Music at Mass

There's an interesting article by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski at the New Liturgical Movement blog, with the title, "Music for the Eucharistic Sacrifice". It begins:

The most common argument I’ve heard over the years for why we should allow Christian “pop” music in Church is the consequentialist or utilitarian argument: “Look how well it works. It gets people to Mass and keeps the youth involved.” Interestingly, I’ve never heard a Catholic try to defend the folksy or pop-style music on purely artistic or liturgical grounds, and only rarely have I seen Protestants try to do that. The baseline for the entire discussion seems to be a rough-and-ready pragmatism.

The problem with this argument is twofold. First, even on a practical level, it’s not really true...

The author goes on to make the point that "the Mass is not a social gathering with a humanitarian aim", and he asks, "Does our music convey that we are falling down in worship before the all-holy Lord, the God of heaven and earth—the serving of whom leads to eternal life, the offending of whom leads to eternal death?"

Read the full article here.

And please consider attending the 2015 Gregorian Chant Conference to be held at the Brigittine Monastery near Amity, OR on March 5-7. See the details here.