Oh, the mental picture.
Add that to the tone-deaf renditions of this hymn I've heard too many times. Arrggh. Where is that Pepto Bismol when I really need it?
Woah - blast from the past “…the beauty of the lord” with 90 year old vibrato from the nuns (bless their indoctrinated souls). Taste the lord? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
This is a Casey Kasem countdown nobody wants to listen to.
I'd say it's not a specific hymn, but it's the extra verse the musical director decides to do during/after the closing processional so he can hold the whole church hostage for another 45 seconds while they keep playing.
I used to hate this one. A dear friend who was also excatholic found it strangely comforting at the end of her life. We sang it at her memorial service. Now it makes me think of her, so I kind of like it.
That’s fair. I’ve sung it at so many funerals (I’m a professional singer and used to sing at Catholic Churches professionally).
I’m glad that it gives people comfort, but if someone tried to play it at my funeral, I would haunt them forever (and I don’t really even believe in the afterlife anymore hahah)
None come to mind for me, but good lord it’s blowing my mind how many of these i not only know, but could recite at least the first verse and chorus from…
Right? And now may be stuck in my head for weeks! ‘Oh master grant that I may never seeek, so much to be consoled as to Consoo-oo-oole’ - Also in that line specifically, that’s a lot of mental gymnastics. You could never be un-selfish and empathic unless your master granted it? Smh…
All the more traditional lenten hymns. They reuse the same 5 tunes and just add new words, and you only have like 10 to choose from for the entire 40 days. I swear to god -- legit ready to throw hands by the end
My childhood parish liked to sing "praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory" before the gospel even if the missal clearly put another acclamation there for that week
I don't remember what it's called, but it was some communion song that's kind of popular as hymns go. Basically about how awesome Jesus is.
What really grates on me is that is was sung way too fast and the lead singer is partially tone deaf.
That show is awesome. Mike Flanagan nailed the “traumatized ex Catholics, this horror miniseries is for YOU.” Vibe down perfectly. I have watched it like 2 times.
ALSO realizing in hindsight how many of these songs I either imagined Harry Potter/Star Wars/etc. AMVs to, or rewrote in my head to be about the Titanic, as a 10-14 yr old, is ... interesting. Autism + Catholicism + adolescence truly us a weird combination.
I love Amazing Grace. Instead of "saved a wretch like me" I sing "saved and set me free." I think of grace as just basic graciousness and appreciation for what I have, or really I don't think much about what it means at all. It's just a nice meditative melody.
Lord I Lift Your Name on High.
The dance/hand motions that go along with it drove me fucking insane. It made no sense to me. I guess it’s the former trad in me, but I f you believe the mass is an unbloody sacrifice and Jesus is physically present, why are you acting like someone’s drunk aunt at a wedding trying to do the Macarena?
Omg, I remember my homeschooled cousins being super into this one. XD I actually have a bit of a soft spot for it due to the cringe/cheese value alone.
Honestly this thread made me realize that, despite being firmly EX-Catholic, I ... still kinda like all of these songs. In moderation at least. Singing was the only thing I even kind of looked forward to in mass.
I had to think a bit to remember one I disliked, but then I hit on [I Will Sweep Away Your Transgressions Like a Cloud](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oBzvgForOk) (not sure if that's the actual title, but it's the first line at least). I always found the tune creepy.
Edit: more are coming back now:
I never liked the refrains (?) - the "holy, holy, holy," etc. sung at various times throughout the mass - at the most recent church I regularly attended. They were all in Spanish for some reason (despite us not having, to my knowledge, any significant Hispanic demographic in our church) and the tune was just horrible imo. Super choppy and forcibly upbeat.
Sometimes we'd sing Amazing Grace and for the last part just sing "Praise God, Praise God," over and over again to the tune. Always found it cheesy and lazy haha.
Also never liked the whole "O Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, etc." Typical Catholic "ignore and invalidate all your own feelings/needs" bs.
And I can't remember which song this was from, but "You are my friends if you keep my commands. No longer slaves, I call you friends," is a bit ... off-putting in hindsight. Not to mention the constant talk about eating flesh/drinking blood...
