Posted on 08/29/2006 1:08:37 PM PDT by NYer
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For classic Lutheran theology, hymns are a theological "source:" not up there with Scripture, of course, but ranking not-so-far below Luther's "Small Catechism." Hymns, in this tradition, are not liturgical filler. Hymns are distinct forms of confessing the Church's faith. Old school Lutherans take their hymns very seriously.
Most Catholics don't. Instead, we settle for hymns musically indistinguishable from "Les Mis" and hymns of saccharine textual sentimentality. Moreover, some hymn texts in today's Catholic "worship resources" are, to put it bluntly, heretical. Yet Catholics once knew how to write great hymns; and there are great hymns to be borrowed, with gratitude, from Anglican, Lutheran, and other Christian sources. There being a finite amount of material that can fit into a hymnal, however, the first thing to do is clean the stables of today's hymnals.
Thus, with tongue only half in cheek, I propose the Index Canticorum Prohibitorum, the "Index of Forbidden Hymns." Herewith, some examples.
The first hymns to go should be hymns that teach heresy. If hymns are more than liturgical filler, hymns that teach ideas contrary to Christian truth have no business in the liturgy. "Ashes" is the prime example here: "We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew." No, we don't. Christ creates us anew. (Unless Augustine was wrong and Pelagius right). Then there's "For the Healing of the Nations," which, addressing God, deplores "Dogmas that obscure your plan." Say what? Dogma illuminates God's plan and liberates us in doing so. That, at least, is what the Catholic Church teaches. What's a text that flatly contradicts that teaching doing in hymnals published with official approval?
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The first hymns to go should be hymns that teach heresy. If hymns are more than liturgical filler, hymns that teach ideas contrary to Christian truth have no business in the liturgy. |
Next to go should be those "We are Jesus" hymns in which the congregation (for the first time in two millennia of Christian hymnology) pretends that it's Christ. "Love one another as I have loved you/Care for each other, I have cared for you/Bear each other's burdens, bind each other's wounds/and so you will know my return." Who's praying to whom here? And is the Lord's "return" to be confined to our doing of his will? St. John didn't think so. "Be Not Afraid" and "You Are Mine" fit this category, as does the ubiquitous "I Am the Bread of Life," to which I was recently subjected on, of all days, Corpus Christi — the one day in the Church year completely devoted to the fact that we are not a self-feeding community giving each other "the bread of life" but a Eucharistic people nourished by the Lord's free gift of himself. "I am the bread of life" inverts that entire imagery, indeed falsifies it.
Then there are hymns that have been flogged to death, to the point where they've lost any evocative power. For one hundred forty years, the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sent shivers down audiences' spines; does anyone sense its power when it's morphed into the vastly over-used "Joyful, Joyful We Adore You," complete with "chanting bird and flowing fountain"? A fifty-year ban is in order here. As it is for "Gift of Finest Wheat." The late Omer Westendorf did a lot for liturgical renewal, but he was no poet (as his attempt to improve on Luther in his rewrite of "A Mighty Fortress" — "the guns and nuclear might/stand withered in his sight" — should have demonstrated). Why Mr. Westendorf was commissioned to write the official hymn for the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia is one of the minor mysteries of recent years. "You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat/Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat" isn't heresy. But it's awful poetry, and it can be read in ways that intensify today's confusions over the Real Presence. It, too, goes under the fifty-year ban.
Hymns are important. Catholics should start treating them seriously.
I haven't recognized any OCP stuff yet. There are a few hymns in the back of the Liturgikon, but none that are familiar to me. (Thank God...)
A rich and beautiful classic. Is it still sung or has that one been packed in mothballs?
I dislike the 7/11 songs... you know, seven words sung eleven times.
We were ELCA for years and I can't recall the last time it was sung in that Church. Last year we returned to the LCMS and, lo and behold, it was sung earlier this year. Good to be home again!
In my Orthodox Church (and in all Orthodox churches) we don't use "numbered" hymns at all.
**taking all references to "blood" out of the hymnals so as not to offend anyone.**
Agree with you.
"By His blood we are saved."
Don't know if I have the quote from John exactly correct. Really a sad thing to see this happening.
TEST TUBES IN SPACE!
Tune: "Earth and All Stars" (LW 438)
Test tubes in space!
Loud clashing symbols!
Sing like we're stuck in the Sixties once more!
Turtle-necked profs!
Loud boiling classrooms!
Sing like we're stuck in the Sixties once more!
This is such mar-gi-nal stuff.
Why are we singing such an odd song?
**I could type for three days straight.**
We would probably all love seeing your comments in a vanity.
It is upsetting to see churches veering off the true path, isn't it?
'Unless a grain of wheat' is another one that is NOT a favorite of mine.
**You don't have that problem when you sing the Psalms.**
True, but I dislike the sing-song contemporary versions of the Psalms rather than having the cantor sing what is in the actual Psalm.
You put it into words much better than mine. Thank you!
Maybe hymns like this are on the way back. We can talk to the music directors. And then keep talking about what we want to hear and sing.
Just sent that to my sister...she's gonna love it!
snicker..
Did that song have the word "Worship" in the title. I thought it was a good song until I heard the word lover.
It sure is upsetting.
Bagpipes: I give'em a lot of grief, but they're part of my cultural heritage. I can enjoy them but... let's just say they're an OUTSIDE instrument.
Do you know what the definition is of perfect pitch? Throwing the bagpipes in the dumpster without hitting any of the sides!
LOL!
I didn't know there WAS any volume control on the bagpipes. I like to imagine the fierce Scottish highlanders marching on the enemy, blue faces painted, bare legs flashing, and the damnable bagpipes wailing and wailing. That would have to make an impression.
That's a very good idea. They don't want to hear it from the singers. They don't want to hear it from the parishioners either, but they'll accept it because they know which side their bread is buttered.
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