Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Addition to Worst Song List

I also want add to my nominations for the worst song award "All I Ask of You" by the Weston Priory.

What liturgists in their right mind think that is liturgical music? Oops, it's in the hymnal, so I guess they do exist.

Where is God in that song? I guess one could argue that we are asking God remember us as loving Him, or it could be God asking us to remember that He loves us, but that is quite a stretch.

"All I Ask of You" is a sappy, sugar dripping song that has no place in the Mass, but somehow I keep getting asked to play it for funerals. It can be guaranteed that at a funeral the song is not percieved as either spoken to God or spoken by God. The song is particularly inappropriate for funerals because it takes the focus off of God and his saving love and places it on the deceased's relationship with his survivors. The song is a tearjerker and nothing more. Funeral music is supposed to comfort the family and and help reinforce the belief in eternal life.

A Catholic funeral is not a celebration of a person's life, it is a celebration of Jesus' death and resurrection, through which we all gain the hope of eternal life. While we give thanks to God, for the gift of our brother or sister, the focus of the Mass must always remain on God. During the Mass we pray for the deceased and ask God to welcome him into Heaven. As it says in the Order of Christian Funerals, we believe that life is changed, not ended.

1 comment:

Brian Michael Page said...

I still laugh at the idiots that play that song as a RESPONSORIAL PSALM - double whammy there!
BMP