Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 217: Music and Singing at Holy Mass

Transcript

Show 217: Music and Singing at Holy Mass · The Uncensored Catholic

0:51
Speaker 1: A Hey, y'all, welcome this week's show. Today, we're going
1:03
to get into some interesting topics. I think probably the
1:07
most controversial will be from Father Sparago's Exhaustive Catechism of
1:13
the Catholic Church. Exhaustive explanation of the Catechism, And it's
1:17
going to be because he talks about the music.
1:23
Speaker 2: At Mass.
1:24
Speaker 1: And I have been so much face, so much controversy,
1:28
especially online but also in parishes, because the music these
1:32
days is horrible. I mean, traditional Catholic music is some
1:36
of the finest music on the face of the earth,
1:38
going from a Gregorian chance to classical music to traditional hymns.
1:45
The pure garbage that has infested the church, This modern
1:50
praise and worship music, the stuff we find in our
1:54
weekly missiles, that's really there because of the influence of
1:57
publishers who make a lot of money on it, because
1:59
they can can't make money on the old music anymore.
2:03
The new stuff is horrible, It's vapid, it lacks spiritual depth,
2:08
it lacks beauty. I'll say things like that online and boy,
2:12
everybody with a music degree from a Catholic college freaks out, Well,
2:15
what do you expect those professors are teaching the new
2:18
awful music, because once again, those publishers make money, and
2:23
they can't make money if people use old music that's
2:26
not copyright written or out of copyright, And those publishers
2:31
are putting money into the schools and the schools that
2:33
then teach their music, and that goes into a lot
2:36
of That's the same way in just about every department
2:39
of every college in America.
2:42
Speaker 2: But we're going to start with.
2:46
Speaker 1: A couple of interesting questions and answers from radio replies.
2:49
You remember that last week the questioner was asking if
2:56
he had to be born? Well, let me just say
2:58
he was asking about the nature of original sin, and
3:02
the priests discussed it very thoroughly, and you can listen
3:04
to the last week's show if you missed it. But
3:06
he lasts one final question that I wanted to save
3:08
for this week. He's asked, why was I born without
3:13
my consent when I have to inherit original sin? Now,
3:17
this is a very interesting question when you think it through.
3:21
Speaker 2: I mean, it's kind of.
3:22
Speaker 1: Simplistic on its face, but it's one that many people
3:25
have asked through the ages. It's a lot of one
3:27
that a lot of critics of Christianity ask They say,
3:31
I didn't choose to be born. If I didn't choose
3:37
to be born, you know, how can I be guilty
3:39
of original sin? Well, you're not actively guilty of original sin.
3:42
You're born with the effects of original sin. So that's
3:45
one thing they cleared up last week. But you know,
3:47
I didn't choose to be born into this life. Why
3:50
do I have to follow rules I never consented to. Well,
3:54
it's a very adolescent question, but it is a sort
3:57
of a perennial question, and the priest's answer before you
4:02
existed your consent, what could hardly be requested? Also, I
4:06
would not need to be asked if someone offered to
4:09
invest a few thousand dollars from me before I was
4:11
able to be consulted. Yet, the gift of life with
4:15
a prospect of eternal happiness is more valuable than any
4:19
earthly fortune. After all, if God permitted original sin, it
4:23
was only because he knew that a greater good would
4:25
eventuate in the incarnation of his son. For us men
4:28
and for our salvation, Christ is restored to every man.
4:32
The possibility of attaining the original supernatural destiny first offered
4:37
to us through Adam.
4:40
Speaker 2: That's your answer right there.
4:42
Speaker 1: Now another question begins to discuss who is Christ and
4:48
the virgin birth, and a lot of issues that, especially
4:52
when we get to the virgin birth and the miraculous
4:54
birth of Christ, that Protestants seem to have trouble with.
4:58
So we're gonna answer a few questions and try to
5:02
clear up some very common errors. The person asked who
5:06
was Christ? And they answer Christ was the second person
5:09
of the Holy Trinity, existing in the human nature, which
5:12
was born of the Virgin Mary, yet retaining ever his
5:15
divine nature. He is therefore God and Man at one,
5:18
and the same time. As man, he could die for
5:21
his fellow human beings. As God, he was able to
5:24
expiate the insult offered to the Divine majesty, and thus
5:28
restored amen the possibility of eternal happiness. It continues, is
5:34
not there an important error concerning the date of Christ's birth?
5:37
And they answer, it is true that there have been
5:40
some miscalculations in our calendar. Christ was born probably some
5:43
six or seven years before the traditional date, but this
5:47
error is not of great importance. At most, it shows
5:49
that those who compiled our calendar were mistaken in their estimate.
5:53
The important things that he should have been born and
5:55
should have paid the price for our redemption. And the
5:58
person asked, how did the idea that Christ was the
6:00
Messiah get abroad? Who first knew it and taught it?
6:04
Speaker 2: Now?
6:04
Speaker 1: They answer, God first knew it, and from all eternity
6:07
He promulgated the doctrine from the very beginning of the
6:10
human race, and continuously by the prophets of the Old Testament.
