Worst Hymn/Song Lyric Heard at Mass

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Servus Pio XII:
But, no, the worst line in a song is, sung by the person:

“I am the bread of Life”.

Oh, you are, then? Well, if I can just get the bread of life from the bloke next to me, bellowing the words without thinking, why did I come here, then?
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There are a lot of hymns that are sung as though we were God proclaiming something. Personally I don’t like this. I think I should be praising God, and calling on God, not singing as though we were God. And in most cases its unnecessary as the lyrics could have been written in a different way.

Another thing that annoys me is the way the words of some hymns have been modified (butchered) to make them “PC”, i.e. non-sexist. Some work OK but a lot don’t. And then you get people who sing the old words because they are basically singing from memory and others who are singing the words in the hymnal and it becomes a mess.
Does this irritate anyone else?
 
Servus Pio XII:
I’ve never heard those. May I have an instance?
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I assume you mean my post about changing hymns to be “non-sexist”.
Well for example from that beautiful hymn “Be thou my vision” in the older version of Hymns Old & New”

“thou my great father

and I thy true son;

though in me dwelling

and I with the one”

has become in the latest version:

“thou my great father

and I thy true heir;

thou in me dwelling

and I in they care.”

And Michael Cockett’s version of Psalm 148 changes from:

“Kings and princes, praise the Lord”

to:

“Earthly Monarchs praise the Lord”

There is also one, which I can’t locate at the moment that just leaves a word out so that the preceding word has to carry the note of the missing word. That always throws people.

Do you know the joke about when “Dear Lord and Father of mankind” was changed to “Dear Father and Mother of humankind” - they forgot the next line was “Forgive our foolish ways”.
 
Oh, I think I can top all the bad examples given.

This was for a “childrens’ liturgy” at a former (FORMER parish, I repeat) - I kid you not:

This is the chorus for “Beulah, the Beast of Baluchistan”; the rest of the copyrighted material can be seen at the site below

**She never ate an enemy, she never ate a friend,

For Beulah the beast was a vegetarian!

Beulah, la, la, la, la, Beulah,

Beulah the beast of Baluchistan! **

:eek:

sisterschoice.com/activitytwo.html
 
It has been so long since I last heard the songs…uhh I mean hymns that used to make me cringe and wouldn’t sing. For the last 2 years all I sing at Mass is Gregorian Chant.

Deo Gratias!
 
I liked this song (found in an Australian catholic hymnal) until I really listened to all the verses.

The chorus is simply Micah 6:8. No problems there.

One verse is great:
Let our voices be heard sing the wonder of creation.
Seeking lives of forgiveness for our world.

Another is un helpfully hippy:
The Earth, our mother, our life, rejoices in our freedom.
Healing lives that are broken and afraid.

And another borderline heresy unless an extra line is added in brackets…
The Lord requires only this: that we love one another.
(Understanding, of course, that we are first loving GOD in one another, and that we allow that love in turn to manifest in all the other ways that a living love for God will be.)
Reaching out with compassion to the Earth.

It seems such a shame that such a fantastic piece of scripture is chopped up and added to in this way…
 
Umm, this thread is over 7 years old (yet the really bad church music still wanes on).
 
Yeah…
Found it doing a google search for the lyrics of another hymn, and thought "I gotta add to that.
 
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