Touching moment at Mass

[reff]

I just got home from Mass, for the recessional hymn we sang America the Beautiful. I got chills when I heard everyone in the congregation singing that song so loudly, I was proud of our parish. I even started to cry, and I’m just a 20 year old RCIA yougin haha. God Bless and Happy Sabbath

 

[MrS]

 

[Denae]

We sang that too, but our chorus is NOT good, and therefore only about six of us sing along with it. So it was kinda lame. Lame but nice.

 

[sbriton]

Personally I am against nationalist type songs being played as part of Mass. As such, I and my family do not sing along. We are citizens of the universal Church, the body of Christ. The Church is not just the U.S. or Mexico or Italy. It is the entire body of Catholic people, no borders. You may feel it is uniting people at Mass but may it isn’t. Maybe it’s alienating a visiting foreigner who may not feel so good about America but feels at home at Mass. Songs like America the Beautiful are best left to secular events, maybe even at a Catholic group meeting like the KofC, but not at Mass. Just my humble 2 cents.

Simon

 

[FCEGM]

Personally I am against nationalist type songs being played as part of Mass. As such, I and my family do not sing along. We are citizens of the universal Church, the body of Christ. The Church is not just the U.S. or Mexico or Italy. It is the entire body of Catholic people, no borders. You may feel it is uniting people at Mass but may it isn’t. Maybe it’s alienating a visiting foreigner who may not feel so good about America but feels at home at Mass. Songs like America the Beautiful are best left to secular events, maybe even at a Catholic group meeting like the KofC, but not at Mass. Just my humble 2 cents.

Simon

Simon, we are also citizens of the country of our birth or the country we have claimed as our own. St. Thomas Aquinas relates the command to honor our father and mother with the virtue of patriotism. This article puts it well:

St. Thomas Aquinas had already coupled together these two devotions, to parents and to country (Summa Theologica, 2a, 2ae, Q. 101). Dealing with the virtue of “pietas,” dutifulness, he writes: “The principles (or origins) of our being and governing are our parents and our country, which have given us birth and nourishment. Consequently man is debtor chiefly to his parents and his country, after God. Wherefore, just as it belongs to religion to give worship to God, so does it belong to “pietas,” in the second place, to give worship to one’s parents and one’s country.” Thus, unlike nationalism, patriotism comes within the sphere of virtue, duty, and moral obligation.

That this is and has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church may be gathered from the pronouncements of the Head of the Church as collected in such a work as La Patrie et la Paix. Textes pontificaux.5 Thus we find Pius X, in an address delivered in French to French pilgrims on April 19, 1909, saying in express terms: “Si le catholicisme etait ennemi de la patrie, il ne serait plus une religion divine” (if Catholicism were the enemy of the country, it would no longer be a divine religion). He went on to say (the translation is mine): Yes, it is worthy not only of love but of predilection that country (patrie) whose sacred name awakens in your mind the most cherished memories and makes quiver every fiber of your soul, that common country which has cradled you, to which you are bound by bonds of blood and by still nobler bonds of affection and tradition."

catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=1125

 

[BSHoop96]

Personally I am against nationalist type songs being played as part of Mass. As such, I and my family do not sing along. We are citizens of the universal Church, the body of Christ. The Church is not just the U.S. or Mexico or Italy. It is the entire body of Catholic people, no borders. You may feel it is uniting people at Mass but may it isn’t. Maybe it’s alienating a visiting foreigner who may not feel so good about America but feels at home at Mass. Songs like America the Beautiful are best left to secular events, maybe even at a Catholic group meeting like the KofC, but not at Mass. Just my humble 2 cents.

Simon

Political correctness runs amok once again. I couldn’t disagree more strongly. In the U.S. it is our Independence Day and we are grateful for all the blessings we have in this country. If a visitor doesn’t understand that then they are too touchy. If I was in another country and it was a very important national holiday for them I would totally understand. And actually I probably would not “visit” if I didn’t like the country.

In our Mass (on actual July 4th) we sang the Star-Spangled Banner" BEFORE Mass. Then we sang America the Beautiful later. We did not have a recessional as we went right into Adoration (as we have it on first Fridays). On Sunday after the 4th we didn’t have any patriotic songs in Mass but after the recessional song when we we were still filing out they played America the Beautiful.

