Least Favorite Songs at Mass

  • Thread starter Thread starter ireland
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
40.png
JSmitty2005:
I know, but how can it say that? I’m new to all this, so I don’t really know what I’m talking about. Can you explain how this doesn’t deny the Real Presence?
Click to expand...
We’re starting to wander a bit off topic but…

This comes from verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 11. Paul refers to the Body and Blood of Jesus as the ‘bread’ and the ‘cup’. But if you read it in context (see verse 29) you see that he is AFFIRMING that it is Jesus’ Body and Blood rather than denying it.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, 24 and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

New American Bible

Copyright © by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
 
40.png
SMHW:
We’re starting to wander a bit off topic but…

This comes from verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 11. Paul refers to the Body and Blood of Jesus as the ‘bread’ and the ‘cup’. But if you read it in context (see verse 29) you see that he is AFFIRMING that it is Jesus’ Body and Blood rather than denying it.
Click to expand...
Thanks, makes sense now! 👍
 
I love “How can I keep From Singing” I first heard it on a Prarie Home Companion cassette tape I listened to on a long road trip. It was lovely and inspiring. The Irish girl who sang it with an Irish accent said it was an old Irish folk song. I have since heard it at mass copied the lyrics there and search out some things about it. I found it to be attributed to others, found three different versions and its lyrics tweaked to suit the authors. I like the Irish version and it souds original and in that sense catholic to me.
 
Lately we’ve been treated to a truckload of Marty Haugen at Mass - they are all terrible! However, the worst is something called “Shepherd Me O Lord” - the way our choir sings it, it sounds like something from Iron Butterfly. Then again, everything they do sounds awful, now that they decided to stop using the organ and wasted the parish’s money on a Casio instead. :eek:
 
Paganus said:
However, the worst is something called “Shepherd Me O Lord” - the way our choir sings it, it sounds like something from Iron Butterfly.
Click to expand...
Now, I have this mental image of a church choir singing “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. 😃

I tend not to like anything written in 3/4 time, especially if it really sounds waltz-y. Ugh.
 
Paganus said:
Lately we’ve been treated to a truckload of Marty Haugen at Mass - they are all terrible! However, the worst is something called “Shepherd Me O Lord” - the way our choir sings it, it sounds like something from Iron Butterfly. Then again, everything they do sounds awful, now that they decided to stop using the organ and wasted the parish’s money on a Casio instead. :eek:
Click to expand...
I am happy to say that this one is on my list of things I refuse to sing. I’m now the music director and cantor at my parish and I told the priest point blank there are some hymns that I simply will not sing. Fortunately we haven’t disagreed on anything quite yet.
I tend not to like anything written in 3/4 time, especially if it really sounds waltz-y. Ugh.
Click to expand...
It kind of reminds me of my grandfather’s funeral. The organist was terrible and the only thing she could do was play in 3/4. Amazing Grace was rather horrifying with that consistent “Oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah” beat.
 
dutch said:
“how can i keep from singing” and “lord of the dance” are terrible. i nominate both of those as being the worst. the funny thing is that “how can i keep from singing” is a shaker song. nothing like using protestant-cult songs in a catholic mass. Does anyone remember this bad folk song called “sing hosana”? it keep repeating that over and over and finish with sing alleluia. it made me want to bash the guitar over the hippie’s head who was singing it.
Click to expand...
:crying: We had a women teaching the kids latin songs last year at our Catholic school. This year we have exactly what you are describing. WHY!!! Literally it made me cry when they began to sing Lord of the Dance, and that hosana thing. We had such a wonderful thing happening and now it all seems destroyed!
 
What about “There is Nothing Known About This Woman,” which sounds like a historical-critical camp tune but proceeds to list quite a few things known about the Blessed Mother? Then there is that sappy (my sappy list covers much of OCP) “Supper of the Lord,” in which the opening refrain of 'Precious Body, Precious Blood, here in bread and wine" accurately describes Lutheran consubstantiality.
 
ireland said:
😦 What are your least favorite songs at Mass? I would like to nominate “Lord of the Dance” and “How Can I Keep from Singing”.
Click to expand...
I like a lot of contemporary Catholic music. I’d never heard “Lord of the Dance” until this last Christmas at a Revels concert. It’s almost totally secular! What dance? It wasn’t until the last verse when they finally got around to talking about a tree that I figured out the Lord of the Dance was either God or Christ and not Michael Flatley. What has this got to do with anything? That is one that even I would not like to hear at Mass.

