Praise and Worship Music

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megangamble

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I looked at some threads that are already in existance and couldn’t really find what I was looking for so here I am starting my own lol.
I understand that praise and worship music doesn’t really have a place in Mass but I was just curious as to why some people think that getting emotional over praise and worship music is bad? I read some threads and got the feeling that a lot of people think that getting emotional while listening to p&w was kinda not-catholic? i dont know if that makes much sense but I’m just curious because i LOVE LOVE LOVE my p&w radio stations and cds. i do tend to get emotional if one really touches on something that is going on in my life. Also if i’m feeling extremely close to God and i hear a song that is praising Him…it makes me a lil choked up and i just wanna praise Him all day long…i guess i dont see the bad in that? in this same question: i am a God-fearing woman, but I also find a deep DEEP happiness in my faith. i get excited about the Lord and wanna praise Him always…ive noticed that some people are very quiet about their worship and dont like to get overly or outwardly excited about their faith and im just curious if im like…wrong in doing so? P&W music helps me to get excited about my faith and i guess thats why im curious as to what everyone thinks. hope u can understand my questions.
 
Hi Megan,

Yep, I love the praise and worship music too, but would not want it frequently at Mass. The songs are very uplifting and generally at a more inviting tempo.

That has a lot to do with it, you know how if you meet an interesting person, you get drawn into the conversation and getting to know them. And if you see an interesting movie or painting or any similar work of art, you are drawn into it.

Music does the same thing. Throw in a good tune with a couple musical instruments and more of our neurons light up that connect us to positive experience memories.

It’s all good, we just have to be careful to remember to bring God more than a song, for a song in itself is not what He requires, He’s looking into our heart.
 
megangamble said:
I looked at some threads that are already in existance and couldn’t really find what I was looking for so here I am starting my own lol.
I understand that praise and worship music doesn’t really have a place in Mass but I was just curious as to why some people think that getting emotional over praise and worship music is bad?
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I have never heard of anyone thinking P&W was bad…what do you mean by “bad”?
megangamble said:
I read some threads and got the feeling that a lot of people think that getting emotional while listening to p&w was kinda not-catholic?
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I don’t know…do you get emotional when listening to Gregorian chant or classical music? DO you think that is bad?
megangamble said:
i dont know if that makes much sense but I’m just curious because i LOVE LOVE LOVE my p&w radio stations and cds.
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I am confused… are these radio stations playing the Mass? Cause if not…then you can take the “worship” out of the phrase praise and worship…
megangamble said:
i do tend to get emotional if one really touches on something that is going on in my life. Also if i’m feeling extremely close to God and i hear a song that is praising Him…it makes me a lil choked up and i just wanna praise Him all day long…i guess i dont see the bad in that?
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I don’t see anything wrong with that as long as you are not replacing your praise with worship which is only found in the Mass.
megangamble said:
in this same question: i am a God-fearing woman, but I also find a deep DEEP happiness in my faith. i get excited about the Lord and wanna praise Him always…ive noticed that some people are very quiet about their worship and dont like to get overly or outwardly excited about their faith and im just curious if im like…wrong in doing so?
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No you are not wrong in doing so. BUT chances are Calvary was not a Mosh pit…so remember getting all exicted ins’t as important as recognizing that you are witnessing Calvary.
megangamble said:
P&W music helps me to get excited about my faith and i guess thats why im curious as to what everyone thinks. hope u can understand my questions.
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I think it is great, wonderful and sweeet. I am certain you are equally as excited about the sacrament of Confession too…RIGHT?
 
I understand and relate to all you’ve said, I feel much the same way and as long as we truly worship Him (at mass, I mean) and are obedient to Him and our Holy Father, I don’t see a problem. I also happen to love very traditional forms but that is just the way He made me, I guess.
 
THurifer2 said:
I am confused… are these radio stations playing the Mass? Cause if not…then you can take the “worship” out of the phrase praise and worship…
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I’m confused. Are you saying one cannot worship God outside of the mass? :confused:
 
No you are not wrong in doing so. BUT chances are Calvary was not a Mosh pit…so remember getting all exicted ins’t as important as recognizing that you are witnessing Calvary.
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I have seen this misunderstanding being circulated in some threads on the forum. We need to remember that the mass is not just Calvary, but also the Resurrection, and Ascension. Our eucharistic prayer names all of this in the recalling of the entire paschal mystery. Easter is the most celebrated feast of all, full of alleluias, thankful for Christ’s salvific redemption and victory over death. We should not be expected to maintain a focus on any one aspect but the full mystery being celebrated ‘in memory of Me.’

Carole
 
THurifer2 said:
I have never heard of anyone thinking P&W was bad…what do you mean by “bad”?