6:14
Christ taught it clearly as the Gospels prove, and confirmed
6:17
his claim by miracles the apostles of the Catholic Church
6:20
who promulgated the doctrine throughout the world. And he says,
6:24
the evangelist never made reference to the miraculous birth of Christ,
6:29
which is rather.
6:30
Speaker 2: Odd, isn't it.
6:31
Speaker 1: I mean, he presumably this Protestant has read the New Testament,
6:35
but you know they do tend to pick and choose
6:37
a bit the precinctsor they certainly did. The Angel reassured
6:42
Jose's fent his bewilderment. Fear not to take Mary, for
6:45
it that which is conceived in her is of the
6:47
Holy Ghost, as Matthew one to marry herself god Reville.
6:51
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power
6:54
of the Most High you ever see thee. And therefore
6:57
also the Holy also the Holy which shall be born
7:00
to THEE shall be called the Son of God. Luke
7:02
I person says, we're not marry the brethren of Jesus
7:06
and the Jews completely surprised when Jesus came forward as Messiah,
7:10
and they answer after the events at Christ's birth and
7:14
her receiving a special message from the Angel that her
7:17
child would be the Son of God, is absurd to
7:19
say that Mary was taken by surprise. As for the
7:22
brethren of Jesus, he had no brethren in the first degree,
7:25
any relatives even in the third or fourth degree, or
7:28
even the same tribe were entitled brethren by the Jews.
7:31
So something protesses do not understand. In the Jewish tradition,
7:36
especially in the era of Christ. Your brethren and your
7:40
sisters and all that were your cousins. They could be
7:44
your natural born brother from the same mother or sister
7:48
from the same mother, or they could be your aunt's
7:51
son or daughter, or your uncle's son or daughter. They
7:54
were all called brethren or sisters. Again, if you don't
7:59
have a Catholic Bible and the tradition of the Catholic
8:02
Church to explain things to you. You can make really
8:04
grave errors. And one of the most grave errors you
8:07
can make is denying the perpetual virginity, the blessed Virgin Mary.
8:11
That's one of the greatest miracles that God gave us.
8:15
And it's very heretical and really blasphemous, because to say
8:20
otherwise is to deny the power of the Holy Spirit
8:24
and descends against the Holy Spirit. Are the ones that
8:28
won't be forgiven. Remember, the Bible tells us that. But
8:31
most Protestants, many Protestants I won't say most, but most
8:35
Baptists I've talked to, say, but it says there were
8:38
brothers of Christ in the Bible. Yes, it does. But
8:41
if you were educated, if you hadn't gone to some
8:45
little Baptist Bible college and been taught by idiots who
8:49
were taught by idiots that came before them, who have
8:51
no knowledge of Aramaic and try to find mysteries and
8:55
the ancient Greek and Hebrew writings that they don't even
8:58
understand in the first place, because they're not educated in
9:01
the classical tradition of Catholic teaching, which was the main
9:08
and really only source of education and literacy on the
9:12
face of the earth for the last two thousand years
9:15
until uneducated Protestants took Catholic universities and installed themselves as
9:20
professors and doctors and preachers. And that's degraded significantly. I mean,
9:27
how many of your average Baptists or Methodist preachers now
9:31
can pick up a book written by a fairly scholarly
9:35
Protestant written in the seventeen hundreds of the sixteen hundreds
9:38
and understand a word of it. Now they most can't,
9:43
and even then they're reading somebody that got it wrong
9:45
in the first place. Anyway, they say, and of course
9:49
some of these were probably surprised, unless we were supposed
9:52
that God made a special revelation to each one of them.
9:55
Concerning Christ. The Jews were generally surprised because they had
9:59
built up themselves, despite the prophecies, a very different conception
10:04
of the coming Messiah.
10:06
Speaker 2: And that is true.
10:07
Speaker 1: The main reason the Jews are jected Christ was not
10:12
that he didn't fulfill all the prophecies that were foretold
10:15
of him. Is because they expected him to be a
10:18
nationalistic king. He would come and defeed all their enemies.
10:24
Everybody on earth would convert to Judaism and everybody would
10:28
worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, and of course that
10:31
did not happen. Jesus' kingdom was not of this earth.
10:36
The kingdom he established is the Holy Catholic Church as
10:39
his representative on earth and his kingdom in Heaven through
10:42
which one goes through the Holy Catholic Church. That's the
10:45
way he designed it. As he said, there would be
10:48
others that come through that don't go through the gate
10:51
of the sheep Fold, that are not the real shepherds.
10:55
They're thieves and liars, and in many cases is just
11:01
very mistaken, flawed men of good faith that still get
11:04
it wrong. You can only trust one authority on earth.
