What do you think of these contemporary versions of the OUR FATHER?
“Our Father”
Fr. Richard Ho Lung & Friends
Album: Working For The Lord
OCP Publications; Director: David Ho
Music video for “The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)” from Isadar’s 2007 vocal album LiFe v.2.0.
2008 Mainya Music Entertainment (BMI). ISADAR.COM
Michael W. Smith – The Lord’s Prayer
I like it, but for some reason I don’t like seeing the host “being danced around” by the priest (first video).
I like the music as “listening music” but not in a mass setting.
Please give us your opinion.
I know that Fr Ho Lung does wonderful work for the poor and he left the Jesuits and founded an order The Missionaries of the Poor but I don’t like the way he ‘jazzes up’ Holy Mass. I like the singing as hymns they have a really catchy beat but not as part of Holy Mass. I have seen a Nuptual Mass celebrated by Fr Ho Lung at which the bride and groom did a dance – it was beautifully choreographed but again – not at Holy Mass.
:( :( :( makes me cry….
I guess these are attempts to make in contemporary. I am sure a Hip-Hop version isn’t far behind. Maybe an “Our Dude who be in Heaven?”
I am going to pray quietly now……
I do prefer a more traditional approach to the Our Father
Don’t care for “contemporary” church music most of the time, (and none of these.) I started going to Latin mass this year. Nobody sings the Pater Noster like my Latin mass priest – beautiful.
I don’t much like any of them at all.
No.
I like the Michael W. Smith version. Contemporary yet beautiful.
I think that it is wonderful that God made each one of us so unique…and so different in our likes. I like all the above — all different, but all singing praises onto the Lord. Some may say too contemporary, but I bet that if the Apostles came into our services, they would think they were too contemporary!! Praise God for those who will sing his praises, no matter how they show their love!
Yuck.
I don’t usually care much for contemporary music as an approach to Liturgical hymns during the Holy Mass. I suppose that I understand the approach of “upbeat” music during the Sacred Liturgy as a means to draw in the modern crowd, but the Church, although among the world, is timeless. She is capable of drawing in all people as She is called to do through Her own language. Fr. I don’t particularly like those videos. (Although I can see myself listening to M.W. Smith in my car) Also, if that priest is going to dance around the consecrated Host (I assume consecrated because the Pater Noster must take place after the Eucharistic Prayers), he should have thought of his second vocation as a ribbon dancer. What?
They are all mockeries.
This is what Jesus teaches and no one had the right to change or to add anything.
Matthew 6: 5-15
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
6
But when you pray, GO TO YOUR INNER ROOM, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
7
3 4 In praying, DO NOT BABBLE LIKE THE PAGANS, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
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Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
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5 6 “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10
your kingdom come, 7 your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
11
8 Give us today our daily bread;
12
and forgive us our debts, 9 as we forgive our debtors;
13
and do not subject us to the final test, 10 but deliver us from the evil one.
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11 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
15
But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
Fr Ho Lung presents a much more orthodox face on EWTN.
After considering my own previous comment above, I wish to apologize for disregarding the respect due to Fr. Ho Lung’s priestly office. Regardless of how I feel about his worship style, Fr. Lung is still a Priest of God, and making absurd comments about a “second vocation” as a “ribbon dancer” is completely disrespectful and irreverent. Nevertheless, I still wish to see more reverence in the Sacred liturgy perhaps by performing the old Gregorian Chant and hymns in Latin, and even with the Tridentine Masses today, a closing hymn in the vernacular seems very appropriate. My main emphasis is the sacred mystery which is what takes place on the Holy Altar, and sadly, I have seen a wreckless form of homage from the body language of the priests today. I’m not saying that celebrating the Mass in Latin is a more reverent form of worshipping God (although that’s arguable), because even the Latin Mass can be celebrated without any true devotion in the heart of the celebrant. But I do tend to believe that if there is true reverence and belief in the heart of the priest, it will show in His bodily expressions during the Eucharistic prayers.
Shane said: “My main emphasis is the sacred mystery which is what takes place on the Holy Altar, and sadly, I have seen a wreckless form of homage from the body language of the priests today. I’m not saying that celebrating the Mass in Latin is a more reverent form of worshipping God (although that’s arguable), because even the Latin Mass can be celebrated without any true devotion in the heart of the celebrant. But I do tend to believe that if there is true reverence and belief in the heart of the priest, it will show in His bodily expressions during the Eucharistic prayers.”
I think that if I were Catholic, and if I truly believed what Catholics teach about the Eucharist, I’d handle it as if it were plutonium.
Approaching it would be like approaching a nuclear reactor.
Is that what it’s like? Do you ever get a real sense of dread from it?
