Mail from Priests: A guy who had to go to a Novus Ordo Mass today because of bad weather.

In a text message:

A priest friend sent this.  At least he was my friend before I listened to what he sent.  I may never talk to him again because I can’t un-hear it.

What was that recording?  Put down your beverage.  Stop chewing if you are eating and swallow first.

But remember, the great renewal of the post-Conciliar reform of the Mass is packing our churches like never before.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, SESSIUNCULA, You must be joking!. Bookmark the permalink.

40 Comments

  1. OzReader says:

    Can only imagine the tantrum, with the requisite “but it says in the Bible
    ‘he who sings prays twice'” between heaving sobs, if anyone suggested they tone it down a bit or sing something the congregation has some hope of keeping up with

  2. Lurker 59 says:

    Found it.

    I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger Ri­chard W. Ad­ams, 1998

    I am a poor wayfaring stranger,
    While traveling through this world of woe.
    Yet there’s no sickness, toil nor danger
    In that bright world to which I go.
    I’m going there to see my Father;
    I’m going there no more to roam.

    Refrain

    I’m only going over Jordan,
    I’m only going over home.

    I know dark clouds will gather round me;
    I know my way is rough and steep.
    But golden fields lie out before me
    Where God’s redeemed shall ever sleep.
    I’m going there to see my mother,
    She said she’d meet me when I come.

    Refrain

    I’ll soon be free from every trial,
    My body sleep in the churchyard;
    I’ll drop the cross of self denial
    And enter on my great reward.
    I’m going there to see my Savior,
    To sing His praise forevermore.

    Refrain
    —————

    That I would consider to be an improvement over some of the parishes that I have attended. The bottom is so so so so so much further down. No one should be subject to that at a Mass but I would take it any day of the week over places I have been.

  3. iamlucky13 says:

    That’s The Wayfaring Stranger. It sounds like a mediocre rendition of a classic gospel song. Doc Watson made one of the better recordings of it.

    If you read what Vatican II had to say about sacred music, this is really not what comes to mind, and it definitely is not any of the chants prescribed in the GIRM, but at least it’s not Imagine.

    “Therefore sacred music is to be considered the more holy in proportion as it is more closely connected with the liturgical action, whether it adds delight to prayer, fosters unity of minds, or confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites.”

    Perhaps the bishop of this place will take notice and act to ensure the parish worships in accordance with the intent of the Council. Perhaps.

  4. The Astronomer says:

    Welcome to what most of us in NovusOrdoLand have to deal with EVERY Sunday.

  5. BeatifyStickler says:

    Honestly, I’d rather be beaten up by a UFC Heavyweight. Trying my hand at a bout with Cain Velasquez is more spiritually uplifting.

    And they wonder where the men went.

    This sort of trash music in the parishes across my home of Canada has destroyed the Church. The men are gone. 9000’Churches, yes that is the correct number, 9000 Churches are expected to close in Canada by the year 2033. 9000 Christian Churches including many Catholic.

    9000.

    The men do like the UFC and tackle football though. The Churches, yeah, not so much.

    9000

  6. Imrahil says:

    Well, it‘s not Gregorian, it‘s not classic, it‘s been done better (as everything has) by Johnny Cash, but what‘s so bad about specifically this? Wayfaring Stranger is a great song; a religious song; and (though they‘ve a right to exist too) not a happy-clappy song.

    Stuff like that really ought to be at Mass. Sometimes. (The place for this one is the recessional in the month of November; where Nearer my God to Thee could also be sung.)

  7. TonyB says:

    I love listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford’s rendition of that song, but I don’t think it’s proper for church.

    One of the travesties that drove me from my old church was the absolute wreckage they made of “How Can I Keep From Singing”.

    I’m not sure that song is proper for mass, either, but I like the Enya version a lot.

    Hearing the church “choir” take it from a languid almost lullaby-like song to the tempo of an Irish jig was painful.

  8. Cornelius says:

    That song is suffused with presumption.