I don’t know…do you get emotional when listening to Gregorian chant or classical music? DO you think that is bad?

I am confused… are these radio stations playing the Mass? Cause if not…then you can take the “worship” out of the phrase praise and worship…

I don’t see anything wrong with that as long as you are not replacing your praise with worship which is only found in the Mass.

No you are not wrong in doing so. BUT chances are Calvary was not a Mosh pit…so remember getting all exicted ins’t as important as recognizing that you are witnessing Calvary.
I think it is great, wonderful and sweeet. I am certain you are equally as excited about the sacrament of Confession too…RIGHT?
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I don’t know as if anyone ever said that P&W music was bad, but they did say that it makes people emotional and “manipulates” them into having certain feelings. I guess I just don’t see songs about God being manipulative. Gregorian chant is definately an acquired taste…lol not my thing but hey, i know that some people are into that sorta music. i went to a retreat where a college guy gave his witness and then played some Gregorian chant. i think he was the only person to really like it at the retreat. To answer another question you had: no the radio does not play the Mass…when you talk about P&W music…i just lump it all in together…it’s the popular music that is generally played at praise and worship services. thats what i meant. AND to be quite honest i dont tend to get too excited about Confession because i have an anxiety about it. I get excited about the effects Confession has on me and my relationship with God, but the act of Confession makes me anxious…common from what I hear from other people.
I don’t know as if you meant your reply to be this way but it came off as smug. I did not mean to offend anyone by asking my questions, I just wanted to know what others thought about it. :confused:
 
boppaid said:
I’m confused. Are you saying one cannot worship God outside of the mass? :confused:
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That was my thought on his reply also. I have a hard time believing that my Christian (yet Protestant) friends are not worshiping God just because they don’t attend the Mass.:confused:
 
Personally, I love praise and worship music. There is nothing wrong with being happy and joyful when praising God.

However, I think people’s problems lie in the fact that they base their religion and their closeness to God on emotions.

Well, it’s like building your house on sand, really. Emotions are good as a part of our religion, insofar, as they inspire us to make greater acts of Faith, Hope and Charity but, ultimately, our religion isn’t based on how we feel.

JD
 
I guess that’s where I was coming from, JD. I think that being emotional is inevitable when dealing with your SOUL. I totally agree that our faith should not be based on emotions alone. I guess I have always been emotional towards music in general. Music has always had a special place in my heart no matter what the topic of the lyrics. When I “discovered” praise and worship music for the first time, I seemed to get even more emotional when listening to it because God is the most important part of my life and so naturally I would become more emotional and have more feelings to music related to that topic. I’m glad I’m not the only one who can find the beauty in this type of music. Where can ya go wrong with music that honors God, right?😃
 
When I was in the Evangelical church, one of the things I was extremely uncomfortable with was the extended musical worship time. We were supposed to feel, and act, a certain way, and have a prescribed emotional response to the music. The longer it dragged on, the more I wanted to bolt. It was so forced. That may be a piece of my personality, but I am thankful that isn’t a part of the Mass.

That being said, I very much also have an emotional response to music. Praise and Worship music as a genre is not my favorite, but music praising God can make me quite emotional, and lift me toward Him, and that’s just fine with me. Sinead O’Connor’s latest album “Theology” does that for me. It is a beautiful expression of her love for God, and His love for us.
 
PalaceFlophaus, I’m from an evangelical Protestant background (converted to Catholicism in 2004).

My husband and I used to call it the “Twenty Minute Worship Workout.” We used to wish that as long as we had to stand for 20 minutes and sing, that we could bring in a fitness coordinator to lead us “fatties” in aerobics to make fullest use of the time.

Sometimes I’m not sure if Catholics means the same thing as Protestants when they speak of “P&W” music. I’ve seen people on these boards refer to songs by Haugen as P&W. No way! Too many words!

Many of the P&W songs we sang in the evangelical churches consisted of only a few phrases repeated several dozen times.

E.g., Let’s just praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let’s just lift our hands to heaven and praise
the Lord.
Let’s just praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let’s just lift our hands to heaven and praise
the Lord.

Repeat several dozen times at a slow, worshipful tempo with different musical accompaniments, different lighting, different soloists leading, etc.,and lead into a whispered into a microphone invitation by the “worship leader” to forget everything else and concentrate solely on Jesus.

I used to hate the stuff. But since becoming Catholic, I’ve become much more tolerant. I don’t think it’s appropriate at Mass because there are so many songs that are so much better-suited to the readings.

But I think it’s pretty and if people like it and it helps them to think about Jesus, then it’s fine. After all, if God wanted us all to love Palestrina and chant and pipe-organ, well, then He would have created us all with the same musical “heart.”

