I recently picked a hymn from Ritual Song for Mass, it was a familiar tune and looked like a good choice. But when we sang it in rehearsal, I got the full impact of the words. Sing along if you know the hymn tune “Beach Spring.”
As A Fire is Meant for Burning – v1.
As a fire is meant for burning
With a bright and burning flame,
So the church is meant for mission, Giving glory to God’s name.
Not to preach our creeds or customs, But to build a bridge of care,
We join hands across the nations, Finding neighbors everywhere.
Let’s break it down now.
As a fire is meant for burning
With a bright and burning flame,
Nice metaphor, but redundant use of the word burning. Fire burns – no need to remind us. How about bright and glowing? How about bright and holy, ie – Easter candle? You will be singing this during Liturgical functions, right? How about bright and warming? So much promise, so many possibilities…
So the church is meant for mission, Giving glory to God’s name.
I prefer my church to be “Church” but other than that this phrase is ok.
Not to preach our creeds or customs, But to build a bridge of care,
This is the line that almost set me into convulsions. Perhaps the author (Ruth Duck, b. 1947) meant creeds like the Boy Scout Pledge. Or perhaps the Shriner’s Oath. Or maybe the promise to take out the trash. Even so, “preaching Creeds” it pretty much what Jesus wanted us to do when He instructed the disciples to go to all Nations. Nothing wrong with preaching, Creeds or customs per se. And they certainly aren’t trumped “care” as though Paul wrote in Corinthians about how the “Greatest of These is Care.”
We join hands across the nations, Finding neighbors everywhere.
Did I just go from Mass to an “Up With People” concert? Is this the background music for a ride at Disney Land? I know “joining hands” is pretty important to people from Ms. Duck’s generation but the last phrase doesn’t even make a bit of sense. “Neighbors everywhere” is an oxymoron. I have few neighbors. They are within walking distance of my house. Or if I’m traveling far from DC and run into someone from my town, I might call him a “neighbor” in a general sense. But, I don’t make a habit of holding hands with them. And they aren’t everywhere because I’m not Mr. Rogers.
And this gets to the real issue: This hymn is nothing but nice, and in being it takes a broad slap at our Creed. Nice chases real prayer and authentic theology out of the room.
So whoever feels up to it: go ahead and write three verses that make some sense and glorify the Kingdom of God instead of the God of the Nice. Maybe I’ll print it in program and we’ll sing those words instead.
Boomer alert!
Can any good hymn come out of the generation born then?
John,
Is not repetition part of song? “Row, row, row your boat…”
Hey, that hymn is meant for burning!
As this text is meant for burning,
may it give the warmth we need
to remember we are pilgrims
and to grow our happy weed
I was born in 1950
I still wear my tie-dye shirt
Gee these words are truly nifty
I am one with earth and dirt!
Hideous.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Our parish liturgist and director of faith formation take the tack that if GIA prints it it is ipso facto suitable for Catholic liturgy, despite the fact that I have pointed out the heresy in the line that gave you conniptions. (Although one of your fellow bloggers will tell you that by ‘creed’ being printed with a lower case ‘c’, it escapes being contradictory of Catholic doctrine.)
Ruth Duck is a fine lyricist, and it is understandable that she feels less committment to Catholic theology, belonging, as she does, to a denomination that prides itself on its laissez faire attitude toward doctrinal issues, so I don’t fault her; but GIA’s publishing of the text and then hawking and hyping their products as “Catholic” hymnals is unconscionable.
Here’s a substitute text:
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
veneremur cernui
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui;
praestet fides supplementum
sensuum defectui
praestet fides supplementum
sensuum defectui
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
nice – c.1290, “foolish, stupid,” from O.Fr. nice “silly,” from L. nescius “ignorant,” from ne– “not” + scire “to know.” “The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj.” [Weekley] — from “timid” (pre-1300); to “fussy, fastidious” (c.1380); to “dainty, delicate” (c.1405); to “precise, careful” (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to “agreeable, delightful” (1769); to “kind, thoughtful” (1830). In 16c.-17c. it is often difficult to determine exactly what is meant when a writer uses this word. In 20c., it was “too great a favorite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness.” [Fowler]
“Nice” sounds about right.
Alix posted a very good explication of this on her old blog. Maybe she will post it here as well.
Use this with my blessing, if you don’t think it stinks too much. I’m not familiar enough with the tune to hear it in my head, and I’m thus assuming that “fire” is one syllable. If it’s not, I guess you can still make it work…sorta. Also, it might work better to keep the original lyrics for the first four lines.
