Music within the Church!

[K-McD]

Beverly:

In Psalm 149, it says, “Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with timbrel and lyre!” So maybe it is the way God wants to be worshipped! It says in the bible that David leapt and danced before the Lord. Now I am not a fan of liturgical dance but there is no reason that music in mass can’t make you want to tap your feet or clap your hands.

I sing with a group at mass and we sing old hymns and we sing contemporary praise and worship music as long as it does not contradict Catholic doctrine. We usually end mass with a rousing song - yes, we have been known to sing “I Saw the Light” or “I’ll Fly Away”. We have a lot of older people in our church who are so happy when we sing songs they grew up with. We also sing songs like “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe. The young people really like this. People who say that all modern contemporary music is not sacred need to rethink this. The song “I Can Only Imagine” is a song that has touched so many people in a profound way. We had this song at my 20 year old nephew’s funeral - it brought so much comfort and peace to us to imagine Steven in Jesus’ presence in Heaven. Yes, I know the really fastidious nitpicker’s will say things like “he was in Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist” or “he won’t go immediately to heaven - he is in Purgatory”. Even though I receive Jesus in the Eucharist and I know it is Him body, blood, soul, and divinity, meeting Jesus in Heaven will be AWESOME in the purest sense of the word. As for the Purgatory thing, we on earth are the ones who exist in time - God exists in the past, present, and future always so there are no timelines with Him. I know God will not mind us imagining Steven in Heaven even if he is in purgatory a long time.

There is nothing wrong with reverent, theologically sound music in mass no matter when it was written. God still inspires musicians today!

I think it is very uncharitable and unfair to label those who want to be faithful to the truth as “fastidious nitpickers.”

Your post proves my point, perfectly. Unless a song stirs-up some emotion, it’s not worth singing. If a song is really praising God then it will praise Him whether one FEELS uplifted or not. In fact it is probably more praiseworthy when one dosen’t feel uplifted and sings the song out of pure love for Him.

Yes, the scriptures say David leapt and danced before the Lord, and we are to praise Him with dancing with timbrel and lyre! It also says that the Lord wants to drink of the libation of pure sacrifices. Or that He wants to smell the sweet sent of pure sacrifices. Sacrifices of animals. When was the last time you offered praise and worship by singing, dancing, and offering animal sacrifices. (rhetorical question)

My point is the Lord wants praise and worship out of love for Him and not out of the emotional uplift we may experience. Think of it in the basic human experience. You love your mother/father or wife/husband. Is your love for them somehow less when you don’t experience the uplifting feeling? Of course not. In fact, sometimes the best times we show our love is when we are not experiencing an uplifting feeling. The same with Christ Jesus. Love Him for who He is and not just for the emotional experience.

 

[Catholic_Heart]

fellicia:

Does anyone attend a catholic service that has modern music?

Is this aloud?

…and does anyone think there should be a service taht does this?

X X X FELLICIA X X X

My large (over three-thousand families) suburban parish has six Masses every weekend. The Saturday night one is done by the young people. They generally do music that is fairly standard. This is true of the four Sunday morning Masses.

However, we have a Sunday night Mass that has mostly Praise and Worship music. This is pretty loud, but the people who attend this Mass love it. The sense of worship is very strong.

I generally attend the Sunday 7:30am Mass, and sing with the Music director and maybe one other person. I do this, because I am a catechist in our RCIA program, and that group meets from 9:30 'till 11:30. I enjoy the music we do, but have to admit that I would love to sing with the Sunday evening group.

Luckily for me, I sometimes attend church with my husband, who goes to an evangelical Church of Christ, and get to sing lots of Praise and Worship music there.

Having said all that, I have to also say that there is nothing sweeter to me than to sing the old hymns I grew up with in the Methodist Church. They make me cry every time!

Church music can be very personal…I do not believe one is necessarily better than another. We all have our preferences, and that’s fine with me. My preferences are often dictated by my mood, or what is going on in my life at the time.

The idea is to praise God in song…Whatever form that song might take…

Catholic Heart

 

[Beverly]

K-McD:

I think it is very uncharitable and unfair to label those who want to be faithful to the truth as “fastidious nitpickers.”

Your post proves my point, perfectly. Unless a song stirs-up some emotion, it’s not worth singing. If a song is really praising God then it will praise Him whether one FEELS uplifted or not. In fact it is probably more praiseworthy when one dosen’t feel uplifted and sings the song out of pure love for Him.