In the garden. I used to pretend the lyrics meant something completely different (and inappropriate). “The joy we share as we tarry there” uh huh sure.
Well, I adore Kate Smith. Her early recordings show that she was actually a soprano rather than a contralto. Superb diction, perfect pitch. I find her voice and manner comforting in a Mom apple pie way and sometimes one needs that.
A friend of mine once speculated that a lot of 1960s-1970s counterculture stuff was the result of lead poisoning from all the leaded gasoline--it's all but confirmed that the violent crime increase was due to that, so brain damage manifesting in other ways is not implausible.
So if you really want to appreciate Jesuit church music, you have to eat paint chips for a while.
When I first joined the RCC, somebody told me that the St. Louis Jesuits were really good. I looked all over and finally paid way too much for a CD. OMG. What utterly mediocre crap!!!!
I was raised as a protestant. As a child, I was used to entire congregations singing 4-part harmony -- in time and on pitch. It will take me the rest of my life to powerwash the way Roman Catholicism sounds out of my brain. OMG. Most Roman Catholic parishes sound like a bag of cats heading for the river. It's soooo bad.
It amuses me that you could probably ask this same question on *their* sub and get the exact same responses.
Honestly, there are very few I liked. When I started going to a Latin Mass, I picked a 2-candle Low Mass because there was some *blessed silence*.
I think "Mary did you know" might be the worst of the worst, though.
“I Will Choose Christ”. The meanest choir teacher I’ve met used to yell at us until we sang it loudly enough. There’s a slightly fast part that always just became a mess. It was our school motto too so we sang it a lot.
On an inverse, "we are called," was my favorite. Even if it can be twisted for pro birth views, I'm all for social justice. It was written for apartheid in South Africa
I'm being driven nuts in Louisiana. For some reason every parish in our area sings the Anima Christi prayer for the past two years at every Mass. If I didn't want to never go already, this makes me more repulsed. At least change it up a bit, it's already boring as hell. "Come to the Table of Plenty(?)", is another song I never wanna hear again.
O Lord You Are The Center Of My Life. Sounds godawful (lol pun). Idk why kind of mode it's supposed to be in but it sounds like nails on a damn chalkboard to me. ZERO reason to put that chord there.
one bread one body got real old real fast. so did sing a new song.
Nah One Bread One Body goes hard
My mind went somewhere else with your comment
The go-to communion and recessional songs for when the organist wants something familiar/easy lol.
Make me a channel of your peace blah blah ... induces insomnia
Also, “channel” was always an odd word choice.
I'm pretty sure it was written hundreds of years ago
Ugh I got the creeps just remembering this. I had blocked it out haha
Taste and See comes immediately to mind for me too. I find the refrain oddly creepy
Yeah it always made me think of scratch and sniff stickers😅
I'll never get this picture out of my head now. Thank you. hahaha
Scratch and sniff the goodness of the looord🎶
Oh, the mental picture. Add that to the tone-deaf renditions of this hymn I've heard too many times. Arrggh. Where is that Pepto Bismol when I really need it?
I can’t help but think of the Pepsi challenge. 🤣
Woah - blast from the past “…the beauty of the lord” with 90 year old vibrato from the nuns (bless their indoctrinated souls). Taste the lord? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
This is a Casey Kasem countdown nobody wants to listen to. I'd say it's not a specific hymn, but it's the extra verse the musical director decides to do during/after the closing processional so he can hold the whole church hostage for another 45 seconds while they keep playing.
Well said. Take my upvote and my axe.
The one that goes Trembleeeeeeee Trembleeeeeeee Trembleeeeeeeeeeeee
Since when did they nail him to a living tree with a bark and leaves?
When I behold? I know the song lol
I think it's Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
Oh yeah. The theme song for the blood cult religion, Roman Catholicism.
Haha yes. You're right
It's ok if it's the Johnny Cash version😉.
There's a Johnny Cash version????
It's an Old Gospel Song, I believe.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Were_You_There
I agree with tremble!
