Posted on 05/27/2011 12:31:09 PM PDT by GonzoII
Agreed. My pet peeve is that most of the modern music at Mass is very hard for the average person to sing. It prevents us from really singing along loudly and participating. The old songs are designed for group participation in a medium range.
The new songs are all over the place. Perhaps they are designed that way so the cantor can “solo” all the time and receive attention. No one near the altar should be calling attention to himself. I am sad that the choir is now in the front where they can perform and distract us all. They should be in the back in the choir loft so we can focus on the Sacrifice on the altar.
Notice what happens when we sing an old song at Mass. Everyone joins in and sings much louder. Most don’t even need a songbook. The classics are best!
I especially hate that they don’t let us sing ALL the Gloria anymore. We are relegated to the chorus as they mangle the words into some tortured new tune.
>> Critics have said the use of modern music helps the Catholic faith remain relevant and vibrant for young people and that it is better to have guitars and tambourines during mass than empty churches. <<
If by “young people,” you mean aging hippies.
>> “This Mass is ended all go in peace...” <<
“... We must diminish, and Christ increase.” Saddest thing is the reason I probably haven’t heard that song in thirty years is because such a sentiment is contrary to the zeitgeist of church modernism. The music ministry’s probably much more comfortable with, “We must allow people to experience Christ through our showboating.”
... and yet you left anyway. Bad music drives out good doctrine, and steals focus from true worship.
Sorry, that probably came across as a little flippant. Hymns are not meant to be entertaining; they are pauses for the congregation to participate in worship. (God help me, when I was a kid, I enjoyed, “The mass is ending.”) What I have found is that a few moments of very low-grade entertainment not only makes deep worship more difficult in the song, but keeps snapping me out of worship when there isn’t a song; whereas traditional music, such as organ or chant, helps sustain me in worship.
Which is not to say my mind doesn’t wander plenty, or I never get bored. Worship isn’t always easy, and I don’t mean to make it sound as if I’m so holy that it’s simple enjoyment, because I’m not.
Worst yet (and this is what I was eluding to), I find that when the congregation isn’t expected to attempt interior worship, the homilies also turn infantile or materialistic. (Anti-consumerism is still materialism; socialism is the epitome of materialism.)
Seriously, I watch the congregation often when my mind does wander. And I almost never see people singing the modernist “guitar-mass” songs; what people always sing are the “Holy, Holy, Holy,” etc.
I left because I believe we can pray to God directly without any intermediary. Saints are decided by God, not a panel of Cardinals or the Pope. Mary was a chosen servant of God, NOT a spiritual equal to be idolized. The choice of music was the least of my reasons why I left.
I had never even heard of polyphony until I began teaching at a secondary school that has everyone, even the teachers, sing in choir. There I came to learn of Palestrina, William Byrd, Andrea Gabrieli, and other masters of sacred music. I’d had no idea such beauty even existed!
My son introduced me to the following Ave Maria written by Franz Biebl, and it still moves me nearly to tears each time I hear it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WSbq3TCcd0
It is a sung version of the Angelus, a mid-day prayer.
>> I left because I believe we can pray to God directly without any intermediary. <<
That’s a pretty amazing statement, since there is no appeal to the Saints, or the Blessed Virgin Mary in the entire Roman liturgy, apart from appeals to the entire church:
“And I ask the Blessed Virgin, all the angels and Saints, and you, my Brothers and sisters to pray for me...”
“We pray with [litany of the Saints]...”
This is a great departure from older, Eastern rites.
>> Saints are decided by God, not a panel of Cardinals or the Pope. <<
And how would we know who is decided by God to be a Saint? A tiny, select few of the saints are chosen by God, for whatever His purpose may be, to be made known to us on Earth. And so God permits miracles to be performed through appeals to such saints, to confirm that they are before the throne of grace. There is no panel of Cardinals involved. The role of the Pope is to affirm a commission that such miracles are genuine, and divine in origin, as opposed to diabolical.
>> Mary was a chosen servant of God, NOT a spiritual equal to be idolized. <<
You never heard the contrary uttered in a Catholic church! Some cult in Quebec uttered such nonsense and was excommunicated before their candles burned down. Carl Jung (who first proposed such nonsense) was not Catholic.
>> The choice of music was the least of my reasons why I left. <<
The shocking lack of catechesis you described in comorbid with banal lyrics. As I noted, once the liturgical music does infantile, so too do the homilies and prayers of the faithful.
The Church of God as a mother is opened to everyone and I think everyone has a place in the Church. I agree that in the Church must be both traditional choirs and guitar groups. All of us are praising God by using different methods. Even in a Psalm (which I don’t remember) is mentioned to praise the Lord with musical instruments! So why the Church is making difference between intstruments?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.