When the congregation prays twice

...occasionally, they work up a good charismatic sweat when they worship, using dignified, conventional sacred music, even Gregorian chant...

...It trains people to think of liturgy as the glorification of all the "me's" in the small, homogeneous groups...

...Open Glory and Praise or the music of the Weston Monks at almost any page...

...Whatever happens in the future, the church which calls itself "universal" will have to keep its doors open to young, old, poor, rich, sophisticated, unsophisticated, and more ethnic groups than can be counted...

...Indeed, what we have is music for the trained soloist or group — those warm, wonderful people who are always conspicuously displayed up front, thriving on attention...

...According to a worst-case scenario, upstairs Catholicism will become the Church of Convenience: quick, efficient, the riches of liturgical renewal dispensed with an eyedropper...

...liturgy is a public endeavor, not an occasion for us to fall in love with someone else's individual piety...

...Catholics are supposed to believe that salvation, true peace, and love begin with God's saving grace...

...Listen, for example, to the much performed "Prayer of St...

...Small churches find they have die most success using simple hymns...

...A brilliant article by Richard Toporoski, "The Language of Worship" (Communio, 1977...

...Most parishes do not resort to the upstairs-downstairs compromise...

...Whatsoever You Do" starts out with good intentions, but its message can be interpreted as follows: "I, a person of extraordinary Christian virtue, do this and I do that...

...But a best-case scenario has the extremes learning from one another...

...When the music of the Kitsch Revival is not congratulating the individual for living a life of heroic Christian virtue, it is stressing the believer's deeply personal relationship with God — or, to be more accurate, what God will do for "me...

...Upstairs, in the main church, many parishes have the "objective" liturgies for everyone, while downstairs in the basement the folk Mass lets loose...

...You will find songs that are treacherously difficult for an ordinary congregation...

...Commonweal: 144 THERE was a time when few dared to utter a negative word about the Kitsch Revival...

...The old novena hymns did the same thing...

...Be not Afraid," "Only a Shadow," and "Stay with Me," to name just a few selections from Glory and Praise, all tell of a very intimate love story...

...When did you Catholics turn to mush...

...The insertion of the "Stabat Mater" into one of the liturgies in the Missale Romanum bothered him...

...A few years ago, when I happened to tune into a broadcast from the Catholic Traditionalists, I noticed that the background music for the old Latin Mass consisted of these mildewed Victorian favorites, not Gregorian chant...

...Imagine: there was a time when liturgists fretted about the "Stabat Mater" taking away the "objective" character so necessary in a liturgy that is open to all the faithful...

...I think I finally understood what had happened to liturgical renewal when I read about a new Catholic church in Illinois...

...Besides, the words, when magnified in song and proclaimed in public, can sound like an obnoxious form of boasting, an inventory of my spiritual greatness...

...Indeed, you can glide easily from "Mother, Dear, Oh Pray for Me" right into "The Sidewalks of New York" and "Bicycle Built for Two...

...Today, that old compromise still endures with some new twists...

...A liturgy that proceeds with objective solemnity and a great sense of purpose will always remain the most effective way for that complex assortment of people to pray as one...

...Louis Jesuits' mode...

...The piece is a gem — when we listen to it or watch a soloist use it to express his or her devotion...

...Glory and Praise carries on the traditions of a crooning style established by a Bing Crosby or Perry Como, blended with the folk idiom popular in the sixties...

...But congregational music is not a matter of watching...

...They try earnestly to keep all their liturgies public events and "catholic" in the original meaning of the word...

...Like their musical ancestors — the old novena hymns — the new music displays an egotism, an intense preoccupation with "me," which undermines the very idea of a people gathered together for "common prayer...

...me liturgy," the objective corporate act of worship that tries to transcend all the things that divide people vs...

...But it's so beautiful," I am told about "Hail Mary: Gentle Woman.'' Indeed it is...

...partially reprinted in Worship, 1978), shows how many of the ICEL translations distort the original texts so that more emphasis will be put on "me...

...Well," I explained, "this is a rather long story...

...As a result, new parish folk Masses often turn out to be the old parish novena with slightly more zest...

...When we hear this line of reasoning, we must balance it with the facts of history...

...With a continuity that is stunning in its logic, the spirit of the old kitsch novena hymns lives on, stronger than ever, in the parish folk Mass, in the gentle pieces by the singing priests and nuns, and in a large number of newer hymns that have entered the standard repertory of the Catholic parish...

