Category: Uncategorized

From the Jerusalem Post July 2 edition. ‘Become a Muslim warrior’ by Daniel Pipes.

Hey, I’m for a certain amount of ecumenism in music, but there’s no need for slumming. Proulx si’, Haugen no’!
For those of you who don’t know, Richard Proulx is a composer and arranger who has written some great stuff, including an arrangement of “O God Beyond All Praising” based on some hymn tune that I can’t recall right now because it’s 100 degrees in Washington DC. In any case, I highly recommend his work. GIA has published a bunch.

Here’s a good point:
…the major problem in your average vernacular Mass I think, is that in general Catholics have forgotten that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a miracle that touches Heaven down to earth. It’s otherworldly. It’s not fellowshipping (is that really a verb?) or ‘community-making’. It is flat out worship of an awesome God and the offering of the perfect Sacrifice. Forgeting that has cost us dearly. I pray that collectively we can let the Holy Spirit pull us back.
That’s my issue in a nutshell with the character of liturgical music – I believe it needs to speak to the transcendence of God in expressing the sacred rather than the conversion of contemporary cultural styles into some that is quasi-sacred because it includes the word “Jesus” intermixed with “called” “chosen” “community” etc. It’s the classic sacred vs. mundane: just because I impose sacred expressions onto something mundane doesn’t mean it’s truly sacred.
The tempation here is to completely dismiss music and liturgy that doesn’t conform to one’s ideas about how mere mortals should express the sacred. That’s a mistake along the same lines and walking up to someone on the street and saying “Are you saved?” Without a context for the discussion and an experience of the sacred, there’s no basis for continuing a discussion. And that’s the key to getting acceptance of truly sacred repertoire at your average parish: slowly reintroducing truly classic and sacred expressions. If we’re smart, we’ll be patient about using some of today’s “fast food” music while leaning toward hymns, chants and choral pieces that try to transcend rather than sanctify our contemporary culture.
So now you know why we do a little Haugen. You die-hard latin folks should consider this approach, because the “us vs. them” approach will not win converts – patience and love is the key.

I’ll bet you five dollars that End-Time Handmaidens and Servants have all read the “Left Behind” series.

I haven’t had time to look over their website in any detail, but this is troubling on it’s own:

RECEIVING LIFE IN JESUS
If, after reading the above brief account of the life of Jesus and His death, you too want to become His follower and belong to the great family of God, then bow your head now, and pray this simple prayer:
“Father in Heaven, I come to You now. I confess that I am a sinner. I know that I have done many wrong and sinful things. I cannot change myself, but you can change me. I ask you to help me. Thank you Jesus, for dying for my sins. Thank you for taking my punishment for me. Please forgive me now. Please take my sins away. Make me a child of God. I accept You now as my own Saviour. I will love You. All my life I will live for You; and if necessary, I will die for You. Change my life, and make me pure and holy as You are. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

I’m all for bringing souls to Christ, let’s just bring them the whole way. Let’s start them down a path that leads the whole way.

I got some email about this post which I will put up later and add some additional thoughts of mine. I can’t seem to complete anything on this blog since I started my new job. Sorry for the confusion this may have caused!

Mark Shea beat me to the punch on this one from The Onion, but it is too funny to pass up.

About twice a year we do a sacred Renaissance piece that has a hand drum or tambourine part. Those are the times I pull out my Grover tambourine and show the congregation that it can be played without incurring the wrath of the God. My undergrad is in music and percussion was my primary instrument. I never played or sang at the Masses on campus. The idiot guitar players told me they didn’t need any male singers unless they could play guitar as well.