  9. Centra Valley says:

    Ewewwewwe! I just put an ice pic in my ear. I’m not sure if the song is more distressing or the nasty piano. Sadly, in the liturgical wasteland of the diocese of Fresno many churches have good organs which no one plays and then they will a piano onto the altar which causes nothing but a distraction and produces noise, but I digress

  10. James C says:

    Courtesy of @al_yokel on Twitter:

    (to the tune of “All Are Welcome”)

    Let us build a church
    Where guitars are strummed
    And felt flags freely fly
    A place where
    Ancient Boomers bring
    Their Disco Worship nigh

    Built of justice and of mercy
    We’ll put the rigid in their place
    Let us put an end to controversy

    Trads aren’t welcome (x3) in this space

    https://twitter.com/al_yokel/status/1628137259621879840?s=46&t=Lgmnxy8FxLFJrKICbjQ8iA

  11. Legisperitus says:

    I’d rather hear “Wayfaring Stranger” Burl Ives-style than this honky-tonk version.

  12. Maximilian75 says:

    A classic case of the distinction between Christian music and liturgical music.
    Poor Wayfairing Stranger is a great song to sing by a campfire — especially the Hillbilly Thomists version — but it is not suitable for divine worship.

  13. redneckpride4ever says:

    Gee, thanks for having me listen to the Protestant altar call. Can I chalk hearing that up to corporal mortification?

  14. JonPatrick says:

    I thought that sounded familiar. I have a nice recording of that song by the Hillbilly Thomists, a group of Dominican friars who sing Bluegrass. Sounds much better as a Bluegrass song than as a hymn at Mass. I would take it any day over “Gather Us In” at least it doesn’t contain heresy as the latter hymn does.

  15. L. says:

    How can such a song be sung in a Catholic Church? It lacks the phrase “in this place,” which is I believe is mandatory for modern church tunes.

  16. PCali says:

    For what it’s worth, the Hillbilly Thomists have a fairly nice cover of that song. Completely inappropriate for the liturgy in any context, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

  17. rwj says:

    Opportunity!
    If EF people are displaced and made to go to crazy NO masses.. perhaps they can *insist* to pastor, bishop, and the Roche’s office that parishes implement Vatican II’s documents on liturgy and sacred music. We are a listening Church after all

  18. sjoseph371 says:

    A few comments / general questions that I hope someone can answer:
    1. ‘he who sings prays twice’ – I believe it was actually “He who sings WELL prays twice” . . . . he who doesn’t sing well should be quiet and just pray twice. . .. . with my tone deaf voice, I think I need to pray thrice!
    2. Someone mentioned the GIRM, but one of the criticisms I’ve heard (and have) is the Catholic Church really doesn’t have a comprehensive list of “approved” songs, or at least some kind of list that they recommend as reverent enough to sing at Church. Just because it is in the hymnal doesn’t make it reverent. As an aside, my wife did point out that some of the hymns in there were made by Protestants at a time when they’d want nothing more than to erase us “Papists” off the earth – but I digress. . . . I know pretty much any traditional Gregorian Chants are one example, but not many choirs know them. Even if the Church doesn’t have any official document, you’d think that some respected traditional Catholic leader would have pout a list together by now of reverent, holy hymns that are appropriate, and for bonus points, ones that are easier for novice choirs to learn.
    3. It IS Lent, so maybe listening to this could count as our penance & mortifications??

  19. mercy2013 says:

    We live too far from the TLM to go there for Christmas. Several years ago, during Midnight Mass at our local cathedral, the choir sang “Mary did you know” with the bishop present. I thought for sure they would never sing that again since I knew our bishop wasn’t a modernist. Sure enough, they sang it again the next year at Midnight Mass. That was the last time we have attended Mass at our cathedral on a holy day.

  20. About the phrase “he who sings prays twice”… I wrote a post about that quite a while ago. Gosh, I’ve been doing this for a long time. There’s a lot of stuff available if you use the search bar (like I do).

    Here is what I wrote back in 2006 (happier times when freedom gave light and the dark shadow of tyranny was still beyond the horizon):

    ________

    We had a look at the phrase “In necessitatibus unitas…“, etc. often but falsely attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo.  Someone asked about another famous phrase attributed to the Bishop of Hippo, “He who sings, prays twice”.  Augustine didn’t write that either!  Let’s look at it.

    First, the original phrase is in Latin and the modern language versions leave out an extremely important little word: bis orat qui bene cantat… “he who sings well prays twice.”   I think any of you who attend parishes with sub-optimal pop-bands at Mass understand this.

    So, if Augustine didn’t write that phrase, did he write anything similar that gave rise to the phrase?