...Its credentials were impressive...

...The private devotions were another matter...

...To remind the congregation of its importance, the entire sanctuary had been lined with mirrors...

...The old kitsch hymns were very "with it" in their day...

...and the private devotion, such as the novena...

...distributed publication Glory and Praise, which contains many of their works...

...But this much is certain: the Kitsch Revival does not help matters...

...As payment for my unfailing, heroic saintliness, I automatically earn my salvation...

...The people downstairs who sing about peace and love often turn out to be alarmingly intolerant of any style of worship which does not conform to their laid-back cultural values...

...But only a small number of American Catholics ever encountered anything so vigorous in their parish churches...

...Ask laypeople over forty to name the imperishable, the traditional masterpieces of Catholic church music, and many of them will answer, "Mother, At Your Feet Is Kneeling," "To Jesus, Heart All Burning," "O Lord, I Am Not Worthy," and "Mother Dearest...

...you would never guess it from some of our music...

...In time, the inevitable happened...

...Even when given a plain, homely performance in a small church, it comes across as the voice of the congregation in sung prayer...

...This is a story that must always be told in the spoken word and in song, but the music of the Kitsch Revival tells it in a personal, private way that does not belong in "common prayer," no matter how many scriptural phrases the song contains...

...The upstairs crowd discovers that singing can be a healthy form of religious joy...

...Musical whimsy is exceedingly difficult for a large group of people to duplicate...

...It stood for today — the music of our time, "what the people today really want...

...What has happened to you people...

...WHAT COULD BE called the problem with the music of the Kitsch Revival is not a matter of taste or sincerity, but suitability...

...The moaning and self-caressing tone of the music indicates that the main character in this story (and perhaps the main character at this liturgy) is really "me...

...Those of us who were around then remember that in most churches the novenas had all the memorable tunes...

...it shows traces of individual piety," something which is not compatible with "the objective spirit of common prayer.'' How quaint those words sound today...

...You might say that the music of the objective Latin liturgy (pathetically undernourished in most places) and the music of the private devotion fought for the loyalty of the people...

...Louis Jesuits write ideal music for congregational use hold up in court...

...Today, American Catholicism is being flooded by "subjective" music that far surpasses the majestic ' 'Stabat Mater'' in emotional lyricism and emphasis on' 'individual piety.'' Perhaps the most conspicuous place to find such music is in the works of the St...

...they will tell you openly that any type of religious music which does not sound like the St...

...Let There Be Peace on Earth" proposes the very un-Christian idea that true peace on earth begins with "me," not God...

...The only major difference between the old novena favorites and the newer versions is a matter of intensity...

...In the past, Roman Catholicism compromised: people could indulge in all kinds of private devotions to satisfy a need for a more personal form of worship, but the ritual of the Mass remained "objective," in theory at least, for the multitude...

...it promotes snobbery and elitism...

...the club meeting of the like-minded — Christians have been arguing about this for centuries...

...Parishioners who hunger for a more substantial expression of faith will have no choice but to go downstairs...

...The sweetly sentimental novena music, not the heritage of Catholicism's sacred music, became the music of the Catholic laity...

...It did not happen overnight...

...You would think it all begins with the person in the mirror...

...They provided an opportunity for a more personal religious experience...

...The St...

...The upstairs liturgy, like the sung Latin Mass of years ago, has settled into a listless routine...

...Francis.'' The founder of the Franciscans would have been the first to insist that his deeply felt and introspective prayer does not easily fit into that "objective spirit" of liturgy which Jungmann referred to, and is best left a private matter...

...The music for the Latin liturgy had to have a' 'universal'' quality or appeal, since this was a "common prayer" for all humanity...

...It even shows up now in some of the more cautious parish missalettes...

...The novena hymns won a clear majority...

...Louis Jesuits' Glory and Praise, the Weston Monks, and many others pick up where "To Jesus Heart All Burning" left off...

...Unfortunately, what also prevails is a system of values that has hardly changed in thirty years...

...Us liturgy" vs...

...an atheist acquaintance asked me after attending a liturgy which featured wall-to-wall folk music in the St...