11:07
It's the only one authority established by Christ, given his authority,
11:11
given his guarantee that it would be prevented from all
11:14
error throughout all time until He comes again. And that
11:17
is the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. All Protestant
11:21
churches followed Martin Luther, who is an Antichrist. I don't
11:26
follow the Antichrist. I follow the rock upon which Jesus
11:30
Christ founded his church, and so should you. Now let's
11:33
get into music, and this is one I suppose about
11:37
which Catholics may disagree, but I think followers Spirago, writing
11:40
in eighteen ninety, if he had to sit through twenty
11:43
seven choruses of take this bread, drink this cup, he'd
11:47
get up and say, wait a minute. You know, the
11:50
words may come from the Bible, and the words themselves
11:52
may have value and beauty. This insipid, repetitive music has
11:56
gotten to stop. We are supposed to be here worshiping
11:59
God and give him is our best, not some hippie
12:05
dippy hoot nanny strumman of acoustic guitar and somebody on
12:08
conga drums and the same verse repeated over and over
12:13
and over and over and over. You know, maybe at
12:18
that point, maybe you want to play some nice classical
12:21
hymns and they don't even have to have singing along
12:25
with them. You know, you could just appreciate the beauty
12:28
of the God inspired music. But it really even the
12:32
classical composers were not up to snuff.
12:34
Speaker 2: For Father Spirago.
12:36
Speaker 1: He would have been really more happy with Gregorian chants
12:40
and the earliest music of the church. So let me
12:42
get a sip of water and we'll get into what
12:44
he wrote. He says the singing of which the Church
12:50
makes use as an accompaniment mess is what is known
12:53
as the Gregorian chant. This may be heard at high
12:57
Mass when the priest sings the the Paternoster when he
13:02
begins the Gloria or the Credo. This style of music
13:05
is called Gregorian because it was brought to perfection and
13:09
introduced into general use by Pope Saint Gregory the Great.
13:13
It is believed that it was by divine inspiration or
13:18
through direct revelation, that the Saint did much in the
13:21
interest of the church music. This chant is marked by
13:24
extreme gravity, tranquil solemnity, majestic dignity. It is free from
13:30
all rapid movements, florid passages, all striving after effect. It
13:35
is the language of another, a higher sphere. It is
13:38
truly the voice of prayer and praise. In the Gregorian style,
13:42
special attention is paid to the text, the words of
13:45
which are plainly audible. The beautiful, subdued melody holds a
13:49
secondary place. This style of chanting is not hampered by
13:53
restrictions of time and measure, and that it gives us
13:57
that it gives the irresistible power it possessed over the feelings.
14:01
As an eloquent discourse and carries away the heart. Gregorian
14:05
music undergoes no change. Like Latin, the language of the Church,
14:09
it is always and everywhere the same. Hence is it
14:13
admirably corresponds to the nature and characteristic of the Church,
14:17
but particularly in her unity and universality. Many devout Christians
14:22
prefer this style was singing to any other because it
14:25
is stimulus to recollection and devotion. In addition to the
14:29
Gregorian chant, we have in our churches congregational singing kims,
14:34
in which the people join Instrumental music as an accompaniant
14:37
to singing, is played on the oregon violin or other
14:39
musical instruments. Congregational singing had its origin in the first centuries,
14:44
when the vernacular was the language of the region, and
14:46
the people joined in some portions of the liturgy that
14:50
was chanted. But then in the fifth century, the Teutonic
14:54
tribes overran Italy and the national languages took on a
14:57
new form, and the people could no longer join in
14:59
those parts of the world liturgy which were sung in Latin.
15:02
Hymns to be sung in the vernacular tongue were introduced.
15:05
The singing of hymns and Canticles was more popular in
15:08
Germany than Elsewhere's hymns full of sterling, pilot piety for possessions,
15:13
pilgrim Pilgrimages, and anthems in honor of our Lady were
15:18
composed and set to simple but splendid melodies. Luther was
15:22
the ruin of church music. He took advantage of the
15:26
national love of psalmody singing essentially, and employed it as
15:31
a means of propagating his erroneous tenets. It is said
15:35
that he perverted more Catholics by his psalm singing than
15:38
by his preaching. The chorals to which he gave the
15:41
principal place and divine worship, were of so exciting in
15:44
nature that it is said that while singing in them,
15:47
many a one felt himself urged to use his fists
15:51
as well as his voice, and spreading the new teaching.
15:54
The Catholics of the period met Luther on his own ground.
15:57
They too, composed hymns in defense of the doctrines he attacked.
16:01
This was the cause of a lamentable deterioration, both in
16:04
the spiritual songs themselves and in the time and measure
16:07
of the melodies to which they were sung. An effect
16:10
of which is felt today. Congregational singing during Mass should
16:14
only be allowed in moderation, so as to leave every
16:17
worship for free to enter into a spirit of holy mysteries,
16:21
and not to interfere with the private devotions of anyone present. Now,
16:26
of course, a lot has changed since Vatikan two, and
16:28
we do have more participation from the congregation and more
16:32
verbal singing. I'm not sure that was the best choice.
