A Catholic Reflection on music

Greetings,

I hope this is an open forum to all Christians. I love Christian music. We have lifefest(an evangelical 4 day concert in Oshkosh WI) every year. Lots of praise and worship. Even though we are a catholic Church we normally bring a large group of young people from our parish.

I just thought I would drop in and discuss the differences between Catholic worship music, and others. One of the problems in the Catholic church is in the music realm, we have often stopped being catholic.

As you probably know: CAtholics have Mass, which is liturgical and has set rituals. This is probably different from what some of the free flowing services many are accustomed to. Here is the difference: CAtholic are supposed to SING the Mass, not sing at Mass. At mass there are ritual prayers and responses: Example: priest says "The Lord be with you" and people respond "And also with You". The entire service is a dialogue between the priest and people and worship of God united together. The goal for Catholic Music is the Sing the Mass, not just at mass. All the prayers and responses of the people are chanted(Sung), even the Lord's prayer is sung.

The non-catholics in our area who are not liturgical. Their service consists of Hymns, and sermon. There are many songs, and they are normally pretty dynamic often with professional choirs/bands. For protestants there is a shift from music to speaking, and back.

Catholics sing the entire mass, including the prayers. It is not just singing AT the service, but it is singing the service itself.

One problem: In the past 35 years or so, Catholics have taken up the non-catholic model. All at mass if often spoken with hymns to fill in the gaps. What this has left in the CAtholic church is Poorly done liturgy. We don't do the catholic part right, and we can't compete with non-catholics in the hymn department. So many catholic churches are left with wishy washy music which is normally done poorly.

I am not here to say: oooh you should do it the catholic way. It would NOT work in your type of services. I enjoy the music of non-catholic worship services. I just wanted to compare styles. PS: What do most baptist church have for styles?: Traditional hymns? Contemporary Christian? Christian Alternative? Or Something I don't know? I love music and I would just be interested in your responses.

peace