In my own experience, I approach the Eucharistic Feast not as an apprehensive participant, as if I were approaching a deadly force. It is true that the Eucharist, being Jesus’ Body-Blood-Soul-Divinity, is a powerful reality, even as to say that It is the center of the universe. The sacredness of this Sacrament cannot be compared to any mere human experience like a nuclear reactor…It’s so much more powerful than that, but so much less explosive. And what I mean by that is that the senses fail where the faith sees reality. Debating on the true presence is almost irrational because we do not have the capability to even comprehend it’s sacred Mystery. So no, I do not approach Jesus in the Holy Eucharist as I go up for communion as if I were approaching a nuclear reactor, nor do I sense dread from Him. I know Jesus (but not perfectly as if in Heaven). No one approaching Him is regarded by God as a spectator but as a full participant in His Filial Bond which is to say the sharing in the life of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I go up to the banquet, while my senses fail me, and I see Christ, the God-Man and my goal, and I consume this mystery in awe of what my mind cannot comprehend. I believe that if you were to believe as Catholics do, (while I know some teachings are difficult to accept in a secular world), you would approach the Holy Banquet of Christ’s Body with reverence, awe, enthusiasm, Holy fear (but not because it would explode), excite, but most of all out of complete submissive Love. It’s not an emotional state, it’s a real communion, one that does not depend on senses or tears. One day we will all find out…you will too.
You are so blind. How can you say:
“I have seen a wreckless form of homage from the body language of the priests today”
then say:
“I think that if I were Catholic, and if I truly believed what Catholics teach about the Eucharist, I’d handle it as if it were plutonium.”
Why are you at Mass if you don’t believe?
Here’s a video for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqLxUExgZVQ
Does his face look dreadful to you? Does it?
His is a gaze of absolute love.
When you meet the Lord at the end of your life, He will probably say to you:
“Yes, I am alive body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist that you openly criticized and doubted.”
Doubt is not worth choosing hell for.
Thanks for your post, Shane! :)
You’ve explained all that very well.
I remember reading that the Ark of the Covenant was said to incinerate any unworthy person who approached it. Described, it seemed like some kind of intense radiation (and I’m definitely a radiophobe, so the image of that stuck with me). I wondered whether people who truly believe in the Eucharist had any of that same sense of fear.
Lady”godless”… I wouldn’t hesitate to say that God is NOT far from you. Suppose that which were contained in the Ark of the Covenant were still contained behind a curtain in the Holy of Holies of the HolyTemple in Jerusalem (if it weren’t a Mosque on the Temple Mount), perhaps people would approach it with caution. Ironically, when the literal word of God became flesh and took the form of Man through the means of the new Ark of the Covenant, Mary, suddenly, that which was divine and that which is mortal suddenly touched. The Eucharistic feast is that communion of God and HIs relationship with mankind. No longer is there a veil, but a family. Perhaps the only curtain before us and God is that which covers our eyes from seeing things the way they truly are. But in a sense you’re right…if we were to see things the way they truly are, and we were to see how unworthy we are of such an honor as to reach behind the veil and see the true Holy of Holies and consume the living Manna, we would approach with much hesitation and humility. I look at this as perhaps one reason why God is hidden in the form of bread. If we were to really see God’s face, we would not be ready for it’s beauty and grandeur, for it will not be familiar to our eyes, and will be far too terrifying to view. But in His love He humbly submits to us so we can approach Him. He is just too big for our little flesh. (But I’m no theology scholar and all this gets very theological) So sure, I think you are off in the right track…I would not call you “godless.” It’s a very good thing we do not need to feel dread in our coming to God.
FATHER JOE: I think you are confusing something that Shane said with something that Godless said. I think what Godless means is that if she really believed what we say we believe, she would be fearful and filled with awe to approach the Holy of Holies.
Some people are fearful and filled with awe in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord.
Not everyone reacts the same way because the spirit works differently in each person.
God renders that grace to each soul accordingly. You spoke of mystery as it relates to God’s will in a person’s life. There it is.
There are priests who don’t believe in the real presence. Sad, but true.
Faustina, in describing her vision to Vilnius artist Eugene Kazimirowski, said that when Jesus stood before her she felt overwhelmed with fear and joy in her soul simultaneously.
What she had seen on Earth, most people have to wait to get to heaven to see.
Shane wrote: “Lady”godless”… I wouldn’t hesitate to say that God is NOT far from you.”
Shane, I have to be truthful about this. I don’t see things the same way. I’m an atheist.
You wrote: “if we were to see things the way they truly are, and we were to see how unworthy we are of such an honor as to reach behind the veil and see the true Holy of Holies and consume the living Manna, we would approach with much hesitation and humility. I look at this as perhaps one reason why God is hidden in the form of bread. If we were to really see God’s face, we would not be ready for it’s beauty and grandeur, for it will not be familiar to our eyes, and will be far too terrifying to view.”
I like this idea. It reminds me of this passage that I love from William Blake, in which he talks about “melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid”:
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”
He says that when the angel with the sword of fire destroys the world, “the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.”
I do get meaning out of that — only not in the literally theistic sense.