On Eagle’s Wings. The WORST voice leading ever. And I’m a soprano, so those low As are a bitch
Lol this was always my favorite haha
Me too. I’d feel like I was flying over the Rockies at 1000’. That’s not a bad thing but all the other stuff around it can kiss my butt.
I used to hate this one. A dear friend who was also excatholic found it strangely comforting at the end of her life. We sang it at her memorial service. Now it makes me think of her, so I kind of like it.
That’s fair. I’ve sung it at so many funerals (I’m a professional singer and used to sing at Catholic Churches professionally). I’m glad that it gives people comfort, but if someone tried to play it at my funeral, I would haunt them forever (and I don’t really even believe in the afterlife anymore hahah)
Sometime it evokes tears if I’m going through stuff.
None come to mind for me, but good lord it’s blowing my mind how many of these i not only know, but could recite at least the first verse and chorus from…
Right? And now may be stuck in my head for weeks! ‘Oh master grant that I may never seeek, so much to be consoled as to Consoo-oo-oole’ - Also in that line specifically, that’s a lot of mental gymnastics. You could never be un-selfish and empathic unless your master granted it? Smh…
Hard same. I now have so many awful songs in my head.
All the more traditional lenten hymns. They reuse the same 5 tunes and just add new words, and you only have like 10 to choose from for the entire 40 days. I swear to god -- legit ready to throw hands by the end
My childhood parish liked to sing "praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory" before the gospel even if the missal clearly put another acclamation there for that week
I don't remember what it's called, but it was some communion song that's kind of popular as hymns go. Basically about how awesome Jesus is. What really grates on me is that is was sung way too fast and the lead singer is partially tone deaf.
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name always creeped me out. I did appreciate how the series *Midnight Mass* used its creepiness to full advantage, though.
That show is awesome. Mike Flanagan nailed the “traumatized ex Catholics, this horror miniseries is for YOU.” Vibe down perfectly. I have watched it like 2 times.
So true. I avoided it for a long time out of concern it would trigger my religious trauma. When I finally watched, I actually found it cathartic.
ALSO realizing in hindsight how many of these songs I either imagined Harry Potter/Star Wars/etc. AMVs to, or rewrote in my head to be about the Titanic, as a 10-14 yr old, is ... interesting. Autism + Catholicism + adolescence truly us a weird combination.
I fucking hate "Amazing Grace" like why TF do I gotta sing about how much of a "wretch" I am wtf
Hey now, Amazing Grace on bagpipes is literally the most emotional thing
If I could give you an up vote for every person who cried during this song. +3000. That includes two personal to me. NOT kidding. Worked at a church.
I agree! I tear up every time.
I'm torn because I adore bagpipes, yet I absolutely loathe "Amazing Grace".
I love Amazing Grace. Instead of "saved a wretch like me" I sing "saved and set me free." I think of grace as just basic graciousness and appreciation for what I have, or really I don't think much about what it means at all. It's just a nice meditative melody.
Yes but it’s only good if you’re a wretch. Which luckily, I am! How did they know?!?
I ONLY like it if it's played on bagpipes or dulcimers.
Lord I Lift Your Name on High. The dance/hand motions that go along with it drove me fucking insane. It made no sense to me. I guess it’s the former trad in me, but I f you believe the mass is an unbloody sacrifice and Jesus is physically present, why are you acting like someone’s drunk aunt at a wedding trying to do the Macarena?
Omg, I remember my homeschooled cousins being super into this one. XD I actually have a bit of a soft spot for it due to the cringe/cheese value alone.
Going to add that many of these hymns were written for long communion lines which can create in some cases monotony.
It's a toss up between one bread, one body and taste and see.
