Music at Mass: Amazing Grace?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jjsmity
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

jjsmity

Guest
Hi I was just wondering do Catholics sing songs at mass and if so what kind of songs?. Do you guys ever sing amazing grace?.
 
Yes, we sing Amazing Grace. And Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is our God” and a bunch of other hymns normally associated with protestant worship. We have several Negro spirituals.

We’re not supposed to sing anything congregationally that has not been approved for liturgical use by the American Bishops (USCCB), but many protestant hymns are approved.

And, of course, we have an ancient and rich Catholic musical heritage to go along.

We don’t sing at all Masses, but if there is singing, there will usually be at least four hymns.
 
DavidFilmer said:
Yes, we sing Amazing Grace. And Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is our God” and a bunch of other hymns normally associated with protestant worship. We have several Negro spirituals.

We’re not supposed to sing anything congregationally that has not been approved for liturgical use, but many protestant hymns are approved.

And, of course, we have an ancient and rich Catholic musical heritage to go along.
Click to expand...
awesome, love to hear it. Oh mary dont you weep, that is catholic right? Love it. What are some more famous catholic hymns that are song?. I would love to listen to them and read the lyrics.
 
Yes we sing Amazing Grace, but we don’t do it like I have heard it done in some Baptist churches. Man, I love the music in Baptist churches. Seriously you guys have the best music hands down!

I secretly wish I was Baptist just for the music. Man, I wish we could all just get together.
 
jjsmity said:
Oh mary dont you weep, that is catholic right?
Click to expand...
Sounds Catholic, but I don’t think I’ve ever sung it.
What are some more famous catholic hymns that are song?
Click to expand...
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent is my favorite Catholic song (sung here by the Mormons). You may be familiar with it - it has been widely adopted as a Christmas song, and if you stick to the first verse it fits. But it’s really a song about Eucharist.
Lord of Lord in human vesture
In the Body and the Blood
He will give to all the Faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Click to expand...
That’s Eucharist.

There’s another one that I’m having a hard time recalling. If I remember, I’ll post it.

Of course, there are scads of Marian hymns. Wikipedia even has an article dedicated to the topic. Most of them are not familiar to me. And, BTW, “Mary, Don’t You Weep” is not listed.
 
Frankenfurter said:
Yes we sing Amazing Grace, but we don’t do it like I have heard it done in some Baptist churches. Man, I love the music in Baptist churches. Seriously you guys have the best music hands down!

I secretly wish I was Baptist just for the music.** Man, I wish we could all just get together.**
Click to expand...
lol, yeah music is great, hard to imagine a christian walk without it. That last bolded section is what I am working on.
DavidFilmer said:
Sounds Catholic, but I don’t think I’ve ever sung it.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent is my favorite Catholic song (sung here by the Mormons). You may be familiar with it - it has been widely adopted as a Christmas song, and if you stick to the first verse it fits. But it’s really a song about Eucharist.

That’s Eucharist.

There’s another one that I’m having a hard time recalling. If I remember, I’ll post it.

Of course, there are scads of Marian hymns. Wikipedia even has an article dedicated to the topic. Most of them are not familiar to me. And, BTW, “Mary, Don’t You Weep” is not listed.
Click to expand...
thank you very much for the responses and i will check out the song.
 
Some songs I like are ‘Ye watchers and Ye Holy Ones’.

All Creatures of our God and King… Based on a poem by St. Francis of Assissi

Christ be the light

Be thou my vision

Sing to the mountains…

Of course there are a lot of Marian hymns I like.

Immaculate Mary, Salve Regina… Sing of Mary…Ave Maria…

others

On Eagles wings.

Be not afraid

O Come O come Emmanuel…

Morning has broken, Not the Cat Stevens version but the Catholic hymn…

Oh there are so many!!

There was a song they sang at the Easter Vigil mass about the flight of the Hebrews from the Egyptians… It was sung be a man who had a lovely tenor voice and was so amazing…

Modern songs. I like Matt Maher… He’s got some amazing songs… There are others I like that we sing at mass.
 
Shepherd me O God…

Remember me when you come into Your Kingdom…
 
Karen107 said:
Morning has broken, Not the Cat Stevens version but the Catholic hymn…
Click to expand...
Not quite sure what you mean by this. Cat Stevens simply recorded Eleanor Farjeon’s 1931 hymn and it’s the same one we sing at Mass. It was not a ‘Catholic’ hymn, although Farjeon converted to Catholicism 20 years after she wrote it.

There is another hymn in the Canadian hymnal “Catholic Book of Worship III” that is set to the BUNESSAN tune, “This Day God Gives Me”.
 
Like many things, it depends on the parish. We’re more likely to sing hymns so old I’d never heard of many of them.
 
Phemie said:
Not quite sure what you mean by this. Cat Stevens simply recorded Eleanor Farjeon’s 1931 hymn and it’s the same one we sing at Mass. It was not a ‘Catholic’ hymn, although Farjeon converted to Catholicism 20 years after she wrote it.

