Bah! Humbug ! I just joined a new Facebook group - "It'd be nice to enjoy Christmas carols when Christmas ACTUALLY comes."I was forced to add a comment to the effect that this would only apply if the Christmas carols on offer were the traditional ones I used to know and love, and not the wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed, politically-correct crud which seems to have invaded our parish hymn books.
For the past couple of years I have cringed when glancing at the lyrics of various carols. If I can remember the original words, I sing them as loudly as I can (and I've got quite a good pair of lungs... and have been training hard by dint of yelling at various children!) Unfortunately, sometimes the swine have changed a whole verse, or at last a couple of lines (so as to make the gender-neutral phrase rhyme and scan) and it can catch the unwary singer by surprise.
I occasionally fantasize about running an extra children's literacy hour in a PSHE lesson, handing out the books and getting the kids to stick copies of the original versions over the offending interlopers...
I've posted on this before, and my Parish Priest even linked to it... but the hymn books are still lurking. I suspect drastic action is needed. ...a massive auto da fe using the hymn books as kindling might be in order... after all, it's not just the carols which are mangled beyond belief. I'd need to think carefully about who we could burn in effigy... Marty Haugen and Estelle White would make a good starting point. Any other suggestions to the combox please...
please please please - paul inwood's gathering mass [paid for by our diocese!!!]
ReplyDeleteThe hymn book used in my parish does not include "Good King Wenceslaus".
ReplyDeleteI continue singing the traditional words of any hymn which is now politically correct - "When wicked men blaspheme thee I'll love and bless thy name" springs to mind.
I'm glad you said this! I've noticed that even the non-Christian hymns are horrid! They don't even make sense!! I'm usually the youngest Catholic around (age 32) and I'm not afraid to say, "I think this hymn is DUMB. It didn't even make sense!" and I always get the same astonished looks from the older Catholics. I can tell right off the bat if a hynm has been written between the 60's and the 80's because the music is horrid and the lyrics downright stupid!
ReplyDeleteHonestly! How are stupid hymns "enlightening" to us Catholics?!?! If I have to sing one more stupid song about mine or Christ's hands or feet or hearts I'm going to...be sick.
Anyway, GOD BLESS
I would simply like to actually sing traditional Christmas Carols... at Church, and at work.
ReplyDeleteThou my true father
ReplyDeleteAnd I thy true heir
Thou in me dwelling
And I in thy care
No, really. Full-scale rebellion is needed. Count me in.
BTW, have you noticed the incorrect Latin in 'As I kneel before you'? Domino or something instead of Dominus. That one definitely needs correct version sung in full voice.
CC - non-Christian hymns??? Did you mean non-Catholic? Or are there some really dodgy hymns out there? ;-)
ReplyDeleteLa mamma - The only version of "As I kneel before you" I've ever come across has the correct "Dominus"
I have to chime in with a true tale of secularism run amok...
ReplyDeleteMy last job was at a state-funded university. Every year the president of said university hosted a "Holiday Party" for the employees. And every year staff were encouraged to perform. Sort of a holiday open microphone, if you will.
Last year - my last Christmas there, Deo gratias! - I happened to miss the party (as I was wont to do). I was walking through the office on some errand or another just as some of the relative bigwigs (associate director and director level) were coming back. One was complaining to the other about some of the selections chosen by the employees being too religious, and couldn't they do something about that? The other replied that unfortunately, they didn't have enough people sign up each year to be able to be selective or exert any control over what people sang.
And I thought, "WTF?! It's one thing to say the university itself can't endorse one religion over another. But to say that individual employees at a staff holiday party shouldn't be allowed to perform actual Christmas songs - as opposed to Frosty and Rudolph and all that rot - is just NUTS!!!"
We have our own Parish Hymn Book for the Birmingham Oratory..well you can imagine how wonderful it is. Sunday evening mind you i just loved 'O Jesus christ Remember..'
ReplyDeleteMac..can you e-mail me? i lost your e-mail..need to consult on something...rosary@blueyonder.co.uk
Many thanks..