    He did write, “cantare amantis est… Singing belongs to one who loves” (s. 336, 1 – PL 38, 1472). This is the citation for qui bene cantat bis orat in the primitive edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1156.

    But this is not the end of the story, folks!

    In the Latin edition of the CCC we are sent to footnote n. 26 (oddly, this is note 21 in the newer English edition, which adds a confer reference to Col. 3:16 – which is not in the Latin CCC). Latin CCC 1156, note 26 reads:

    Cf. Sanctus Augustinus, Enarratio in Psalmum 72, 1: CCL 39, 986 (PL 36, 914).

    Surprise surprise, I just happen to have CCL (= Corpus Christianorum Latinorum, a vast series of volumes of Latin authors) vol. 39 at hand. Looking up that reference, we find what Augustine really said:

    Qui enim cantat laudem, non solum laudat, sed etiam hilariter laudat; qui cantat laudem, non solum cantat, sed et amat eum quem cantat. In laude confitentis est praedicatio, in cantico amantis affectioFor he who sings praise, does not only praise, but also praises joyously; he who sings praise, is not only singing, but also loving Him whom he is singing about/to/for. There is a praise-filled public proclamation (praedicatio) in the praise of someone who is confessing/acknowledging (God), in the song of the lover (there is) there is deep love.

    This is a very interesting passage. Augustine is saying that when the praise is of God, then something happens to the song of the praiser/love that makes it more than just any kind of song. The object of the song/love in a way becomes the subject. Something happens so that the song itself becomes Love in its manifestation of love of the one who truly is Love itself.

    However, it does not say qui canit bis orat. There seems to have been some confusion of the verbs laudare and orare.

  21. hwriggles4 says:

    Anyone here besides me tired of the song “Gather Us In”?

  22. Ipsitilla says:

    I am a poor but striving Catholic
    Who simply wants to go to Mass
    But there’s no rev’rence, truth or beauty
    In many churches that I pass
    I’ll drive much farther to escape this
    I’ll find that Latin they’d suppress
    I’m only looking for salvation
    I’m only here for holiness

  23. Kerry says:

    From Fr. Cliff Ermantinger’s ‘An Exorcist goes to the Movies’, we read:

    “Fr. John Hardon, defines immanentism for us: ‘A method of establishing the credibility of the Christian faith by appealing to the subjective satisfaction that the faith gives to the believer.’

  24. misanthrope says:

    On the rare instances where I have to attend a NO Mass, I am confronted with worrying that it will be, for me, a near occasion of sin. It boils my blood to hear horrific ‘tunes’ at Mass. Then again, all the other trappings (altar girls, lay Eucharistic ministers, door wardens grinning ‘good morning’ greetings, generally produce the same result).

    Years ago, in my NO days, my wife, children, and I attended one of these ‘Masses’, and I recall my wife sensing my growing disgust. She leaned over the heads of a couple of my sons and whispered ‘offer it up for the poor souls’.

    When we got to the Gospel, I leaned back and whispered ‘ well, now that Purgatory is empty, do you have any other suggestions?’. I thought she would literally bust out laughing.

    We have been blessed to have an FSSP VO parish where we have been attending Mass now for close to 20 years. Our Ash Wednesday Mass was packed, almost exclusively with young families with many, many children. There are also a few Boomers like my wife and myself. The reverence, the chant, the absolute ineffable beauty – even the best NO Mass cannot approach it, IMHO. I find the crying babies, far from being a distraction, more of a glorious accompaniment, recalling Christ’s words to ‘suffer Me the little children’. I can never go back to the NO on a regular basis, and I doubt any of those young families can, or will, either, whatever the Vatican continues to do to suppress us and the VO.

    I know the angels are present at our Mass, contemplating with awe the majesty of our God. I can only imagine them weeping listening to tripe such as that recorded here. It makes me ache for…..silence.

    Where will we go if our Bishop cancels us? It’s the SSPX for me, or a cancelled priest offering Mass in my home (gotta get that altar built I suppose). There is nothing on earth more beautiful than the VO – nothing. It is as closest thing to heaven on this earth.

    My generation of hand-holding, pablum spouting, crayon and stick figure synodal boomers will soon be gone from this vale of tears, and the young will carry on what many of us have worked so hard to preserve through these dark days.

  25. Titus says:

    Hey, it’s 1992 somewhere. That’s probably about when that was on rotation in our parish growing up.