I feel confused… 😃
 
cecilia97 said:
I like a lot of contemporary Catholic music. I’d never heard “Lord of the Dance” until this last Christmas at a Revels concert. It’s almost totally secular! What dance? It wasn’t until the last verse when they finally got around to talking about a tree that I figured out the Lord of the Dance was either God or Christ and not Michael Flatley. What has this got to do with anything? That is one that even I would not like to hear at Mass.

I feel confused… 😃
Click to expand...
I’ve heard “Lord of the Dance” on a Donovan CD and in a concert by a contemporary Celtic group. As long as it’s done in a secular context, it’s fine. I’m not quite sure how it found its way into Worship III – mercifully, we have not done that one in my parish yet. Its author, Sidney Carter, wrote another one, “Said Judas to Mary,” that is likewise amazingly in Worship III (and not done in our church). I say “amazingly” because it bears such kinship to “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”
 
I’m Lutheran, but I haven’t heard a ton of bad communion hymns in my time. Or at least I haven’t been forced to sing many. My two favorites are:

O Lord We Praise Thee

O Lord, we praise Thee, bless Thee, and adore Thee,
In thanksgiving bow before Thee.
Thou with Thy body and Thy blood didst nourish
Our weak souls that they may flourish.
O Lord, have mercy!
May Thy body, Lord, born of Mary
That our sins and sorrow did carry,
And Thy blood for us plead in all trial, fear and need:
O Lord, have mercy!

Thy holy body into death was given,
Life to win for us in heaven.
No greater love than this to Thee could bind us;
May this feast thereof remind us!
O Lord, have mercy!
Lord, Thy kindness did so constrain Thee
That Thy blood should bless and sustain me.
All our debt Thou hast paid; peace with God once more is made:
O Lord, have mercy!

May God bestow on us His grace and favor
To please Him with our behavior
And live as brethren here in love and union
Nor repent this blessed Communion!
O Lord, have mercy!
Let not Thy good Spirit forsake us;
Grant that heavenly minded He make us;
Give Thy church, Lord, to see days of peace and unity;
O Lord, have mercy!

-Martin Luther

annnndd…

I Come O Savior to Thy Table

I come, O Savior, to Thy Table,
For weak and weary is my soul;
Thou, Bread of Life, alone art able
To satisfy and make me whole:

REFRAIN:
Lord, may Thy body and Thy blood
Be for my soul the highest good!

Oh, grant that I in manner worthy
May now approach Thy heavenly Board
And, as I lowly bow before Thee,
Look only unto Thee, O Lord!

Unworthy though I am, O Savior,
Because I have a sinful heart,
Yet Thou Thy lamb wilt banish never
For Thou my faithful Shepherd art!

Thy heart is filled with fervent yearning
That sinners may salvation see
Who, Lord, to Thee in faith are turning;
So I, a sinner, come to Thee.

Weary am I and heavy laden,
With sin my soul is sore opprest;
Receive me graciously, and gladden
My heart, for I am now Thy guest.

Thou here wilt find a heart most lowly
That humbly falls before Thy feet,
That duly weeps o’er sin, yet solely
Thy merit pleads, as it is meet.

By faith I call Thy holy Table
The testament of Thy deep love;
For, lo, thereby I now am able
To see how love Thy heart doth move.

What higher gift can we inherit?
It is faith’s bond and solid base;
It is the strength of heart and spirit,
The covenant of hope and grace.

This feast is manna, wealth abounding
Unto the poor, to weak ones power,
To angels joy, to hell confounding,
And life for us in death’s dark hour.

Thy body, given for me, O Savior,
Thy blood which Thou for me didst shed,
These are my life and strength forever,
By them my hungry soul is fed.

With Thee, Lord, I am now united;
I live in Thee and Thou in me.
No sorrow fills my soul, delighted
It finds its only joy in Thee.

Who can condemn me now? For surely
The Lord is nigh, who justifies.
No hell I fear, and thus securely,
With Jesus I to heaven rise.

Though death may threaten with disaster,
It cannot rob me of my cheer;
For He who is of death the Master
With aid and comfort e’er is near.

