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To: GonzoII
I have to say, as a 20-something-year-old convert to the Church: this letter is really spot-on in alot of ways. For some reason, many “in the pews” seem unable (or unwilling) to see the danger of losing our musical patrimony in Catholic liturgy.

Really and truly, “lex orandi, lex credendi”: the way we pray (i.e. worship) profoundly affects the way we believe - even in those effects are incremental over time. To pretend as though the Church got it way, way wrong for nearly 2,000 years in composing and preserving Gregorian chant in her liturgy is foolish, imho. It is ridiculously cavalier to assume that we are sooooo much smarter than those who saw value in preserving the special and unique musical components of the Mass.

If you argue that “chant was fine for people back then because it was a different time, we need modern music to make worship more relevant,” I'd say your very confused. You see, chant has always been the purview of the Church and only the Church - it was, and always has been, intimately connected to and associated with divine worship. There has ALWAYS been secular music apart from the music of the Mass. Why we have become so arrogant so as to think that WE know better than the past two millenia of Church members and that we not only CAN but SHOULD mix and confuse sacred and secular music is beyond me...

Just my 2 cents. Tucker is ahead of his time if you smell where the liturgical wind is blowing in the Catholic Church...

15 posted on 12/18/2008 2:22:56 PM PST by DogwoodSouth
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To: DogwoodSouth
I should add: The reason I mentioned my age (20s) is to illustrate the point that I count myself among many, many younger Catholics who do not appreciate the condescending assumption that “young people” need/crave/want/desire “relative” music in the Mass.

My experience in my own large parish has been that o'er and o'er, it is younger singles and families who fight for a RESTORATION of the things sacred so callously disregarded and jettisoned by an aging clique who is SHOCKED that we want to change what they've implemented over the past decades (banal music is just one example). I think Tucker is under 40 himself.

16 posted on 12/18/2008 2:27:58 PM PST by DogwoodSouth
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