I thought it was great.

 

[Tigg]

FCEGM: Thank you for that very beautiful quote from STA on the virtues of patriotism. I’ve copied and saved it!

Yes, we, too sang America the Beautiful and it caught in my throat. Especially the verse that says “confirm thy soul with self control” and I was especially struck by the fact that we Americans are living in a time of great self-indulgence. Most of us have never known really hard times, and instead enjoy comfort and the finer things of life in this richest of nations. If we would but practice the virtues of self denial and mortification, how quickly would our Lord and God honor his word to heal our land?
2 Chron. 7:14

 

[SORROWS]

I just got home from Mass, for the recessional hymn we sang America the Beautiful. I got chills when I heard everyone in the congregation singing that song so loudly, I was proud of our parish. I even started to cry, and I’m just a 20 year old RCIA yougin haha. God Bless and Happy Sabbath

How wonderful! I love when all the parishioners know the words and sing out loud (I’m a loud singer…hee hee…)
But what I find REALLY touching is YOU 20 years old and in RCIA!! You are so fortunate to come in to the Catholic Church as a convert at such a young age. I will keep you in my prayers as you go on the most incredible journey of your life.

 

[FCEGM]

FCEGM: Thank you for that very beautiful quote from STA on the virtues of patriotism. I’ve copied and saved it!

Yes, we, too sang America the Beautiful and it caught in my throat. Especially the verse that says “confirm thy soul with self control” and I was especially struck by the fact that we Americans are living in a time of great self-indulgence. Most of us have never known really hard times, and instead enjoy comfort and the finer things of life in this richest of nations. If we would but practice the virtues of self denial and mortification, how quickly would our Lord and God honor his word to heal our land?

 2 Chron. 7:14

It was my pleasure, Tigg. I knew St. Thomas had made the correlation, but it took me a bit of time to find it. I’ve saved it too

“America the Beautiful” always brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye; it happened again at Mass on July 4th! Sniff. I pray our nation becomes what we sing as our ideal of it.

 

[vee8]

ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=443753&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2008&Author=&Keyword=patriotic+songs+at+mass&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=1&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=

*Since many of our patriotic hymns are explictly religious, they would not be inappropriate for the entrance or recessional hymn. At our July 4th Mass here, the choir sang the Navy Hymn at the Offertory (which has prayers for those who fight on sea, on the land and in the air), continuing the intercessory theme of the General Intentions. In addition, the Holy See has seen fit to approve a Mass for Independance Day, with three optional forms, which could be called patriotic Masses. Every nation has the right to have such national feasts in the Missal of their country.*So, while we don’t want to go overboard, reasonable care ensures that an authentic patriotism, entirely compatible with the faith, is expressed, rather than an inappropriate nationalism.

 

[reff]

How wonderful! I love when all the parishioners know the words and sing out loud (I’m a loud singer…hee hee…)
But what I find REALLY touching is YOU 20 years old and in RCIA!! You are so fortunate to come in to the Catholic Church as a convert at such a young age. I will keep you in my prayers as you go on the most incredible journey of your life.

Thank you and please pray for me as I begin my journey home, I’m actually a former Mormon and it was a challenge for me at first to get my mother to accept it, but she loves me and she knows I am happy.

 

[BSHoop96]

“America the Beautiful” always brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye; it happened again at Mass on July 4th! Sniff. I pray our nation becomes what we sing as our ideal of it.

I am so glad to hear someone say that as I feel a little strange when that happens to me!

 

[tessi]

Personally I am against nationalist type songs being played as part of Mass. As such, I and my family do not sing along. We are citizens of the universal Church, the body of Christ. The Church is not just the U.S. or Mexico or Italy. It is the entire body of Catholic people, no borders. You may feel it is uniting people at Mass but may it isn’t. Maybe it’s alienating a visiting foreigner who may not feel so good about America but feels at home at Mass. Songs like America the Beautiful are best left to secular events, maybe even at a Catholic group meeting like the KofC, but not at Mass. Just my humble 2 cents.

Simon

I agree. Patriotism outside the Mass.