16:38
There are times of quiet reflection, times to pray, times
16:42
to meditate on what's going on in front of you,
16:46
what's happening at the altar. I don't really think should
16:49
be taken away from by having to open go to
16:54
the back of your missile and turn to whatever and
16:57
try to sing along to, often times a very not
17:03
talented singer that is the music leader for the church,
17:07
the cant or whatever. I have been to at least
17:13
five parishes where the person singing was either so flat
17:19
and off key the person who led the music, most
17:22
of them female, So I don't know the exact title
17:25
for the female singer at the mass. Somebody would have
17:27
to tell me that. You know, I'm a convert. I
17:29
haven't picked up on everything yet. The either so shrill,
17:35
such a high soprano voice, no one could sing along
17:37
with her. Obviously educated, probably stayed opera, but that you know,
17:41
nobody could sing along with her. So everybody off else
17:45
was off key or so flat and off key that
17:48
nobody that had an ear for music could sing along
17:51
with them. And that's been an issue at several parishes
17:55
I've been to. And these people are paid professional musicians,
17:59
music leader, whatever you want to call them. There really
18:02
ought to be some test for talent, not just a
18:05
degree from a Catholic university. But then again, I know
18:09
most people don't have the courage to stand up and
18:14
volunteer for such a position. And many people say, hey,
18:17
why haven't you. I'm not a classically trained musician. I'm
18:21
a folk musician, and yeah, I can play beautiful old
18:25
country gospel tunes on the guitar, on the mandolin, on
18:28
the banjo. I'm sorry, that's not fit for the Catholic church.
18:31
It's not good enough. I'm pretty darn good. I mean,
18:35
I played professionally. I can play everything from blues to
18:40
jazz to rock and roll.
18:41
Speaker 2: I am not.
18:44
Speaker 1: Good enough to do to do the job well, enough
18:51
to volunteer or apply for such a position. Yes, I
18:54
can read music, I can site read. I'm self taught entirely.
18:57
I have never sat with a you know, conductor or
19:01
a professional music teacher going through you know, Mozart or
19:04
Beethoven or Bach or you know any of that. I
19:07
can play classical guests. Does that count. No, it doesn't
19:10
really count really if it's going to be a professional
19:16
person that has that job.
19:19
Speaker 2: One.
19:19
Speaker 1: I do think formal training is important. Now, if someone's
19:23
just an incredible talent, I mean we think of well,
19:28
some of the great classical composers who who was I'm
19:33
sorry that started when he was like eight years old
19:35
or something. I mean, that's a god given gift and
19:38
just incredible. So yeah, there should be consideration for that.
19:45
But even then, I mean, should a child be the
19:47
one choosing the music? Maybe he needs some direction from,
19:51
you know, a musical director. I think that would be
19:54
very appropriate. But I do think one should have formal
19:58
music education in the classical tradition, not in the praise
20:04
and worship pop garbage tradition. It's just like that line
20:10
from I Think It was a movie Sister Act. You
20:12
could take any pop song and change the word baby
20:14
to Jesus, and you've got a praise and worship song
20:18
and most of them have about that much depth to
20:20
them right there. So just pick up your Britney Spears
20:24
song and change there you know the pronouns to the
20:27
name of God, and there you have it. I frankly
20:31
don't find that to be of any value, and I
20:35
think it's fairly sacrilegious. And as a guitar player myself,
20:40
unless unless you're playing a classical nylon string guitar, it
20:43
should not be at the mass. You should not be
20:45
strumming on your six string acoustic and God forbid electric
20:51
guitars at mass and drum kits and flashing lights and smoke.
20:57
That should be driven out of the temple. Jesus drove
21:00
out the money changers. That has no place that is
21:03
not conducive to the holiness and sanctity of God, becoming
21:10
flesh and blood, and us participating in the intersection of
21:15
heaven and Earth. The very best sayings Spiago is explaining
21:19
right now is the music of the angels, the vocal
21:23
music of the angels, the harp music of the angels,
21:26
the classical the classical instruments. I mean, I don't mean
21:31
actual classical music. It's a different category. The Gregorian chants
21:35
of the early Church of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope,
21:41
Saint Gregory the Great, that's thought to be the music
21:44
of the angels. You know, Saint Hildegard von Bingen composed
21:48
a lot of that music, and she learned it directly
21:52
from the angels. There's no three chord pop music that
21:57
should ever enter into a Catholic church.
22:00
Speaker 2: I don't care if it is the youth service.
22:02
Speaker 1: The youth should see what's happening before them, as they
22:05
knows all inspiring event in the history of the universe,
22:11
not be distracted by peppy tunes and you know, jumping.
22:16
Speaker 2: Up and down.
22:16
Speaker 1: And then also, you know, especially when I was at
22:21
a certain Southern Baptist university, they kind of merged with
22:25
some oh what are they call Pentecostal. It happened with
22:31
the whole Jim Baker scandal. There was a bit of
22:33
a merger there, and the two denominations still had a
22:36
lot of doctrinal issues, but they were trying to figure
22:38
things out. The music seemed to be far more influenced
22:42
by the Pentecostal and it was basically like Christian rock
22:46
music and pop music, and everybody starts jumping up and
22:49
down and singing and screaming, and next thing you know,
22:52
they're speaking in tongues and running up and down the aisles.
22:57
Not my place to judge, but it's real hard to
23:01
tell between someone being full of the spirit, as they say,
23:05
or demonic possession, or someone really just having some personality
23:12
issues getting being very excitable. I don't mean to impugne anyone,
23:21
but the Pentecostal holiness churches and I've had, you know,
23:27
my great one pair of my great grandparents from Pentecostal Holiness.
