Nominees for worst hymn

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Which “Here I Am, Lord,” are you referring to? The one which begins “Here I am, Lord. I’ve come to do your will” or the one that starts "“I the Lord of sea and sky.” I find them both equally annoying.
 
How about OCP’s Join The Dance? yak.

***Refrain
*Join in the dance of the earth’s jubilation!.
This is the feast of the love of God.
Shout from the heights to the ends of creation;
Jesus the Savior, is risen from the grave!

***Verse1
***Wake, O people; sleep no longer; greet the breaking day!
Christ, Redeemer, Lamb and Lion, turns the night away. (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 2
***All creation, like a mother, labors to give birth.
Soon the pain will be forgotten, joy for all the earth! (Sing Refrain)
Verse 3
***Now our shame becomes our glory on this holy tree.
Now the reign of death is ended; now we are set free! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 4
***None on earth, no prince or power, neither death nor life,
Nothing now can ever part us from the love of Christ! (Sing Refrain)
Verse 5
***Love’s triumphant day of victory heaven opens wide.
On the tree of hope and glory death itself has died! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 6
***Christ forever, Lord of ages, Love beyond our dreams;
Christ, our hope of heaven’s glory, all that yet will be! (Sing Refrain)
 
Just out of curiosity…

What makes a particular hymn “sacred” ??

Has Rome issued a compilation of “sacred” music ??

🤷
 
FrCorey said:
How about OCP’s Join The Dance? yak.

***Refrain
***Join in the dance of the earth’s jubilation!.
This is the feast of the love of God.
Shout from the heights to the ends of creation;
Jesus the Savior, is risen from the grave!

***Verse1
***Wake, O people; sleep no longer; greet the breaking day!
Christ, Redeemer, Lamb and Lion, turns the night away. (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 2
***All creation, like a mother, labors to give birth.
Soon the pain will be forgotten, joy for all the earth! (Sing Refrain)
Verse 3
***Now our shame becomes our glory on this holy tree.
Now the reign of death is ended; now we are set free! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 4
***None on earth, no prince or power, neither death nor life,
Nothing now can ever part us from the love of Christ! (Sing Refrain)
Verse 5
***Love’s triumphant day of victory heaven opens wide.
On the tree of hope and glory death itself has died! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 6
***Christ forever, Lord of ages, Love beyond our dreams;
Christ, our hope of heaven’s glory, all that yet will be! (Sing Refrain)
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This song is based, in part, on the heretical, gnostic Acts of John. It also draws the pagan deity Shiva as an influence. As far as I’m concerned, this song shouldn’t even be in any hymnal. It’s as though we would be singing George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, especially where he starts calling out Hare Krishna. :eek:
 
benedictgal said:
This song is based, in part, on the heretical, gnostic Acts of John. It also draws the pagan deity Shiva as an influence. As far as I’m concerned, this song shouldn’t even be in any hymnal. It’s as though we would be singing George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, especially where he starts calling out Hare Krishna. :eek:
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Without looking up those Acts of John, would you know what’s heretical about it? Is there more to the song that involves Shiva? I’ve never heard this song, but there are a lot of songs in the hymnal I’ve never heard.
 
daeve said:
Without looking up those Acts of John, would you know what’s heretical about it? Is there more to the song that involves Shiva? I’ve never heard this song, but there are a lot of songs in the hymnal I’ve never heard.
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There is a thread on this very issue in the liturgy and sacraments forum. I’m running to Mass, but, when I get back, I’ll look it up and provide the link.
 
benedictgal said:
This song is based, in part, on the heretical, gnostic Acts of John. It also draws the pagan deity Shiva as an influence. As far as I’m concerned, this song shouldn’t even be in any hymnal. It’s as though we would be singing George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, especially where he starts calling out Hare Krishna. :eek:
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You can find anything if you look hard and long enough …

I thought that the whole song was about the Resurrection.
 
I know a lot of people like this song, but “Where you there when they crucified My Lord.” Whenever they play that on Easter, it just ruins the mood for me. I really can’t stand songs that repeat the same line over and over and only change one or two words. Plus I just don’t like the whole “African Spiritual” genre in general. Not very Catholic, IMHO.

Anything from WOW Worship CDs. My parish Church has those LiveTeen Masses on Sunday evenings, and it is torture to sit through those if I am not able to go to Mass in the morning.
 
AClaire11 said:
I know a lot of people like this song, but “Where you there when they crucified My Lord.” Whenever they play that on Easter, it just ruins the mood for me. I really can’t stand songs that repeat the same line over and over and only change one or two words. Plus I just don’t like the whole “African Spiritual” genre in general. Not very Catholic, IMHO.

Anything from WOW Worship CDs. My parish Church has those LiveTeen Masses on Sunday evenings, and it is torture to sit through those if I am not able to go to Mass in the morning.
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I’ve been to those in a couple neighboring parishes. One is just dreadful. The Gloria has a nice enough melody, but it’s like jazz. Most of the other songs are just a bunch of words thrown together with vague run-on melodies. It’s almost like the song you sing in the car that you make up as you go along. Maybe I’m the only one who does that. But imagine making up a song as you go along. That’s what those songs sound like to me. The one at my regular parish is well done, but it’s not my cup of tea. There are a lot of people who really like it. The group is invited to other parishes sometimes. But it isn’t very Mass-y to me.
 
daeve said:
I’ve been to those in a couple neighboring parishes. One is just dreadful. The Gloria has a nice enough melody, but it’s like jazz. Most of the other songs are just a bunch of words thrown together with vague run-on melodies. It’s almost like the song you sing in the car that you make up as you go along. Maybe I’m the only one who does that. But imagine making up a song as you go along. That’s what those songs sound like to me. The one at my regular parish is well done, but it’s not my cup of tea. There are a lot of people who really like it. The group is invited to other parishes sometimes. But it isn’t very Mass-y to me.
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Ours is horrific. Every song is something from WOW Worship or its equivalent. Some teenagers hold hands and kneel in a semicircle before the altar during the Eucharistic prayer. People process in front of the priest waving their arms.

