as the preffered instrument, are to be given priority in the Latin rite.

 

[Edward_Pelrine]

pnewton:

I disllike Eucharistic songs (e.g. “We Come To Tell His Story”, “We Are the Body of Christ”) that focus on the community and not the more substantial presence of Christ on the altar? Such songs are fine in other places of the mass, but Communion songs should focus on the Eucharist.

There are other songs which glorify the congregation at the expense of the God we come to worship:

“Gather Us In” by the Lutheran Marty Haugen, which glorifies the congregation, and denies such Catholic beliefs as the Communion of Saints, the eschatalogical nature of the Mass, the belief that we are partaking of the heavenly liturgy during the Mass.

“Sing a New Church into Being” How egotistical and self-centered. The Church Christ established is the one for me!

“All are welcome” We don’t need to build a new Church

All these songs are congregational, thus Protestant; none mentions the Trinity, the central belief of real Christians.

I could go on and on. I am a priest who has to listen to this drivel/heresy week after week. It is very discouraging.

 

[DAWNCUROLE]

Detroit Sue:

I detest Lord of the Dance and How can I keep from singing, also. “It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back?” This is appropriate for Mass how?

At the parish where my husband is assigned, on Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, they has someone singing, “Mary Did You Know?” - I turned to my sons, they both rolled their eyes and said, “Of course She knew.” This same choir, on Palm Sunday, sang “Ho-Sanna, Hey-Sanna” from Jesus Christ Superstar as the processional. Of course, the priest loved it.

At my real parish, one of my favorite Communion hymns is “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent.” That, and “Panis Angelicus.”

Mary Did You Know and Ho-Sanna are NOT liturgically sound songs for a Catholic Liturgy.

 

[picasso_13]

Carmetta:

If I Were a Butterfly…haven’t heard it here are the lyrics, plus we did the actions.

Are you serious? I love this song. I even wen to the web link and sang it for fun. Although, we never sang it in Mass. My mom is a litugist and I learned it at a church camping trip when I was like 5 years old. I think it’s a great song for little kids…can’t seem to see where you would fit it in during Mass.

 

[Makerteacher]

How about the dreadful, “Will you let me be your servant” by R. Gillard

"Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?
Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too.
We are pilgrims on a journey, we are trav’lers on the road.
We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you in the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to god in heaven, we shall find such harmony,
born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?
Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too"

Aside from the incredibly insipid and musically kindergartenish tune, the words are all about you and me. (Please note that the lack of capitalization of the word “god” is HOW HE WROTE IT.) I despise this song enough that I refuse to sing it when the choir begins to play it, though I usually sing every song.

I also vote for the dreaded “Gather Us In” (bad theology) and “Lord of The Dance” (hubby thinks it makes Christ sound a little “swishy”) as well as the use of ANY Broadway type tunes in Mass.

I was once shocked to hear the organist play “Phantom of The Opera” as the recessional at a Catholic wedding. I kid you not.

Now I like songs like Here I am Lord, Eagle’s Wings, City of God, etc., but not in Mass. There’s fine for a prayer service, a campfire, or for private prayer or listening, but really those types of songs are not focused on the Mass as the Holy sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

 

[mercygate]

oremus:

I have always wondered if any church ever uses the Adoremus hymnal; I have never been to Mass at a church that uses them.

.

oremus

St. Thomas More Church on Manhattan’s upper East Side uses Adoremus. It is OUTSTANDING. WORSHIP III is also very good.

 

[mercygate]

pnewton:

I guess all the diversity of opinion shows that the church has used a great deal of wisdom in just setting the guidelines, then allowing those on the local level to use prudence and good judgement on what we should or should not sing. I know that my own selection of songs is approved of by my priest as being proper. They are also considered appropriate by those who compile hymnals. (Whoever these folks might be):whacky:

It is a great misfortune when a priest, whose cultlural background overall and whose musical background in particular may be utterly non-existent, exercises his personal preferences for Broadway/folk/and rock music while his knowledgeable, gifted, liturgically sensitive music director, capable of leading the choir in singing Mozart, Corelli, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Palestrina must acquiesce to his directives.

 

[mercygate]

Fr. Frank:

.

Here is something for your thoughts. Can anyone verify what I heard RE “Oh Sacred Head Surrounded”? I heard the melody was a popular love song in its day, and the words were put to it later. The idea of using popular melodies is not necessarily a bad idea. The problem would be the popular melodies(?) of today…

I have never heard that “O Sacred Head Surrounded” was a love song but Bach did such a job on it in using in the St. Matthew Passion, that it has lost any taint it might have borne on that account. It is one of the great blessings of the Second Vatican Council that Bach is now permitted in Catholic Churches.