23:30
I'm not gonna speak bad about it anyway. They were
23:33
not the speaking in tongues, you know, charismatic type at
23:35
all at all. They really are not comfortable that kind
23:39
of thing. But that's what the little church was in
23:41
their little country community, and that was their Christian church.
23:43
There wasn't another church to go to.
23:47
Speaker 2: But I have.
23:52
Speaker 1: I've known many in the rural South who were Pentecostal.
23:56
Often usually the Pentecostal church was from the areas. You know,
24:01
they started in a little store fronts in the poorest
24:04
part of town. They started in little you know, brush
24:07
harbors and shacks way out in the countryside, a lot
24:10
of inbreeding. It's just I mean, you know, again, I'm
24:13
not trying to pune anyone. After the Civil War, in
24:18
any community in the South, seventy five percent of the
24:21
men were dead. I mean, seriously, there were over two
24:25
hundred thousand people killed in Civil War. And this would
24:28
have been true, you know, to some extent in the
24:30
North as well. The men of the community were dead.
24:34
And bigamy I started coming back into play. Men with
24:38
more than one wife's you know, polygamy whatever you want
24:41
to call it, not bigamy in that case, I guess
24:43
polygamy and marrying cousins got to be real popular again.
24:48
Because if you were in a little community ten miles
24:50
from the next town and you could only travel by
24:52
horse or by foot, the people you're gonna meet were
24:56
your cousins. And the church you go to was the
24:59
church within two miles of your house, and the school
25:02
you're going to go to would be the one room
25:04
school within two miles.
25:05
Speaker 2: Of your house.
25:07
Speaker 1: And so out of that environment came a lot of
25:11
our Pentecostal churches and preachers, and a lot of them
25:14
you've seen on TV, like Jimmy Slaggert and Bob Green.
25:18
I think they were both Pentecostals, very anti Catholic, very
25:21
very anti Catholic, very very screwed up. Yeah, the one
25:27
I was trying to think of was one over in
25:29
Charlotte that just disgraced everybody hind and behind his sofa
25:33
and everything. Jim Baker Pentecostal anyway, a lot of times,
25:40
not a very high digit IQ like maybe in the
25:46
double digits, and very excitable and well meeting people, very
25:52
well meaning people, very devout, not going to impugne their
25:55
faith one bit. But a lot of mixed messages there.
26:02
You know, how many Pentecostal ministers do I know who
26:08
have been drug addicts and in prison? The majority, Uh,
26:16
they take the kind of well in never mind. I'm
26:18
not going to get into their doctrine, but I am
26:20
saying you can have some very unstable personalities and that
26:25
music does tend to excite them, like follow Sparrago just
26:31
said about the Lutherans that the music inclined them to
26:34
use their fists as much as their voices. Really very strange.
26:39
You know, I did not come from a charismatic background,
26:42
even though I was Protestant. I grew up in mostly
26:45
the Presbyterian Methodist Church, and that was on, you know,
26:47
more the uptown side, and there were not a bunch
26:50
of people jumping up and down, waving their hands and babbling.
26:53
I did not go to a church with snake handlers. Okay,
26:56
So when I got there and there was day mandated
27:02
convocation as they called it, which would be about an
27:05
hour of that horrible music, it's played at deafening levels
27:08
with everybody jumping up and down, screaming and waving their hands,
27:13
and then like a fifteen minute fire you up kind
27:16
of inspirational message from the day from some preacher. I
27:22
started sneaking out. I mean, this was not my scene.
27:25
I mean I have been to Grateful Dead concerts. I
27:29
have been to punk rock concerts. I have been in
27:31
some rough bars, and I have never felt as uncomfortable
27:36
as I did with.
27:37
Speaker 2: All this.
27:44
Speaker 1: Emotional expression that to me very rarely seemed to actually
27:51
be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now I'm not again,
27:53
I'm not your judge, but a lot of excitable people,
27:57
a lot of people kind of showing off, a lot
27:59
of people getting all worked up into emotional states, more
28:05
like in the Bible when it talks about the Pagan
28:10
sorcerers and prophets and such, or the pagan religions who
28:14
would cut themselves and sing and dance and roll around
28:18
on the ground and get into a frenzy and then
28:20
suddenly start channeling a spirit that would tell them something,
28:24
and the Bible tells us as we're often demons. Well,
28:29
I'm sorry, but a lot of Baptists and most Pentecostals
28:32
don't believe in baptism. They believe it's purely symbolic and
28:35
will actually preach against baptism. And even if they do,
28:40
like with the Baptists, they don't believe in infant baptism.
28:42
They believe in only an adult can be baptized. So
28:45
a lot of the people in that group at a
28:47
Baptist college, we're very likely not baptized andized. Baptism is
28:53
where one receives the Holy Spirit and you're sealed as
28:56
part of the Family of God and protected from demonic
28:59
possess against your will. So when you've got a lot
29:03
of people in there, they may be you know, the
29:06
devil quoted the Scripture for his own purposes when he
29:09
attempted Jesus in the desert. You can have a lot
29:13
of well meaning people in there that maybe under the
29:16
influences of things they don't even understand, and when they
29:19
get themselves all worked up into that state of excitement.