I’m not a fan of my parish Church in general, actually. There is only one priest (Czech) that in my opinion has the appropriate reverence. The others seem like they are just going through the motions, and sometimes even use the Lord’s name in vain during their sermons.:eek:
 
AClaire11 said:
Ours is horrific. Every song is something from WOW Worship or its equivalent. Some teenagers hold hands and kneel in a semicircle before the altar during the Eucharistic prayer. People process in front of the priest waving their arms.

I’m not a fan of my parish Church in general, actually. There is only one priest (Czech) that in my opinion has the appropriate reverence. The others seem like they are just going through the motions, and sometimes even use the Lord’s name in vain during their sermons.:eek:
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None of the ones I’ve been to have been that bad. The kids who do the readings and bring up the gifts and whatever else do it pretty much the same as in our regular Mass. This biggest problem at the one in the neighboring parish is the insipid music. Now I understand why the OCP songs annoy people so much. That’s how I feel about these. It’s a little chummy too, with people greeting each other, wanting to shake hands…holding hands during the Our Father is bad enough but leave me alone. I really don’t like to touch strangers. Bleck.

My regular parish has a very nice NO Mass on Sunday at 9am. Sometimes our teens play at the 11am or 5:30p on Saturday. There are a lot of options in this city including several TLMs and late Masses on Sunday. If you can’t find a way to get to church here, you’re not trying very hard.
 
Here is another one from the great folks at OCP.

**Let Us Go to the Altar :eek:

***Refrain
***Let us go to the altar of God, the God of our gladness and joy! Let us enter the courts of the house of the Lord and sing to the glory of God.

***Verse 1
***Give praise with blast of trumpet with noble sound of the horn. With the clash of the clanging cymbal, give glory to the Lord. (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 2
***Give praise with lyre and timbrel, with lute and sound of the harp. With the dance of the flute and oboe, give glory to the Lord! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 3
***Give praise with pipe and organ, with rousing beat of the drum. With the call of the bell and bagpipe, give glory to the Lord! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 4
***Give praise, all creatures of heaven, and all that dwell on the earth. Come to worship the God who made us, and dance before the Lord! (Sing Refrain)
**This sounds sort of pagan too. :mad: **
 
FrCorey said:
Here is another one from the great folks at OCP.

**Let Us Go to the Altar :eek:

***Refrain
*****Let us go to the altar of God, the God of our gladness and joy! Let us enter the courts of the house of the Lord and sing to the glory of God.

***Verse 1
***Give praise with blast of trumpet with noble sound of the horn. With the clash of the clanging cymbal, give glory to the Lord. (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 2
***Give praise with lyre and timbrel, with lute and sound of the harp. With the dance of the flute and oboe, give glory to the Lord! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 3
***Give praise with pipe and organ, with rousing beat of the drum. With the call of the bell and bagpipe, give glory to the Lord! (Sing Refrain)
******Verse 4
***Give praise, all creatures of heaven, and all that dwell on the earth. Come to worship the God who made us, and dance before the Lord! (Sing Refrain)
**This sounds sort of pagan too. :mad: **
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I’ve always thought it sounded kind of Hebrew…like the songs David’s people might sing around the fires at on a feast day. Something like that.
 
daeve said:
I’ve always thought it sounded kind of Hebrew…like the songs David’s people might sing around the fires at on a feast day. Something like that.
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Perhaps the melody is what makes it sound bad. Although, there are some people who would advocate that this sounds like great worship when it isn’t.
 
This one doesn’t really bother me – Altar of God – but perhaps the lyrics are a bit trivial. I’m sure we have a lot more to say than that.
 
daeve said:
This one doesn’t really bother me – Altar of God – but perhaps the lyrics are a bit trivial. I’m sure we have a lot more to say than that.
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The lyrics are straight from Psalm 43 - and you, Father Corey, above all, should’ve known that. Are you daring to call the psalms either trivial or pagan? :ehh:
 
LilyM said:
The lyrics are straight from Psalm 43 - and you, Father Corey, above all, should’ve known that. Are you daring to call the psalms either trivial or pagan? :ehh:
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Oops, my bad. And I’m a cantor. Shame on me. Like I said, it doesn’t bother me, and I get a nice visual of the ancient Israelites dancing around fires, celebrating. But I do think there are probably other songs with more substance in the lyrics. This one is kind of joyful.
 
I haven’t read through this thread.

The Bible says, Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. (Philippians 4: 8)

I don’t think it’s a good idea to dwell on hymns that we hate, and to analyze the reasons that we hate those hymns.

I think it would be better for our souls to dwell on hymns that bring us closer to God.

Since all of us are different, created that way by God, then we are all going to have different tastes in music.

It makes no sense to try to persuade people that their music is awful.

I know some of you are just having a little fun with this thread. That’s OK.

But it seems to me that many are spending way too much time letting their mind dwell on things that do not bring them closer to the Lord and that build up walls between them and their fellow Christians.
 
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