But I do wish that Catholics would bring back the “oratory.” newadvent.org/cathen/11272a.htm

I think it would be great to have music “services” with Catholics! People like to bewail the loss of tradition in the Church–well, do everyone a favor and demand that the Oratory (or whatever it’s supposed to be called) be restored so that Catholics can SING more music without having to worry about abusing the Mass!

For a while our parish played host to what was called the “Cathedral Series,” a concert series of sacred music by various professional musician. Now we’re blacklisted by the Organ Guild, and I doubt we’ll see concerts anymore, even though we have the best pipe organ in the region.

Oh, well. I guess I’ll just have to have that “Sing A Long” party at my house, and invite all Catholics to come and we’ll sing whatever they want to sing out of the hymnal! I play piano and I’m a great sight reader. It’ll be fun. Y’all want to come?
 
PalaceFlophaus said:
When I was in the Evangelical church, one of the things I was extremely uncomfortable with was the extended musical worship time. We were supposed to feel, and act, a certain way, and have a prescribed emotional response to the music. The longer it dragged on, the more I wanted to bolt. It was so forced. That may be a piece of my personality, but I am thankful that isn’t a part of the Mass.

That being said, I very much also have an emotional response to music. Praise and Worship music as a genre is not my favorite, but music praising God can make me quite emotional, and lift me toward Him, and that’s just fine with me. Sinead O’Connor’s latest album “Theology” does that for me. It is a beautiful expression of her love for God, and His love for us.
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Ay ya ya! Sinead O’Connor has not been a favorite person in my head since the whole thing where she ripped a pic of The Pope up on tv. She wasn’t Frank Sinatra’s after that either haha! I think that whole thing was kinda misunderstood and I mean I guess if her music talks about her love for God, then she is a Christian…but in the same breath, even though I am Catholic I would never…lets say…rip up a picture of the Dhali Lama or however u spell it. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone, but I guess I just don’t have much respect for anyone who claims to be religious or Christian for that matter, and can show such disrespect for someone else’s religion. I don’t know if it was an attack on The Pope himself or Catholicism as a whole, but either way it just wasn’t very Christ-like.:confused:
 
Ah yes, I wouldn’t exactly follow her example… she’s a bit strange in many ways. That Pope stunt was a long time ago, and she apologized for it when she grew up a little. She certainly paid a price for it, and rightly so. It pretty much killed her career.

But that voice… it comes from deep within her soul, and it is absolutely heartbreaking. She’s searching for what we’re all searching for, and when she sings about how she feels when she’s safe in the arms of the Lord, it really touches me. She has a long way to go… but don’t we all?
 
Since we’re specifically talking about music outside of Mass, then the standards become much more diffuse. As long as the lyrics are not anti-Catholic, and the culture surrounding the musical style is not flagrantly immoral, then there is nothing wrong with any musical style.

Having said that, I personally find P&W to be shallow and manipulative, both lyrically and musically. To me it’s the Christian version of the Hari Krishna chants I heard decades ago. It is also worth noting that the Fathers of Vatican II specifically called for the removal of “useless repetitions”. Now, granted, nobody can objectively point to one repetition and say it’s useless, and point to another one and say that it’s not. But still, the Council Fathers thought that repetition could be a problem, and if there’s anything that characterizes P&W, it’s repetition. Something to at least think about.

To add a final thought, Catholicism is about faith and reason. Fides et Ratio. Catholic music, like everything Catholic, should feed our hearts and our minds. I don’t think P&W does this well at all.

But I will end as I began, by saying that outside the Mass the standards are, if not entirely different, then certainly much more broad. If P&W strikes a chord with you, then by all means enjoy it. Just include more substantive Catholic music in your diet as well. Like this
 
Personally I have nothing against P&W music although I do love the more traditional music for Holy Mass. My problem is with the music that is played when everyone is receiving Jesus at Communion. I sit up front and after receiving Jesus, reverently go back to my pew, bow my head, close my eyes and just revel in His Presence. I also try and pray at this time and offer my Communion for specific intentions. However, I am totally distracted by the loud singing and jazzy tunes that interrupt my quiet time with Him. People are singing going up the aisle to receive, and singing immediately after taking the host into their mouths! Some are still chewing and singing! Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to have some quiet instrumental background music during Communion?!
 
These are strange ideas even for a Catholic. You can worship God in and out of Mass. And you should worship God in all areas of your life.
THurifer2 said:
I am confused… are these radio stations playing the Mass? Cause if not…then you can take the “worship” out of the phrase praise and worship…

I don’t see anything wrong with that as long as you are not replacing your praise with worship which is only found in the Mass.
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i sometimes meet with my friends and sing praise and worship in our homes. We are all from different churches and are aware that we have some differences but it doesn’t stop us praying together and praising God for His goodness. We sometimes have a Buble study too.
 
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