29:26
Let's just say I wasn't terribly surprised when the head
29:34
of the school I'm not even gonna give the title,
29:36
and I'm not given the name of school, was found
29:39
to he and his wife are in like an open
29:44
relationship with a lot of gay sex and drugs. The
29:51
music program, especially at that school, was known to have
29:57
a lot of problems with homosexuality and drug use among
30:01
the students. Okay, now I'm not gonna say it's valid.
30:03
I haven't said the name of the school, and I'm
30:06
not saying anything about that school, But according to the
30:10
students that the music program, the praise and worship music program,
30:16
had a lot of issues with stimulant drugs, cocaine and amphetamines,
30:22
and homosexuality, and they kind of turned a blind eye
30:26
to it because it would make the school look bad.
30:29
Speaker 2: And it was getting.
30:30
Speaker 1: Really, really really bad, and they were, to my understanding,
30:36
trying to cover it up. But those scandals finally started
30:39
coming out, and now you know, maybe they cleaned things
30:42
up and are better. But I'm telling you modern praise
30:46
and worship music is not a good influence. I mean,
30:50
you may have your criticisms about rock and roll, like
30:53
you know, Jimmy swagger Jerry Lee Lewis's brother told him
30:57
he was playing the devil's music and made Jerry Lee
31:01
Lewis feel like he was totally hopeless and had no
31:03
chance of being a Christian if he didn't abandon rock
31:05
and roll. Meanwhile, God had given him a talent to
31:08
play the piano and singing like few other people on
31:10
earth had ever experience or ever will. He was one
31:14
of the greatest musicians of all time. And would his
31:19
gifts have better served God had he played praise and
31:22
worship music at Jimmy Swaggert's televangelist ministry. I doubt it.
31:28
I sincerely doubt it. In fact, I would say that
31:33
Jerry Lee Lewis probably brought more people to you know,
31:38
thinking about religion and thinking about their lives when he
31:42
would play the rare hymn and he did good old
31:45
country gospel hymns, and he played him with such beauty
31:47
and sincerity that you don't hear in praise and worship music,
31:52
you know, putting your hands in the air and just singing.
31:56
Never mind, I'm not gonna impugne a group. But you
31:59
know you've probably heard the again, the same things just
32:01
said over and over and over and over. I you know, somehow,
32:09
I just don't think God has too much trouble in
32:10
country music. But I also don't think it belongs in
32:14
a Catholic church, or the same with rock and roll,
32:17
or the same with soul music or blues or you
32:20
know any of that stuff. Now, rap, as I've said before,
32:23
rap and hip hop are two different things. Music must
32:27
have both melody and rhythm. Rap and hip hop have rhythm.
32:30
No melody. By definition, it's not music, and it's detrimental
32:33
and degrading to the human spirit. But anyway, moving on,
32:39
and it doesn't matter what the lyrics are. It doesn't
32:41
matter if you're a Christian rapper. It's still degrading to
32:45
the human spirit, just as much, much more so than
32:48
modern praise and worship music, because you know, let's face it,
32:51
the average ninety nine percent of the music is about
32:58
sex and drugs and violence. I mean, sure, there's been
33:01
a lot of rock music was about sex and drugs,
33:03
but the violence, the thuggery, the total degradation of the
33:08
human person, the glorifying gang violence that's coming into modern
33:13
culture through rap and hip hop, and it's really it
33:21
has been one of the most degrading forces.
33:26
Speaker 2: Along with divorce.
33:28
Speaker 1: Rap and hip hop had pretty much destroyed America and
33:30
Western culture. And I'm sorry it's too late. Just changed
33:35
the lyrics. It's you know, yeah, yeah, I mean soul
33:42
and funk grew out of black gospel music. Then, you know,
33:47
sometime in the eighties along came you know, sugarheel, gang
33:52
and all kinds of stuff like that, and it was
33:55
suddenly very different, violent, glorifying violence and crime. I'm aspiring
34:01
to the lowest common element living like prostitutes and pimps
34:06
and thugs and anger, just pure anger in the music.
34:12
So uh, that's one thing that definitely not only does
34:15
not belong to church, but should be banned from society anyway.