My heart has now become Thy dwelling,
O blessed Holy Trinity.
With angels I, Thy praises telling,
Shall live in joy eternally.
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
Then there is that sappy (my sappy list covers much of OCP) “Supper of the Lord,” in which the opening refrain of 'Precious Body, Precious Blood, here in bread and wine" accurately describes Lutheran consubstantiality.
Click to expand...
I don’t think I agree…

Precious Body, Precious Blood…here in bread and wine
Here the Lord prepares a feast divine
Break of love is broken now, cup of wine outpoured come share the supper of the lord

How is this different than those hymns based on “draw near”…

There is nothing unCatholic about the Supper of the Lord
 
Bumping for those who went to Mass today (Ash Wednesday) and had to endure Tom Conry’s “Ashes”! Aaagggghhhhh! I flat-out refused to sing it. I don’t sing “Anthem” either.
 
Cygnus_X1 said:
Bumping for those who went to Mass today (Ash Wednesday) and had to endure Tom Conry’s “Ashes”! Aaagggghhhhh! I flat-out refused to sing it.
Click to expand...
I had to sing it, because I’m in the choir. 😃

And I ended up with it as an earworm, too. :rotfl:

We didn’t sing “Anthem”, but we did sing “Signed by Ashes” 😛 (another earworm).
 
My parish has started “fasting” from music for Lent. :rolleyes: So, instead of singing, someone plays a BONGO during the processional and recessional. People were laughing openly at this during the Ash Wednesday masses. Hopefully, it’ll change before this Sunday. Something that won’t be changed is the fact that the choir likes to chant things that aren’t meant to be chanted… like “Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry… etc” over and over and over again during the offertory and communion in Lent. Last year, I went to another parish for Sunday mass because I couldn’t stand it- too distracting. I’m asking for more strength this year.

So, my least favorite song at mass is a bongo accompaniment to the entrance procession.
 
Katholish said:
For referrence purposes, here are the lyrics for “Lord of the Dance”

I danced in the morning when the world was begun, and I
Danced in the moon and the stars and the sun, and I
Came down from Heaven and I danced on the earth, at
Bethlehem I had my birth.

Dance, then, wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the
Dance, said He. I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be, I will
Lead you all in the dance, said He.

I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee, but they
Would not dance and they wouldn’t follow me,
I danced for the fishermen, for James and John, they
Came with me and the dance went on.

Dance, then wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the
Dance, said He. I’ll lead you all , wherever you may be, I will
Lead you all in the dance, said He.

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame, the
Holy people, they said it was a shame, they
Whipped and they stripped and they hung me high, and they
Left me there on a cross to die.

Dance, then wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the
Dance, said He. I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be, I will
Lead you all in the dance, said He.

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black, it’s
Hard to dance with the devil on your back, they
Buried my body and they thought I’d gone, but
I am the dance and I still go on.

Dance, then wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the
Dance, said He. I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be, I will
Lead you all in the dance, said He.

They cut me down and I leap up high,
I am the the life that’ll never, never die, I’ll
Live in you if you’ll live in me,
I am the Lord of the Dance said He.

Dance, then wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the
Dance, said He. I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be, I will
Lead you all in the dance, said He.
Click to expand...
Way back in them olden days (the 1960s) we used this tune – Simple Gifts of Shaker origin – with different words. I loved the song then:

All our hope of salvation
All our trust in the Lord
Is the Holy Spirit, evermore adored…
In bearing faithful witness to His True Light
We offer…God’s own Son made our right.

Can’t remember a lot of it I’m afraid, but then the chorus goes

When human understanding fails
With patience and mercy…
To lead…
And in Jesus Christ we find our light.

Does anyone know this? It was really a nice song, and a favorite of ours in grade school. I’ve been trying to remember the words, but my brain has turned into Swiss cheese and there are too many things falling out the holes.
 
CarolAnnSFO said:
I had to sing it, because I’m in the choir. 😃

And I ended up with it as an earworm, too. :rotfl:

We didn’t sing “Anthem”, but we did sing “Signed by Ashes” 😛 (another earworm).
Click to expand...
Poor you.

I think I’d rather sing Rush’s “Anthem”, only slightly less appropriate.

[SIGN]That’s a
joke, son.[/SIGN]
 
CD4 said:
<<<it sounds almost exactly like The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald!>>>

Funny, because I have often thought the same thing…
Click to expand...
Our choir refers to it as the sea chanty. I can almost hear the pirate version. We call Hosea the drinking song. Try it while swinging an imaginary beer stein.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top