De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

This is a great homily from Fr. John Hollowell about the role that music plays in Mass. Mass, he says is not about eliciting an emotional reaction. It isn't just about seeking to make us feel a certain way. This speaks to the 'emotionalism' which is a product of the 'Spirit of Vatican II' attitude: religion should make us 'feel nice'. No. Rubbish. Mass is an encounter with Our LORD and the music at Mass should stir our minds and souls with faith and give praise to Him. If we add music to elicit an emotional response, we hi-jack the Mass and we fail in the mind of the Church, turning the Mass into a commercial enterprise in order to elicit an emotional response. In other words, the act of worship, which should be ordered to God, becomes an act of self adulation, where we become focused on ourselves and our own cleverness. H/T Creative Minority Report

I'm no musician, but continuing the theme of looking at what Vatican II actually taught, and further to this hilarious post from Bruvver Eccles I thought we might take a look at music in the Mass. This is all because it is now The Year of Faith and Pope Benedict XVI opened this special year in Rome with a call for a new evangelisation rooted in an authentic interpretation of the documents of the Second Vatican Council. “I have often insisted on the need to return, as it were, to the ‘letter’ of the Council – that is to its texts – also to draw from them its authentic spirit, and (it is) why I have repeated that the true legacy of Vatican II is to be found in them,” the Pope said Oct. 11 to approximately 30,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the opening Mass of the Year of Faith. Speaking on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Pope said that “reference to the documents saves us from extremes of anachronistic nostalgia and r...