Praise and Worship, Hymns and Mass

Disclaimer: I am not a liturgist. This post is purely a matter of opinion.

There seems to be an ever growing divide within the Church, especially among millenials, in regards to Mass-appropriate music. Masses ordered towards the youth automatically make use of contemporary music and oftentimes bands, as opposed to “traditional” Masses using the organ and choir. People develop their musical preferences and tend to get extremely defensive over them.

I would like to start out by saying that while I normally attend a Tridentine Mass for the beauty of its Gregorian chant (among other reasons,) I also enjoy contemporary praise and worship music. At my alma mater, Franciscan University, I attended, and greatly enjoyed, Festivals of Praise (affectionately known as fops) which often involved two hours of praise music played by a band.

I think in the liturgy wars which occur in parishes and online, the purpose of both forms of sacred music tend to get ignored. Both lift the mind to God, which is the essential objective of sacred music. However, the way in which each is done is different, and this plays a significant role in whether or not the music is appropriate for the sacredness of the Liturgy.

When you look at traditional hymns and chant, the focus tends to be the glory and the Person of God. When you think of hymns such as “Creator of the Stars of Night” or “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum,” they describe Who God is. This reflection by the congregation on Who God is a call to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation. God coming to man is the beauty we celebrate in the Person of Christ and in the partaking of the Eucharist.

The general tone used by these hymns is general rather than personal. This is because during the course of the Mass, we worship in communion together. As a congregation, we are reflecting together on the relationship between Christ and His Church. We hear the readings together. We respond in prayer together. We sit, stand and kneel together. It logically follows that the use of hymns and sacred music would then be part of communal prayer.

In contrast, most contemporary praise and worship hymns tend to focus on the unique relationship between God and the individual. They are also largely based on emotion, and are often moving precisely because of this. Many times, in describing the relationship between God and the self, the language is simple so that it might be at once personal and universal, like popular radio songs. Often, there are metaphors which suggest an intimate and personal love. Because the songs are focused on the individual, they tend to use the pronouns “I/me/mine,” with much greater frequency than traditional hymns. To detractors, this may come off as cheesy or even inappropriate, but to defenders, it provides a deep sense of relationship with God.

Praise and worship songs, then, by nature, are not necessarily always appropriate within the Mass setting, as it divides the congregation in their prayer rather than unites them as one heart and mind. However, that does not mean praise songs are not sacred in nature or lack value to Catholic living. Praise and worship music is a great resource for personal prayer, meditation and reflection.

I personally make use of such music during personal Eucharistic adoration; those rare times when I am alone in the chapel. For me, it is far easier to pray through song. It’s easy to pick up a guitar at home and start singing praise, far harder to sit down at the piano and being playing and singing a four-voice-part Mozart hymn in Latin. It makes sacred music accessible to the average person and allows for a more personal approach.

I would also like to point out that not all contemporary songs are naturally praise and worship, and not all traditional music is good simply because it is older. Keep in mind that all music was, at one point, modern. There was a time when using any instruments at all within the Liturgy was forbidden. There was a time when women’s voices were forbidden, and they castrated boys to maintain a steady supply of soprano voices. We tend to romanticize the past to put down change we dislike.

Music ultimately needs to serve the purpose of the setting. Song selections should be cohesive, suiting the readings and prayers for that particular Mass. There is music intended perhaps to elicit prayerfulness-whether modern or traditional- that fails in this regard, whether it be a result of poor musical composition or lyrics lacking substance, and such songs should not be used. We must remember that music is, in many respects, a matter of personal taste; however, we must also keep its objective goal of music type in mind when utilizing it as a medium for enhancing prayer and liturgy, and a happy medium can be reached by all.