34:21
Now back to father Sparaga, who would have thrown a
34:24
fit had he ever heard modern rapid hip hop. I
34:27
don't think you'd have been a big big fan of
34:29
rock and country music either. He was a Czechoslovakian writing
34:32
in the eighteen nineties. But had he heard the lyrics
34:36
of you know your average. I mean, we can go
34:40
back to the eighties and nineties, you know, running them
34:42
Sea and iced Tea and I mean all those guys,
34:45
and I mean, yeah, that stuff was on the radio
34:47
all the time I heard it. I mean it was
34:48
full of the nastiest, nastiest, disgusting file filth. Father Sparago
34:55
probably would have taken a cane and started beating people
34:58
if he heard him do and and truly a Catholic
35:01
country would have imprisoned people for making that music and
35:05
banned it. It would have been censored. That's one thing
35:09
we lost by not being a Catholic country is we say, oh, well,
35:13
everybody's free to believe whatever they want. And yeah, we
35:17
had censorship until the early nineteen hundreds, or really more
35:21
late in nineteen sixties or fifties, when the judges said, well,
35:24
you know, it's up to each individual to judge. I
35:26
don't know what pornography is, and I know when I
35:28
see it. And because we have no moral foundation, we
35:32
have no pope who can say this is right and
35:33
this is wrong. We have no bishop who, through the
35:36
pope's authority, can say in my diocese, bishopric or whatever
35:41
it'd be diocese. His office would be the bishopric or
35:43
I guess I can tell you you're not allowed to make
35:46
this music or listen to this music because it's evil. Well,
35:50
that's actually the authority given to him by God. And
35:52
I'm not a free speech absolutist. I absolutely believe the
35:56
Catholic Church has the right to define right and wrong,
35:58
good and bad, good and evil whatever. The Catholic Church
36:02
can say Communism flat out, even on its face, and
36:06
the Communist Manifesto should be taken and burned. Same with
36:10
Nazism and mine Kemp, Same with the works of Martin Luther,
36:15
Same with the all rap and hip hop music, same
36:19
with pornography, same with all this you know, the gay
36:23
books they're trying to get into elementary school libraries and
36:27
all this transcrap. Go down the list there. The Freemason
36:32
should be banned the yeah, anyway, and had really the
36:39
Church continued to speak boldly on those topics, yeah, I mean,
36:48
you know, the Protestant so called Reformation is absolutely what
36:51
allowed nations like Germany become Nazis and fostered communism, fostered
36:58
the Freemasonry to the.
37:03
Speaker 2: Whatever.
37:03
Speaker 1: The revolution in France, the Rubespear whatever they called the
37:09
Jacobite Jacobite there we go led to the Communist revolutions
37:13
in Russia and all that, but it was also the
37:18
Catholic Church no longer speaking with full authority and feeling confident,
37:23
and then that led to the socialists and communists infiltrating
37:28
our colleges, and then, you know, really leading up to
37:34
the whole pedophilia scandal of the last couple of decades.
37:37
You know, once you say, yeah, let in all the
37:39
homosexuals because they can be chased just like a heterosexual,
37:43
well yeah, they can, but you also have to kind
37:46
of keep drumming into them that the Bible says, this
37:48
is the homosexual will not go to heaven, but it
37:51
also says, you know, neither the fornicator or the adulter.
37:54
I mean, it puts homosexual sex right on the same
37:57
level as the gravest moral sins a man can commit.
38:02
But they said, well, you know, we'll kind of turn
38:04
a blind eye to it. Well what do you expect
38:07
And people say, well, you know that that's pedophilia, that's
38:09
not being gay. Yeah, if you're hiding your lifestyle and
38:16
you have access to children who can't defend themselves and
38:19
don't really know right and wrong yet, and that's your
38:24
outlet for your homosexual desires. You're a homosexual committing pedophilia.
38:32
You didn't see many of these gay male priests picking
38:36
on little girls, did you.
38:39
Speaker 2: No.
38:41
Speaker 1: Intrinsically disordered is what the church teaches. And yes that
38:46
you know, the homosexual can be counseled. You know, you
38:49
may have same sex attraction and we understand that, and
38:51
we know it's a heavy cross to bear, but you
38:54
cannot have gay sex. You can't have any sex outside
38:59
of marriage or at all if you're a priest. And
39:03
if they're willing to say, okay, you know I'm not
39:05
gonna I'm gonna be completely chased, and yeah, welcome in,
39:08
but really somebody needs to keep an eye on them,
39:11
because it's just like a recovered drug addict or something.
39:15
And the church failed to do that because the church
39:19
didn't feel that it had the authority higher than that
39:22
of the psychologist or the politician. And you know what's
39:27
the highest authority on earth. It's the authority given to
39:30
the Catholic Church by God, the author of morality. Anyway, Anyway,
39:37
my soapbox for the day, I guess anyway. Instrumental music
39:41
in churches enables us to lift up the heart to
39:43
God with greater facility, delight in the melody, disposes the
39:48
mind of the weaker brethren to deeper devotion, and is
39:52
an aid in raising the thoughts from the natural to
39:54
the supernatural. Another reason rap and hip hop could never
39:57
be religious music. There's no melody, none, no melody. It must, however,
40:03
be remembered that instrumental music is only an accessory.
40:07
Speaker 2: It is an accompaniment to.
40:08
Speaker 1: Vocal music and serves to accentuate the words that are
40:13
sung into mine worship. The simple words of prayer line
40:16
or in their more solemn form of sacred music, are
40:19
of main importance because they are the outcome of the heart.