As a Fire Is Meant for Burning, v. 2.0
Lyrics: Maureen O’Brien, 2/4/04
after “As a Fire Is Meant for Burning”, Ruth Duck
ttto: “Beach Spring”
As a fire is meant for burning
With a bright and warming flame,
We are meant to serve our neighbors
And to glorify God’s name —
Bare sticks till the Holy Spirit
Fires us with truth and love,
To be beacons in the darkness
Pointing to our God above. *
As a road is meant for walking,
We must make the Lord’s way straight,
Fill in each misunderstanding
And cut through the hills of hate.
We are called to call the nations
Through our actions and the Word;
For if we are Christ’s own Body,
We should make His Voice be heard. **
As salt’s made to season plain food,
And a city’s space to live, ***
And a kingdom brings protection,
So God sends us out to give
All the world more of His Presence.
Let us choose to do God’s will.
Let us be lights in the darkness —
Maybe small, but burning still.
*Kinda weak line, I know. I couldn’t think
of anything better, though.
** You might prefer “let”. But “make” is less passive.
*** Weak, weak, weak.
I love the enthusiasm, Maureen!
It’s good to see from Maureen’s adaptation that the piece isn’t unredeemable, even if she says there are a couple of rough spots.
“Bare sticks ’till” is definitely a tongue-twister, and curiously hard to parse for the listener, with its homonyms creating numerous linguistic possibilities:
“bear” (v.)/”bear” (n.)/”bare”(adj.)/”bare” (v.)
and
“sticks ’till”/”stick still”.
Maybe “bear’s tick still”? What a puzzle!
Writing hymns is fun. Looking at them afterward is profoundly depressing, since there is never going to be a set of words that adequately expresses any religious idea.
If I had my druthers, I wouldn’t write anything, ever, because none of it can possibly be perfect. As this is not a choice God’s given me, I write and then get depressed about it. This is not an uncommon attitude, either.
Re: homonyms
I admit that using any S words in a song is problematic, but too bad. The English language is full of fricatives. Either we hiss, or we never say Jesus or Christ.
I’ll also admit that the line is using poetic diction rather than the normal kind. Folks are free to think up their own line there.
But the homonym argument is silly. You could never say “the church is where…” anything, because ooh, it’d sound like the church is a pack of werewolves. Etc. Amusing, though.
Hi, Maureen!
Indeed, you can’t avoid homonyms altogether, or we’d be in trouble with “the Church’s one…” That “bare” line, tho’, had a lot of them.
“The Church’s one…” is a better example than “the church is where”, which I hope is not in any hymns at all, because (as I’m sure you know) the Church is more a Who than a Where.
Anyway, John, I’m wondering if the text of “To Jesus’ Heart All Burning” can be made to fit the tune. Suddenly having remembered that dear old hymn to the Sacred Heart, it has totally driven the other tune from my memory, at least for the blessed moment.
If Jesus were walking into the Temple today, he would go after the choir directors first. I have no candidates for the second tier but perhaps the sex-educators would come next. There are so many other candidates for the second tier, like…well fill in the blanks!
The tune of Beach Spring is lovely, but unfortunately, all of the texts that I can find set to it are doggerel and/or heretical.
This one by Ruth Duck is perhaps the worst text. Heretical Doggerel!
Marty Haugen has a pretty bad one too: it was in the 2003 “Breaking Bread” as “God of Day and God of Darkness”. It’s the usual social gospel claptrap, with heaping doses of nurturing, caw(r)ing and shaw(r)ing .
Maureen, yours is definitely better than anything else out there. And it’s actually Catholic!
An MP3 file of the tune is available at this page.
My biggest problem with this hymn is the first line (sing it with me now): “As a fire is meant for burning”
Well, look here: a fire isn’t meant for burning. It burns. Sticks are meant for burning, and those neat logs you get at the supermarket; and, perhaps, the ‘Gather’ Hymnal is meant for burning… ooh, and those cheesy felt banners people are always making, with vague symbols, and little bits of glue that were dripped by mistake. Oh, and anything by Matthew Fox. Or Andrew Greely.
Excuse me, I got carried away. My main point is: A fire burns.
There, I said it, and I’m not sorry.
Sounds lame. Might as well sing the old Coke commercial, “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” A better song. And I am sure it was done c. 1971 (yikes!)