There is another hymn in the Canadian hymnal “Catholic Book of Worship III” that is set to the BUNESSAN tune, “This Day God Gives Me”.
Click to expand...
It may seem that I’m being picky here but part of the lyrics are

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day

Cat Stevens and other artists sings it recreation as in (something done for enjoyment) where it should be pronounced re-creation. As in make anew, or re-- creating of the new day referring to God who has re-created or made a new day for us because of Jesus so we see things differently than we did before.

At mass that’s how we sing it as re-creation and I believe is the correct way to sing it here when looking at the context of the word and the meaning behind the word. I found this on it.

drgajdos.com/Articles/Re-CreationVsRecreation.html

And I believe there it is printed with a hyphen in our hymnals.

As for it being a Catholic hymn, I did not know it didn’t start out to be one thanks for that info! And lately we have been singing the tune to the song This day God gives me. .:)👍
 
Frankenfurter said:
Yes we sing Amazing Grace, but we don’t do it like I have heard it done in some Baptist churches. Man, I love the music in Baptist churches. Seriously you guys have the best music hands down!

I secretly wish I was Baptist just for the music. Man, I wish we could all just get together.
Click to expand...
😃

(former Pentecostal → Baptist music minister)

Our parish occasionally sings “Amazing Grace,” but apparently like yours, ours uses the older harmonization. I much prefer the newer, but I can still so the bass line of the older without having the music in front of me. Good thing, too, because our “hymnals” are melody-line-only 😦
 
Frankenfurter said:
Yes we sing Amazing Grace, but we don’t do it like I have heard it done in some Baptist churches. Man, I love the music in Baptist churches. Seriously you guys have the best music hands down!

I secretly wish I was Baptist just for the music. Man, I wish we could all just get together.
Click to expand...
To me the denomination with the best music would be the a capella Church of Christ. The church I went to when I was a member of the Church of Christ had good singers. Man, can they sing.Singing without musical instruments forces me to learn the song really well.
 
jjsmity said:
awesome, love to hear it. Oh mary dont you weep, that is catholic right? Love it. What are some more famous catholic hymns that are song?. I would love to listen to them and read the lyrics.
Click to expand...
These are just a few of my personal favorites…

Take and Eat: youtube.com/watch?v=OF3s8KOSrEc

Here I am Lord: youtube.com/watch?v=qjrmfHHQsoQ

**Veni Veni Emmanuel (O Come O Come Emmanuel) **
Ave Verum Corpus (Hail the True Body) is more of a chant, very old-school, but I love it. youtube.com/watch?v=G4rWsH1hkQ8. Latin with English translation at users.on.net/~algernon/aveverum/translation.html.

Others have already linked to Holy God We Praise Thy Name. Almost always sung too fast IMO.

-Tim-
 
Karen107 said:
It may seem that I’m being picky here but part of the lyrics are

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day

Cat Stevens and other artists sings it recreation as in (something done for enjoyment) where it should be pronounced re-creation. As in make anew, or re-- creating of the new day referring to God who has re-created or made a new day for us because of Jesus so we see things differently than we did before.

At mass that’s how we sing it as re-creation and I believe is the correct way to sing it here when looking at the context of the word and the meaning behind the word. I found this on it.
Click to expand...
I think this may be a po-tay-to/po-tah-to thing. It may not be intentional but rather the same kind of mistake we hear during the Passion when the Lector says ‘PROF-a-see’ instead of “PROF-a-sigh”.
 
We sing Amazing Grace usually twice a year. I never had any problems with the hymn.

Some widely-known Catholic hymns are:

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
God, We Praise You
By All Your Saints Still Striving
Blessed by Your Sacrifice
Immaculate Mary
Hail, Holy Queen
Soul of My Savior
Holy, Holy, Holy (although, I believe this is Protestant in origin. I’m not too sure.)
O Sacrament Most Holy

Catholicism has a lot of contemporary songs:

Gather Us In
Table of Plenty
Eat This Bread
Behold the Lamb

There are countless others. I love listening to Protestant hymns. Some of the words and melodies are so original and beautiful. Two of our favorites for our Good Friday liturgy are The Old Rugged Cross and At the Cross. Beautiful!
 
jjsmity said:
…Oh mary dont you weep, that is catholic right?..
Click to expand...
DavidFilmer said:
…Sounds Catholic, but I don’t think I’ve ever sung it…
Click to expand...
Actually, I believe it’s a Negro spiritual that originates from before the American Civil War – scholars call it a “slave song” that contains “coded messages of hope and resistance.” It is one of the more important spirituals. It was finally recorded for the first time in 1915 by The Fisk Jubilee Singers, and became a huge hit for The Swan Silvertones in 1959.

It’s mostly referring to the Bible story of Mary of Bethany (think sisters Mary & Martha – not The Madonna or Mary Magdalen) and her plea to Jesus to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead, along with other Biblical references… 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top