...Toporoski demonstrates that American Catholic liturgical texts are tinged with Pelagianism — a heresy which holds an idea of salvation in which, another author maintains, we are the chief agents, or at any rate equal partners in association with God...

...Twenty-five years ago the Catholic laity in the United States usually encountered two types of worship in their churches: the Latin Mass — objective, remote, austere, often without the panache found in the Catholic churches of continental Europe...

...Nor do the extravagant claims that groups such as the St...

...The St...

...the nourishing eucharistic meal becomes a quick snack...

...THE NEED FOR SUITABLE MUSIC When the congregation prays twice THOMAS DAY AT ONE POINT in his monumental book The Mass of the Roman Rite (English translation, 1951), Joseph A. Jungmann departed from his- scholarly neutrality and grumbled...

...Liturgical renewal — and especially the folk Mass phenomenon — runs the risk of using liturgy as a kind of spiritual mirror, into which the individual worshiper gazes and thoroughly approves of the image...

...they 8 March 1985: 145 consciously avoid any form of worship that looks like a personality contest or a vehicle for the local star performers...

...The very personal style effectively turns any liturgy into a club meeting — not the agape in the upper room or catacombs, but the gathering of individual "me's" who seem to be going through a form of group therapy...

...Redemption never enters into the picture...

...Slow down the tempo of an old saloon ballad like "She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage" and you have the musical style that produced nearly every novena hymn ever written...

...The congregation merely assists...

...If the hymns of the old kitsch look back to the pop tune and waltz of the Gay Nineties for inspiration, the newer kitsch finds its model in the pop folk ballad, and in a rather dated variety at that...

...The words "I" and "me" occurred constantly in the much-loved novena hymns...

...It's all over the place...

...The music, the homily, everything gets the once-over-lightly...

...In many ways, the "me" preoccupation of the Kitsch Revival only reflects an egocentrism found in the official liturgical texts translated from the Latin and prepared by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy (ICEL...

...The ICEL translations, as Toporoski shows, systematically eliminate all such deferential language...

...According to a whole pile of papal pronouncements, the objective Latin 8 March 1985:143 liturgy was also supposed to have good tunes — Gregorian chant, classic polyphony, great organ music, and, most important, congregational participation...

...I'm OK, You're OK, God's OK," in that order, defines the values of the club's lifestyle...

...Downstairs has all the energy, and some very good tunes...

...At one time, you heard this type of music in nearly every Catholic church in the nation — even at the supremely tasteful, high society wedding of Senator and Mrs...

...That same sweet sentimentality, that same tender emotionalism of the old kitsch hymns is experiencing a revival today...

...The downstairs people finally outgrow their preoccupation with themselves...

...Louis Jesuits and the widely THOMAS DAY is- chairman of the music department at Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island...

...The more things change, the more they remain the same...

...Those rests (where the congregation must pause and wait for the precise moment to enter again), those pitches (held slightly beyond human endurance), and those easygoing melodies (notated in rather tricky rhythms) all indicate that this is not really music to be sung by "the assembly," that common gathering of humanity united in "common prayer...

...Protestant denominations have split again and again over this very issue...

...By itself, no ordinary congregation can manage to drift along with such an unpredictable melody...

...This long poem, he complained, did not belong in the Mass because it exhibits an emotional character' 'that is not properly liturgical, an accent that is emotionally lyrical rather than hymnic, and...

...John F. Kennedy...

...In the vast spaces of cathedrals it makes sense to use the great masterpieces of music...

...Louis Jesuits have retained the whole ethos behind'' Mother, At Your Feet'' and simply speeded up the metabolism...

...A simple hymn for congregation, such as "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name," stands on its own...

...the sung words referred to "us" and "we...

...They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love" presents each member of the congregation as a candidate for canonization...

...Louis Jesuits is hypocritical and should only be kept as a temporary concession to the elderly...

...This, of course, is still much admired, but anyone who has ever turned a television dial knows that "what the people today really want" in music comes in thousands of styles...

...Hail Mary: Gentle Woman," from Glory and Praise, depends entirely on the mediation of the admired soloist or soloists for its effect...

...Instead, the Creator is spoken to in a frank, forthright manner, almost as one equal to another, even a businessperson being addressed in a Dear Sir letter...

...For example, the original Latin collects of the Mass contain phrases that could be accurately translated as "graciously grant" and "beseech...

...Nobody knows the precise formula...