Amazing Grace has been disparaged here, and though it may have come from a Protestant source, let’s remember that 90% of what most Christians believe overlaps. I challenge anyone to find un-Catholic theology in that hymn. Anyone who does not know the story of it should look it up. Whew! Breathtaking conversion tale.

 

[Sheen]

In “See Us Lord, About Your Altar” – I find the third and fourth verses problematic. What do y’all think?

*Once were seen the blood and water, Now are seen but bread and wine; Once in human form he suffered, Now his form is but a sign.

Wheat and grape contain the meaning: Food and drink he is to all; One in him, we kneel, adoring, Gathered by his loving call"*

In the first verse, it is correct that the Eucahrist is a sign, but it is also reality. I think this could lead the less-well-informed Catholic to consider the Eucharist merely a sign.

In the second verse, it seems to connote consubstantiation, rather than transubstantiation. Another thing that could mislead the uninformed into a less-than-accurate belief in the Real Presence.

Am I just being too nit-picky, perhaps? Or is this really a Lutheran hymn hiding out in our Catholic hymnal?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I’ve played music from “Phantom” at a Catholic wedding, but not as the recessional. I’ve played it once or twice in the music BEFORE the processional, and once well AFTER the recessional (there were over 250 people at that wedding, and so after Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary (which was the recessional) I played some of the bride/ groom “special music” which they had chosen. Mind you, I will never play anything like Meatloaf’s “Two out of three ain’t bad”, but I don’t mind doing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (Rogers and Hammerstein, from “Carousel”), or broadway-ish or popular songs in the times OUTSIDE the wedding itself, especially on solo organ, decently arranged.

 

[annejohno]

I don’t like it when the choir leaves out the congragation…maybe sing a “Gloria” that has parts and pieces for individual singers and the people can’t participate…sometimes when it is time to do the “Amen” our organist will give four harmonizing notes to the choir, which signals to the people that the choir is going to do this response, and then the people don’t sing…the choir does a lovely, protracted “Amen”…but the congregation doesn’t…

“Mary,Did You Know”, and some of the communion songs that don’t seem to recognize that it is no longer bread and wine…

But most of all, I like to “make a joyful noise”! I just wish more people would sing… I like it best when everybody participates in the responses and songs… I think songs that attract people and encourage participation are familiar and not pitched too high…and (I hope) theologically correct…

 

[hsmom2four]

This thread is so much fun! :dancing: Almost as much fun as the Responses to Unwelcome Comments on Family Size
thread!

I suddenly recall a parish we attended when dh & I were first married. We usually went to the Contemporary Choir Mass because of our work schedules, and they would have us sing the Our Father. I knew the tune was familiar, but it took a few months to finally figure it out. They were using the tune for “As Tears Go By” by the Rolling Stones!

Anyways, if you want to hear some Catholic songs set to modern tunes (okay, many of them are 80’s tunes), look for stuff by Nick Alexander. He’s a sort of Catholic Weird Al
Try this site: catholicmusicnetwork.com/cmn_search_results.asp

I keep getting “Therese of Lisieux” (done to the tune of “Electric Avenue”) stuck in my head:

You know that God spoke through
Therese of Lisieux
Known as the Little Flower…

OH, and I will definitely tell our parish organist about the Bunny Hop connection to “Lord of the Dance.” Maybe she’ll finally stop playing it…

---

 

[Marie]

Fr. Frank:

Actually, “Eagle’s Wings” was written by a priest. He was just a few years ahead of me in the Seminary.

I do not know if he is still active as a priest, though.

Sorry, but it is a Catholic composer.

Fr Frank,

The last I heard on Fr Joncas was a report that he was quite ill but still a priest.

**Background information: ** Rev Michael Joncas is a liturgical composer, author, speaker, and professor who wrote the song “On Eagles Wings” in 1978 while attaining his MA in liturgy from Notre Dame, and later pursued further academic’s at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of the Pontifical Athenaeum, San Anselmo in Rome. During that interim, he was ordained in 1980 as a priest for the archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis. In Minnesota, he collaborated with two of his colleagues, Marty Haugen and David Haas, (GIA publications)

In the spring of 2003 he was struck with Guillain-Barre syndrome [GBS] and Landry’s ascending paralysis.

He currently is able to live alone on the University of St. Thomas campus and get around without any assistive devices but is still recovering the last I heard.

As far as I can decern it, he has not yet returned to full-time classroom teaching. Yes, he is a Catholic composer and priest as you said Father. If you like his music or hate it, we should all pray for him that he will recover fully. Who knows…He may become deeply inspired by his suffering to write something everyone will praise.
jmj,
Marie

Fr Jan Michael Joncas