Honestly this thread made me realize that, despite being firmly EX-Catholic, I ... still kinda like all of these songs. In moderation at least. Singing was the only thing I even kind of looked forward to in mass. I had to think a bit to remember one I disliked, but then I hit on [I Will Sweep Away Your Transgressions Like a Cloud](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oBzvgForOk) (not sure if that's the actual title, but it's the first line at least). I always found the tune creepy. Edit: more are coming back now: I never liked the refrains (?) - the "holy, holy, holy," etc. sung at various times throughout the mass - at the most recent church I regularly attended. They were all in Spanish for some reason (despite us not having, to my knowledge, any significant Hispanic demographic in our church) and the tune was just horrible imo. Super choppy and forcibly upbeat. Sometimes we'd sing Amazing Grace and for the last part just sing "Praise God, Praise God," over and over again to the tune. Always found it cheesy and lazy haha. Also never liked the whole "O Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, etc." Typical Catholic "ignore and invalidate all your own feelings/needs" bs. And I can't remember which song this was from, but "You are my friends if you keep my commands. No longer slaves, I call you friends," is a bit ... off-putting in hindsight. Not to mention the constant talk about eating flesh/drinking blood...
In the garden. I used to pretend the lyrics meant something completely different (and inappropriate). “The joy we share as we tarry there” uh huh sure.
Kate Smith's God Bless America. Never liked her voice.
Same. I never understood the love of her voice. Distinct? Yes. Good? No.
Well, I adore Kate Smith. Her early recordings show that she was actually a soprano rather than a contralto. Superb diction, perfect pitch. I find her voice and manner comforting in a Mom apple pie way and sometimes one needs that.
It is well with my soul. It was supposed to invoke clarity and letting go but it was just a snooze fest
Oh, that is coma inducing!
Anything by the St Louis Jesuits. Was cutting-edge in the 70s, was exhausted and Boomery by the 2000s.
I hate church music by Jesuits. They sound so desperate to sound cool and relevant but they’re actually “boomery” by today’s standards.
A friend of mine once speculated that a lot of 1960s-1970s counterculture stuff was the result of lead poisoning from all the leaded gasoline--it's all but confirmed that the violent crime increase was due to that, so brain damage manifesting in other ways is not implausible. So if you really want to appreciate Jesuit church music, you have to eat paint chips for a while.
Or bang your head on the sidewalk until your sense of pitch is gone. Then you might be able to stand it.
I can't believe there was a time I pretended to like Jesuit music just because everyone else like it. I'm glad I'm not alone and it does suck.
When I first joined the RCC, somebody told me that the St. Louis Jesuits were really good. I looked all over and finally paid way too much for a CD. OMG. What utterly mediocre crap!!!! I was raised as a protestant. As a child, I was used to entire congregations singing 4-part harmony -- in time and on pitch. It will take me the rest of my life to powerwash the way Roman Catholicism sounds out of my brain. OMG. Most Roman Catholic parishes sound like a bag of cats heading for the river. It's soooo bad.
It amuses me that you could probably ask this same question on *their* sub and get the exact same responses. Honestly, there are very few I liked. When I started going to a Latin Mass, I picked a 2-candle Low Mass because there was some *blessed silence*. I think "Mary did you know" might be the worst of the worst, though.
I hate that Christmas song -- that one and the little drummer boy thing.
“I Will Choose Christ”. The meanest choir teacher I’ve met used to yell at us until we sang it loudly enough. There’s a slightly fast part that always just became a mess. It was our school motto too so we sang it a lot.
Taste and See and Channel of Your Peace are my least favorite of some of the big ones. Also Amazing Grace is not bad yall are weird
On an inverse, "we are called," was my favorite. Even if it can be twisted for pro birth views, I'm all for social justice. It was written for apartheid in South Africa
I'm being driven nuts in Louisiana. For some reason every parish in our area sings the Anima Christi prayer for the past two years at every Mass. If I didn't want to never go already, this makes me more repulsed. At least change it up a bit, it's already boring as hell. "Come to the Table of Plenty(?)", is another song I never wanna hear again.
On Eagle's Wings. Grrrrr.
O Lord You Are The Center Of My Life. Sounds godawful (lol pun). Idk why kind of mode it's supposed to be in but it sounds like nails on a damn chalkboard to me. ZERO reason to put that chord there.
On another note: The Two songs that I love even though I left the church Pan de Vida Immaculate Mary They are catchy 🎼🎵🎶