Sunday 11 July 2010

Of One Being with the Father?

Of whom might 'of one being with the Father' reasonably (let alone rightly) be said?

No prizes if you answer God the Son; God the Holy Spirit is also a correct answer.

But according to today's hymn at Mass, the correct answer is you - and anyone else dopey enough to sing without thinking what the words mean.

Yes today's hymn (or was it a gathering song, I forget now) ended with the extraordinary line:

'For I know that I am one with You.'

That is after already singing: " I want to do the things You do,' (like hold the world in being, judge the living and the dead...?)

Who sanctions these Protestant hymns with dubious lyrics for Catholic worship? And why?

Ant confessed she hadn't really noticed the words, which is fair enough.

The theory behind vernacular hymns was that we were meant to understand what we sing. However, we don't always pay that much attention - and that's part of the danger. These Protestant errors and idiocies can creep into our understanding, bypassing our critical faculties, by the simple process of singing them repeatedly without thought...

6 comments:

leutgeb said...

That is after already singing: " I want to do the things You do,' (like hold the world in being, judge the living and the dead...?)

So true.

Patricius said...

I should like to campaign for the abolition of hymns at mass - to be replaced by sung propers.

Ttony said...

"Who sanctions these Protestant hymns with dubious lyrics for Catholic worship?"

The Bishops of England and Wales who issue Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur to these hymnbooks.

"And why?"

A failure by the Bishops to realise that some of those to whom they have delegated authority wish that the Catholic Faith was other than it is?

Now ask me one on Sport.

leutgeb said...

Patricius. Me too.

Another problem with hymns is that someone (often a lay organist music enabler humanoid) has to choose them, which given that even the Priest doesn't get to choose the readings is I think problematic.

With the best will in the world, you will never please everyone with your choice even if you take out the entirely dodgy ones.

But then we don't go to Mass to get our favourite hymns....

One of the great things about the EF Mass is that the choice is taken from the musician. It's Mass XI, Credo III, the Salve Regine etc and all I have to do is to try and do it well.

Ben Trovato said...

OK Ttony: who invented Ultimate Frisbee?

Ben Trovato said...

Leutgeb

Credo 3? Who says? In my Liber, Credo 1 is the authentic tone - Credo 3 more an option (so yes there are choices: many other chants are marked ad libitum)

But the choices are only about the musical settings, not the words: they are the important part and the part that the Church, until very recently, did not allow people to mess with.