[miss marmelstein]

"...criticize harshly those who offer up their musical gifts..."

My point was that many of the people doing the singing and dancing thoroughly lack any "musical gifts."

And I'm only talking about the Catholic Church, not the American Protestant faiths. Their music is a high priority and has contributed mightily to the American song book. But Catholics don't have such a tradition. The emphasis has always been on the Holy Eucharist, not singing.

That being said, does anyone out there remember the old Catholic school tradition held every May of placing a crown of flowers on the head of a statue of Mary and singing the immortal "Bring Flowers To the Rarest"?

[Desdemona]

That being said, does anyone out there remember the old Catholic school tradition held every May of placing a crown of flowers on the head of a statue of Mary and singing the immortal "Bring Flowers To the Rarest"?

YES!!!! And we still do it.

I actually sang that at a funeral once of someone who loved the May Crowning.

[BlackElk]

That practice is called a May crowning and is still celebrated enthusiastically at many of the more conservative parishes, certainly it is to be found in our Rockford diocese.

As to the quality of singing, I know a fellow who was born with cerebral palsy. He attends a very reverent Novus Ordo Church in the city where we grew up. Every Sunday at Mass, he raises his voice enthusiastically singing the hymns. Alas, his voice is uncertain and often offkey but nonetheless powerful and heard throughout the Church. When first I heard him sing, I wished he would not sing or at least be more quiet. I thought it over and realized that his voice was not raised for my entertainment but for the praise of God (would that my Faith were as fervent as his) and for the praise of the God Whose plan somehow included that the man be born with cerebral palsy. That man's love of God must be particularly pleasing to God. That man "gets it" as to the Faith more eloquently than many of us. It was a privilege and an inspiration knowing him before I moved to the midwest. He works in a modest restaurant job and gives that his all as well.

[maryz]

That being said, does anyone out there remember the old Catholic school tradition held every May of placing a crown of flowers on the head of a statue of Mary and singing the immortal "Bring Flowers To the Rarest"?

Absolutely -- I was May queen in high school and crowned the statue in Church -- after a procession of all the elementary, high school and Sunday school students around the block (my parish did it up big in those days!).

But as I recall the hymn, it was

Bring flowers of the fairest, bring flowers of the rarest,
From garden and woodland and hillside and dale.
Our full hears are swelling, our glad voices telling,
The praise of the loveliest Rose of the Vale.
O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May. (2)