  26. Imrahil says:

    Dear Cornelius,

    there are some dangers about the in itself quite true idea that virtue is the middle between two opposite vices; namely, to understand it as a compromise. Hence the idea that Hope would say thinks like “Well, let’s think we may, with God’s grace, perhaps quite probably go to Heaven, but maybe we won’t.” This may be a defensible statement in itself, but the expectation of the normal listener “something that calls itself ‘Hope’ sounds different” is, as a matter of fact, justified. The Master of the Sentences says, “Hope is the certain expectation of future happiness”, emphasis mine, explanation given in (and quote taken from) St. Thomas, Summa theol. II 18 IV.

    Hence, we are in fact justified take a “fake it till we make it” approach for the (possibly remote, but existing) possibility of ourselves obstructing by force God’s plan to save us (it really is only that). We are forbidden to deny the possibility exists, but that’s that.

    (And anyway, it has always been observed that virtues are in the middle but not necessarily exactly in the middle between opposing vices. Fortitude is certainly closer to bravado than to cowardice. It seems to me that hope is closer to presumption, even actual presumption which Wayfaring Stranger is not, than to despair too. Anyway, the latter is our real problem today; the prominence of even actually presumptious statements in religious circles is, I think, a desperate, pun not intended, try to turn the pendulum.)

  27. JamesM says:

    I’m confused. This guy decided to go to a NO Mass and instead ended up in a piano bar.

    What happened?

  28. APX says:

    Johnny Cash did a rendition of Wayfaring Stranger.

    It’s an old gospel song. I like a lot of old gospel music, but not at Mass. I would be very open to singing old gospel music outside of the liturgies. There’s a time and a place for everything.

  29. Suburbanbanshee says:

    I agree that “Wayfaring Stranger” has done nothing wrong. It’s not a liturgical song, but it’s a deep song.

    If sung correctly.

    If accompanied and played correctly.

    The singer sounds like she is convinced that she is not a sinner, and that the “Wayfaring Stranger” is just jogging along happily in the sun. This might not be what she intended, but it’s what we got. Argh.

    Ideally, a cantor or choir should be singing sacred songs, and like angels. But if you can’t do that (because of song choice by the music minister), you can at least sing like someone praying, and put across the song in a way that helps others pray. A good singer can put a song on its feet and make it walk where it’s supposed to go, albeit that is asking a lot.

    Admittedly, that accompaniment would make it difficult for anyone to do anything with it. Very ill-judged for any church, and not doing the song any favors in a secular setting, either.

  30. Suburbanbanshee says:

    The song is from 1858, btw, and is also known as “The Libby Prison Song,” since it was a favorite there among Union POWs. Wikipedia informs me that it’s gotten some pop culture uses recently, which might be why it was being used.

    Anybody more recent than 1858, who’s taking credit for it, is taking credit for additional verses or for a different arrangement/harmonization.

  31. pannw says:

    BeatifyStickler, that is heartbreaking.

    I am so blessed to be a member of a NO parish where the priest is a stickler for doing things as they were actually written. We have a beautiful church on the historic registry, and so ‘they’ didn’t get to wreckovate it. Deo gratias. Therefore, we have a beautiful altar where Mass is offered ad orientem, communion on our knees at the altar rail, a wonderful pipe organ and choir loft, in the BACK! etc… Father has only altar BOYS serving, he distributes Communion himself, unless he has a priest or possibly a seminarian assisting him, the readers are men, except on Saturday vigil, and I don’t think he has a male regularly available??? It is not particularly well attended, and mostly tourists I think. Not sure about that. The early Sunday Mass is almost entirely Latin, and the noon Mass has Latin Gloria, Sanctus, Mysterium Fidei, Agnus Dei….

    And the music is beautiful!

    Unfortunately, the church is in the middle of the city, and a bit of a hassle to get to, and parking is a nightmare, especially on weekdays, so on Holy Days of Obligation, and other times like Ash Wednesday, I generally go to a more local NO parish, which is not so lovely, though the current and previous priest have done a good deal to improve it. For example, the previous had the Tabernacle and an actual Crucifix put back in the sanctuary. *sigh* They have done what they could with a rather ugly space, half round, you know the type. And they have a weekly hour of Adoration and Confession on Wednesday evening and 24 hour Adoration on First Fridays. I really appreciate what they have done. They have had less success with improving the music though, as I discovered yesterday.