Yes, the scriptures say David leapt and danced before the Lord, and we are to praise Him with dancing with timbrel and lyre! It also says that the Lord wants to drink of the libation of pure sacrifices. Or that He wants to smell the sweet sent of pure sacrifices. Sacrifices of animals. When was the last time you offered praise and worship by singing, dancing, and offering animal sacrifices. (rhetorical question)

My point is the Lord wants praise and worship out of love for Him and not out of the emotional uplift we may experience. Think of it in the basic human experience. You love your mother/father or wife/husband. Is your love for them somehow less when you don’t experience the uplifting feeling? Of course not. In fact, sometimes the best times we show our love is when we are not experiencing an uplifting feeling. The same with Christ Jesus. Love Him for who He is and not just for the emotional experience.

You need to go back and really read my post. I was not calling all people who do not enjoy modern music fastidious nitpickers but only those who would criticize the music that brought my family comfort at my nephew’s funeral and there may have been those in the church that day who felt that way. If you were offended, I apologize.

I absolutely agree with you that we should sing songs to praise God whether we feel uplifted or not. Of course, as a music lover as well as a lover of God, there are very few songs we have ever sung in mass that do not evoke emotion. But you seem to be of the opinion that if you do feel uplifted and emotional, it is somehow not as worshipful. God wants our praise to mean something not just be meaningless words.

Yes, I love my parents and my husband even when it is not an uplifting experience. You don’t stay married nearly 23 years without considering love a decision, not an emotion. But it sure is nice to feel uplifted occasionally by my love for my husband and parents. And as a wife, it would be upsetting if my husband said, “I love you” every day out of responsibility and obligation but there was never an emotion behind it. Wouldn’t it be great if my husband always felt uplifted by the love he feels for me? Ha - fat chance. Don’t you think God wants us to *feel * the words we say to him in praise? God loves us and He wants us to be faithful in good times and bad, on the peaks and in the valleys. He wants us to be uplifted by our love for Him but he wants us to remain faithful even when we don’t.

As for David, you seem to throw out dancing because we don’t sacrifice animals anymore. This argument is not logical because you don’t throw out singing. If dancing is not okay because we no longer sacrifice animals, then singing is not okay either. Now let me state again that I don’t necessarily like liturgical dance, but I will admit to swaying to the music when I sing. Sorry! Sometimes I have even been known to …raise my hands! I think God will forgive for feeling uplifted!

I don’t think that you are not as good a Catholic if you do not like modern music - you just have a different opinion than I do.

 

[K-McD]

Beverly:

You need to go back and really read my post. I was not calling all people who do not enjoy modern music fastidious nitpickers but only those who would criticize the music that brought my family comfort at my nephew’s funeral and there may have been those in the church that day who felt that way. If you were offended, I apologize.

I absolutely agree with you that we should sing songs to praise God whether we feel uplifted or not. Of course, as a music lover as well as a lover of God, there are very few songs we have ever sung in mass that do not evoke emotion. But you seem to be of the opinion that if you do feel uplifted and emotional, it is somehow not as worshipful. God wants our praise to mean something not just be meaningless words.

Yes, I love my parents and my husband even when it is not an uplifting experience. You don’t stay married nearly 23 years without considering love a decision, not an emotion. But it sure is nice to feel uplifted occasionally by my love for my husband and parents. And as a wife, it would be upsetting if my husband said, “I love you” every day out of responsibility and obligation but there was never an emotion behind it. Wouldn’t it be great if my husband always felt uplifted by the love he feels for me? Ha - fat chance. Don’t you think God wants us to *feel * the words we say to him in praise? God loves us and He wants us to be faithful in good times and bad, on the peaks and in the valleys. He wants us to be uplifted by our love for Him but he wants us to remain faithful even when we don’t.

As for David, you seem to throw out dancing because we don’t sacrifice animals anymore. This argument is not logical because you don’t throw out singing. If dancing is not okay because we no longer sacrifice animals, then singing is not okay either. Now let me state again that I don’t necessarily like liturgical dance, but I will admit to swaying to the music when I sing. Sorry! Sometimes I have even been known to …raise my hands! I think God will forgive for feeling uplifted!

I don’t think that you are not as good a Catholic if you do not like modern music - you just have a different opinion than I do.

Beverly,
I agree with you. It’s not that I am discounting the occasional emotional experience I have at Mass, its that I won’t base truth on that emotional experience. A lot of folks do. My point is truth is truth whether I feel it or not.

 

[pnewton]

It seems the Catholic community mirrors society at large in that we have a wide range of what is musically tasteful for mass. The church allows for some variety while giving the soundness of historical perspective by specifically mentioning Gregorian chant as the one mode of music to be given a place of pride. We will never be able to agree on issues of taste and the question of appropriateness is left in the hands of the local ecclessial authority.

So let us all agree to have mutual respect, hold hands and join in a round of Kum Ba Yah.