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Views from the Choir Loft

The Danger of Praise and Worship

Andrew Leung · August 20, 2015

CTL Praise and Worship FRIEND OF MINE wrote an article for Life Teen recently, entitled: Leading Worship with Purpose – The Temple Model. Even though I am not a big fan of Praise and Worship, I still know a lot about it because I grew up with it and I went to the College in Steubenville. And I was interested in what she has to say. Personally, I don’t think Praise and Worship music is bad. I think it is a good devotion and can be a great way to pray. However, it is not Sacred Music (and to be honest, I have never heard anyone call it Sacred Music, have you?), and therefore should not be used during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Her “model of worship” is very creative. The way she connect the Temple to Praise and Worship is very interesting. Her suggestion is very practical and I think it will help people to pray better. However, this article also brings up a great danger and confusion. Is “Praise and Worship” really a “Worship”? In the Catholic Church, the only form of prayer that is referred as “Worship” is the Mass. It is very confusing when people start referring Praise and Worship as “Worship”, because IT IS NOT! The title of the article is an example of that.

The same danger came up again when the Temple Worship and Praise and Worship being compared, and creating a sort of “rubrics”. I am glad that the act of sacrifice itself was not mentioned in the article. But I still don’t think it is appropriate to link up Temple Worship and Praise and Worship. The Liturgy of the Eucharist or the Mass of the Faithful is the unbloody sacrifice of the Lamb of God, originated from the Jewish Temple Worship. And this Worship should not be confused with Praise and Worship. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Praise and Worship is dangerous, but confusing it with the Liturgy is dangerous.

Going off my friend’s article, may I suggest that we all sing the Mass following a “Temple Model”? We believe that Old Roman Chant, later became Gregorian Chant, was developed from the Chant they sing in the Temple Worship. The Jews used the Psalter as a hymnal in their Worship, and we should also use ours in the Mass. Ours is a little different from the Jewish Psalter, because scriptures from the New Testament were added to our Official Roman Catholic Hymnal, the Graduale Romanum. By chanting the Propers and Ordinaries of the Mass, we are picking up the “Temple Model”.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Andrew Leung

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“With all the powers of modern music open to him, from romanticism through French impressionism to the German and Russian modernists, he is yet able to confine all these contradictory forces on the groundwork of the Gregorian tradition.”

— Theodor Rehmann (on Msgr. Jules Van Nuffel)

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