    It could be far worse, but still pretty typical Several years ago, I realized one huge difference in the type of music they and every typical NO parish I have been to sing and the type my parish has. It’s not just that it’s banal, cheesy, piano bar-ish sounding, but it is always focused on US, like the posted song, or what we do FOR Him (“They will know we are Christians”, let US build the “City of God”, “Here I am Lord”) Even if it is about what He does, it is still focused on US ie, “Come to the Table of Plenty”. Yes, it is God doing the feeding, but it is focused on us coming to the table. If that makes sense.

    The music we are blessed with at my parish is focused on HIM, even if we are doing things, (“At the Name of Jesus” “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus”) and how HE helps us (The King of Love My Shepherd Is” ) or if it is us doing anything, it is glorifying HIM (“Lift High the Cross” “All Creatures of Our God and King”). There is just a different focus. Most music at NO parishes focus toward us, whereas the more traditional, NO or EF, focus toward God and His Glory. It makes a huge difference.

    I thank God for my parish and my priest. May He bless and protect them both.

  32. RissyAnne1 says:

    I love the song “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”. I used to sing it while walking my dog in the field. This utterly ruined it for me. It’s rather suited for the lone dogwalk, the silent horse ride, or a guitar plucking on the porch. One is much less of a lone Wayfaring stranger on a church full of people and a piano accompanist.

  33. Fr. Reader says:

    @imrahil
    In his book Ethics, D. Von Hildebrand has a very interesting criticism of the Aristotelian idea of virtue as the middle between to vices.

  34. Imrahil says:

    Rev’d dear Fr Reader,

    thank you. Sounds interesting.

  35. Chaswjd says:

    Three things:

    First, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council clearly stated that Gregorian Chant was the prototypical music of the Latin Rite. While those who came after ignored that part of Sacrosanctum Concilium and the GIRM, it is still there.

    Second, don’t whine about it. Do something. Read the liturgy documents. Know what they say. Learn about chant and other dignified sacred music. Be active in parishes. Form scholas that can perform chant. Find groups in your area that perform chant and polyphony and fund an appearance at a mass. There is a lot that can and is not being done.

    Third, there is a great deal of chant in English for those who insist on the vernacular. The resources are out there. There is also a great deal of music out there which is not chant, is in the vernacular, and is fitting for the mass. Find it and ask that it be performed in your parishes.

    As a final thought there is this YouTube clip. It is a mass celebrated according to the NO with music composed by a living composer. (He’s conducting the choir). Perhaps it’s not in Latin. It’s not the mass according to the 1962 missal. But I think most would find it solemn and dignified. It certainly is different from the clip which started the thread.

    https://youtu.be/lT6tSaBmqFc

  36. maternalView says:

    Why does all the NO music sound like this?

    When I’ve been subjected to such I looked around so see if anyone else recognizes how bad it is. But it doesn’t seem to be known. I suppose they all think this IS how music at Mass is supposed to sound like.

  37. robtbrown says:

    Imrahil,

    A serious problem (more accurately, another serious problem) with the Novus Ordo is that it violates its own project, which was to involve the laity in the liturgy. In lieu of singing parts of the liturgy, e.g., the Offertory or the Communion, a song is substituted. So what was supposed to be liturgical is little else than devotional. The laity’s notion of rite has been gradually undermined.
    2. In the concept of virtue used by St Thomas the contrary errors are simply the error of defect and the error of excess. You are quite right to mention implicitly that that latter is an attempt at imitation of the virtue. Any habit refers to an relation to an act. The vices prohibit the act or produce in appropriate action. (The exception is Justice, which lacks contraries: An act is either Just or it is not. To punish someone with too much severity is a lack of Justice not an error excess.

  38. robtbrown says:

    I should also mention that the contrary error approach applies to the moral virtues, which are relation to acting. That of course includes the virtue of Prudence, which regards to practical intellect.

    The contrary error MO generally does not apply to the virtues of the speculative intellect, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

  39. TonyO says:

    And, I think, being the middle between two vices also does not apply to the theological virtue of charity, which is the love of God. It is not possible to love God too much. One might love him in an inappropriate manner, but that would be an error in the mode, not in the degree.

  40. Benedict Joseph says:

    No further critique is required of the post-conciliar debacle. Its all there in less than a minute…

Comments are closed.