Thursday, September 20, 2007

MORE GREAT ANSWERS...

...from Bob Grant out in Costa Mesa.

The question:
In your experience and in your professional opinion, are charismatic music and the instruments it makes use of suited to a truly Catholic liturgy?

Bob's answer:
No. They are eminently suitable for personal use, or for a prayer meeting, or a festival of praise, but they have no place in Catholic liturgy, which is solemn and sacred. There should not be individuals just composing anything and singing it in church. This is not right at all. No matter how talented the individual is. The local church should be conscious that church worship is not really the same as what se sing in a bar, or what we sing in a convention for youth. Therefore, it should influence the type of instrument used, the type of music used. But music should nourish faith, burst from our faith and should lead back to the faith. It should be a prayer. Entertainment is quite another matter. We have the parish hall for that, and the theater. People don’t come to Mass in order to be entertained. They come to Mass to adore God, to thank him, to ask pardon for sins, and to ask for other things that they need. Those are the reasons for Mass. When they want entertainment, they know where to go: Parish hall, theater, presuming that their entertainment is acceptable from a moral theological point of view. If one truly understands the Faith and the liturgy through the Church's eyes, he will see this. As Catholics we believe that the Holy Spirit speaks through the Church, therefore we should be yearning to do what our Mother asks and to love what She loves.

Perfect! This guy obviously knows where it's at!
Peace,
BMP

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