No More "Yahweh"?

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epower

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Me and my wife were at a different parish this weekend because we were traveling. One of the songs that was sung was “Yahweh, I Know You Are Near” except that the words were changed to “Oh Lord I Know You Are Near”. There was a notation at the bottom of the music book stating that Vatican regulations prohibited the use of the name “Yahweh” in Eucharistic Celebrations, Songs and Prayers. I remember that song from my Confirmation. It is one of my favorite songs. We were shocked by the whole thing. What is the reasoning behind this? “Yahweh” from the Old Testament is our God too.
 
epower said:
Me and my wife were at a different parish this weekend because we were traveling. One of the songs that was sung was “Yahweh, I Know You Are Near” except that the words were changed to “Oh Lord I Know You Are Near”. There was a notation at the bottom of the music book stating that Vatican regulations prohibited the use of the name “Yahweh” in Eucharistic Celebrations, Songs and Prayers. I remember that song from my Confirmation. It is one of my favorite songs. We were shocked by the whole thing. What is the reasoning behind this? “Yahweh” from the Old Testament is our God too.
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Yes, and the name “Yahweh” is never pronounced out loud according to Jewish Tradition, it is always replaced with LORD.

So whenever you see the word LORD in capitial letters in an older Bible or such it is there replacing the word “Yahweh”.
 
epower said:
There was a notation at the bottom of the music book stating that Vatican regulations prohibited the use of the name “Yahweh” in Eucharistic Celebrations, Songs and Prayers. … We were shocked by the whole thing. What is the reasoning behind this? “Yahweh” from the Old Testament is our God too.
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I direct you to the Vatican document itself which explains the reasons for the prohibition. Here are some brief bullet points:
  • Historically, even Israel did not pronounce this sacred name of the Lord (except once a year, and that by the high priest); the early Church did not pronounce this name.
  • The name YHWH has traditionally been rendered as “Lord” instead.
  • The use of the name YHWH by Catholics is a very recent innovation.
There are already plenty of threads about this (mostly in this sub-forum, I would imagine) if you wish to read further on this matter, but I would suggest reading the Vatican document first.
 
The use of the name YHWH by Catholics is a very recent innovation.
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That’s an interesting point. I am pretty sure it was not used at all, at least in music for Mass, until the Folk music/world music trend of the late 60s/70s. All of a sudden we were using Yahweh, Adonai, and el Shaddai.

If you like the song, you are still free to listen/sing it privately using the word Yahweh. It is on one of Dan Schutte’s CDs too. I am not a big fan of the Hagen/Haas/Schutte style for Mass but enjoy the music for listening and meditation. The directive is for the use of the name in liturgy.
 
Funny, the opposite thing happened to me a few months ago. I attended a different parish for a baptism and the choir sang this song as it was originally written and not substituting the tetragrammaton.
 
praise_Jesus said:
Funny, the opposite thing happened to me a few months ago. I attended a different parish for a baptism and the choir sang this song as it was originally written and not substituting the tetragrammaton.
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Yeah, we had that too. Our cantor refused to change it as long as the missalettes and song books still had the “old” way. We got a new set with the new year so she has finally relented. Since you say it was a few months ago, they may have been what you experienced too.
 
It’s nice to hear that word is getting out about the change, and parishes are being obedient.
 
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