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I can't help but notice how much of the music is focused on, "I'm so good, look at what I've done" or "Look at what Jesus did for us because we are such wonderful people"
It's amazing how often the words I, my, me, we, us, our, and you pop up in the "hymns" we sing at Mass. What is more disturbing is the hymns that don't make any reference to God or Christ at all. We are there to worship Him, not to pat ourselves on the back. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should be self-loathing or anything. But when we are at Mass, before the Alter of God, our focus should be on worshiping him not telling each other how wonderful we are.
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7 comments:
Amen brother Chris.
Yes, we are created in the image of God and not vice-versa. Any goodness within us remains a mere reflection of the source of all goodness.
The more I consider the lives of the saints the more I realise how acutely they were aware of this situation, and the more I observe contemporary society the more I see an excruciating lack of respect let alone reverence. The trend towards Presumption is a major problem.
Thank you for your blog, Chris. You are a man of passion.
What's interesting is that there are many within the contemporary music movement that will say the same about hymns. Let's not throw a blanket statement over contemporary music as a means to castigate and condemn a whole segment of music. God does not communicate only through one form of music.
I'm trying to throw a blanket statement over all contemporary music. As Pope Benedict XVI said in the article above, "Updating sacred music is possible, but this cannot happen unless it follows the tradition of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphony." I think what he is saying is that we need to pay be careful that our contempary sacred music follows the form of being "God-center" instead of "me or us centered". Remember also that my original post is meant in context of the music that I have personally heard and reflected upon recently in a couple different parishes and seeing profiles of people on blogger and message boards that list these same songs as some of their favorites.
opps....above comment should read, "I'm NOT trying to throw a blanket . . ."
I agree music should be gregarious!
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