So let's talk about today's readings 10/25/09

[cheeto1]

The hour I first believed.

This is problematically when people try to say that baptism is only symbolic.

You mean this line of the song makes some people think that baptism isn’t
necessary?

 

[CHRISTINE77]

That was the recessional song for us!

We sang it too.
This is something I learned from the Homily on Sunday:
People’s names are rarely used in the Gospels when Jesus healed them, however Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, is specifically named in this reading

Timaeus can mean either a wretched one or an honored one. Bar means “son of”.

Jesus transformed Bartimaeus from a wretched sightless one, to a man who could see the light. That is what Christ does for us!

And see how the song follows this theme!

 

[MonFrere]

What are the greatest of our Catholic hymns?
I always thought the hymns existed for the purpose of giving us emotion with our
prayer. To enable us to lift our hearts also, instead of just our minds to Christ.

Chant is given “pride of place” in Catholic liturgical music. I don’t want to get into the debate that chant isn’t widely utilized these days. But, still I think we can learn something from chant and apply its qualities against other music and rate its usefulness in liturgy. One of the outstanding qualities of chant is its detachment. As much as possible it tries to allow us to escape our world and enter into another world, a spiritual world. After we detach ourselves from our present world and enter the spiritual world we can begin to absorb a different emotion, one which contains elements of contemplation, adoration, exaltation where the spirit is purified and cleansed.

In my opinion, this is the ideal. The liturgical music we use today - has varying degrees of success in accomplishing this ideal. IMO - poor music is music that keep us “in this world” and doesn’t transport us to the higher life to which we were called. In this light, I think it’s more important that music be “beautiful” than “emotional”. The “beautiful” can transport us to greater spiritual realities - but the "emotional, in an of itself doesn’t have that same quality of bringing us in touch with that greater “spiritual self” near as effectively. Having said this, I also think that music that is overtly emotional can be very deceptive in that the person can think they experienced something much greater than was actually experienced.

An equivalent would be a Protestant coming away from their Sunday service after hearing a rousing sermon and thinking it was great and going home only to have those emotions fade away where there’s no transformation that actually took place - just an emotional high. But, coming away from a Mass where partaking in the Eucharist touched you deeply does indeed have a transformational quality to it that doesn’t fade away with time, but rather deepens our relationship with God. The more emotional Protestant service doesn’t transform the soul nearly as much as the Mass. I think the quality of “emotion” needs to be understood as of less importance than music that transports us to a higher spiritual plane.

MonFrere

 

[cheeto1]

Chant is given “pride of place” in Catholic liturgical music…I think the quality of “emotion” needs to be understood as of less importance than music that transports us to a higher spiritual plane.

You mean like the Gregorian Chant? Can you give any other examples?
There is a song that gets played sometimes with very few words, and it’s in
Latin. I only remember the first part: Lau- dau-tae, Do-mi-num… There is
music, but it’s quiet, and the singing is like chanting. I do feel transported when
I hear it. It is an awake and aware feeling, like something is mysterious happening
all around me, and I become one with it. Does this song count as a great one, or am
I just being emotional?

 

[MonFrere]

I do feel transported when
I hear it. It is an awake and aware feeling, like something is mysterious happening
all around me, and I become one with it. Does this song count as a great one, or am
I just being emotional?

I can’t be certain, but what you describe is pretty close to what I was trying to convey. The “emotional” aspect of things is tricky because to a great extend we are always in a state of some sort of emotion. I’m NOT saying we should be unemotional. But I’m also saying that being “emotional” isn’t the goal we’re trying to achieve. Though, in good music, it can certainly be a byproduct. Buy a good CD or two of chants. My wife and I love the chants of St. Hildegard of Bingen. She was a medieval mystic who wrote absolutely beautiful soaringly lyrical chants. Simply beautiful. And of course, any Catholic couldn’t go wrong with a CD of Gregorian chants. Then, if you want to get a taste of the best in sacred polyphony you could purchase a couple of the Masses of Palestrina. They are also very lyrical and beautiful with that same quality of detachment that’s found in Gregorian and Ambrosian chant. There are also several other composers that highlight the history of liturgical music but the best of the best IMO is listed above.

Best,
MonFrere