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Friday, October 15
See Sacrosanctum Concilium, Par. 121
I was recently at a mass away from my usual parish, and the offertory (I think) was a hymn singing in pleasantly autumnal tones thanking God for mown hay and the harvest and all those wonderful things Martha Stewart dries and sticks up on her front door like headhunter totems around this time of the year. It was a nice hymn, even edifying, but not very substantive. Three things occurred to me: 1) Most of the people here probably have never even seen a scythe outside of a field trip to Old World Wisconsin. 2) How is this superior to getting whatever scriptural tag would have been in the mass propers? And 3) You should be focusing on mass, so darn it, try and be edified anyway! But the point remains: how is this any better? I've noticed when away from either the "Reform of the Reform" mass I got when I was in New York, and the Tridentine liturgies I attend regularly here in the Land of Encheesement, how little scripture (even allowing for the daunting infodumps of the 3-year cycle, which cannot be digested quite as smoothly or as naturally as a nice Gradual) I actually get by comparison. We can do better than this, folks.
I agree. More and more (well, all the time), I sit at Mass and think, "Why is thirty years of "One Bread, One Body" or ten years of "Gather Us In" better than chant and propers? How did that happen?"
ReplyDeleteI have also noticed that I grow more irritated, weekly it seems, by these lame "new" tunes. I think it's because the more I come to realize what's actually happening at Mass, the more these "hippie" songs seem out of place and at times, disruptive. I so wish we had a TLM I could attend in my area.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, life outside the bubble, she is cold and hard indeed. I was at dinner before the Easter vigil last year and one guest described how three years ago, instead of reading the Passion on Good Friday, a woman read -- performed? -- a monologue describing the events of the Passion from the perspective of Barabbas. I just about had a heart attack and everyone else -- everyone under 30, mind! -- was just enthralled, oh what a great idea. When I try to figure these things out the only thing I hit on is some sad linkage between innovation, creativity, and inspiration that seems to taken over way too much of liturgy. I also tend to think about Blessed Newman's warnings about regarding religion as a matter of personal inclination, but then I have to take a brisk walk and clear my head before I hurt myself.
ReplyDeleteWell, my point isn't just the "hippie" ones are problematic. Even the tasteful tuneful ones are, because, well, they're sort of liturgical space-fillers. "Faith of Our Fathers" is rousing and stirring and imparts a good lesson but does it have the richness of Psalm 1? I'm not an anti-hymn person but I do think people don't realize just how much Biblical stuff they're missing.
ReplyDeleteJulie--wow. Yikes. Hang in there!
There is a current trend in hymn publishing towards using non-Scriptural imagery whenever possible. Beats me why. This hymn sets the standard for the autumnal theme, nothin but net:
ReplyDelete1. Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God's own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home!
2. We ourselves are God's own field,
Fruit unto his praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown
Unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear;
Grant, O harvest Lord, that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.
3. For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take the harvest home;
From His field shall in that day
All offences purge away,
Giving angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In the garner evermore.
4. Then, thou Church triumphant come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All be safely gathered in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In God's garner to abide;
Come, ten thousand angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home!
Lyrics in Public Domain
I fancy there is a growing market for sing-songs of a clear religiosity that yet don't intrinsically demand one own as Lord the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, who gave the Law through Moses, who set David son of Jesse King over Israel, who perfected and fulfilled the Law in the person of the Son... you know, the whole history of sin and redemption.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, obviously, that wouldn't explain why Catholics are buying into that market so heavily.