40:23
The orchestral accompaniment is an accessory that can well be
40:27
dispensed with. The playing got never to drown the scene
40:30
or render the words sung unintelligible. Yes, that's why we
40:34
can't have modern praise and worship music with the bloud
40:38
guitars and drums and synthesizers and electronic mess and the
40:42
flashing lights and the smoke and the you know, pyrotechnics. No,
40:47
that's not acceptable. That's not acceptable. Where Jesus Christ is
40:52
being represented to sacrifice on the altar. No, No, still less,
40:59
the instrumental music be calculated rather to please the ear
41:02
than to touch the heart and awaken pious emotions, for
41:06
in that case it would be a hindrance, not a
41:08
help to prayer. For the earthly minded Jews, instrumental music
41:12
was necessary on to account of their weakness, for only
41:15
through the pleasure of the senses, because they'd be stimulated
41:17
to strive after nobler aims. In the early days of Christianity,
41:21
no instrumental music was heard at the time of divine worship,
41:25
for the Christians would not have their prayers meaning with
41:27
the notes of instruments, which were associated with pagan dances
41:31
and idolatrous ceremonies. Organs were first used in churches in
41:35
the eighth century. In the sixteenth century, when kings and
41:39
princes who were patrons of music, had orchestras attached to
41:42
their courts, we find instruments of various kinds, violins, flutes, etc.
41:46
And the churches. Later on, professional band masters were engaged
41:50
to conduct choirs and churches, and unfortunately they introduced secular
41:55
melodies into the House of God and In the performance
41:58
of these compositions, no heed was paid to the sacred
42:02
words of the liturgy. Among those who contributed to the
42:05
reform of church music was Palestrina, the papal choir master
42:09
in the Vatican. He composed several masses of a solemn
42:13
and dignified character, in which due prominence was given to
42:16
the words. His name is immortalized in the mesa What
42:20
is that Mesa? Pape Marcellai, a contemporary of his of
42:25
Dutch origin, Orlando di Lasso, choir master of the latterin
42:30
Church in Room, asserted himself in the same direction. He
42:34
was called the King of composers and was the author
42:36
of eight hundred secutor compositions, beside fifteen hundred sacred works wow.
42:43
The finest of the latter is the seven Penitential Psalms,
42:46
arranged for five voices, in which the feeling of penitence
42:50
and compunction are expressed in a masterly manner. Gabrieli organists
42:55
of Saint Marks and Venice and Algari ag There we
43:00
Go a Lake Greek are also celebrated composers. The Misserai
43:04
for Holy Week, written by the last name, with nine
43:07
parts and double score. Oh I love that hardly ever
43:10
hear that nine parts in the double score was much esteemed.
43:14
These masters promoted vocal music without an accompaniment more than
43:18
instrumental music, for which they did think little. Instrumental music
43:23
owes much to the composer Bach, native of Ice Nuck
43:28
I don't know, seventeen fifty, whose sacred music is distinguished
43:31
by its serious religious tone. Toward the close of the
43:34
eighteenth century, instrumental music was brought into great perfection by Hayden,
43:38
and Austrian, who composed fifteen Masses, and by in eighteen
43:41
oh nine in Vienna, Mozart, and native of Salzburg, who
43:45
attended attraction as a boy. That, yeah, Mozart, this one
43:47
I was thinking of earlier by his talent, composed fifteen
43:51
masses before he was eighteen years old, said not amazing,
43:55
really amazing. He died at the age of thirty five
43:58
in Vienna. And Beethoven, a native of Bonn, who wrote
44:01
two masses of prodigious link, died in eighteen twenty seven
44:04
in Vienna. The works of these composers cannot be considered
44:08
as models of what sacred music ought to be. They
44:10
do not reflect the spirit of the Church and the
44:12
Gregorian music, they may express feelings of devotion. Otherwise they
44:17
differ very little from sacred compositions and bear the stamp
44:20
of an age in which they were written. In recent times,
44:23
much has been done for the improvement of church music
44:25
by the Society of Saint Cecilia, founded in eighteen sixty
44:29
seven at Regensburg, the object of which is to tranquires,
44:33
to raise congregational scene to a higher level, and to
44:36
introduce instrumental music of the nature to correspond with the
44:40
liturgy of the Church. The rules of the society were
44:43
confirmed by Pope Pious the Ninth in eighteen seventy, and
44:48
of course within less than one hundred years we'd hit
44:50
the nineteen sixties and everything would go down the toilet.
44:54
Just about everything we'd go down the toilet. Anyway, You
45:00
can certainly feel free to disagree with me. I know
45:04
many people would disagree with me strongly in my opinions,
45:09
but I'd certainly be happy with some Bach and Mozart
45:15
and all that in place of the garbage that I
45:18
usually hear at Mass, which I mean literally is not
45:22
worth being put into the presence of God and use
45:26
for worship. But yeah, I mean we could certainly get
45:30
back to Garibaldi, and we could get back to oh yeah,
45:34
I mean if we can't get back to a Gridorian chance,
45:36
if for some reason that's too traditional for the modern
45:41
novus ordo, I mean, could we at least go back
45:44
to you just a couple hundred years ago, or really
45:48
just not even that far, just pre nineteen sixties, when
45:54
you know, every thing started trying to sound like the Beatles.
45:58
I mean, I'll tell you something else. I think I'm
46:02
not a Beatles fan. I mean, yeah, they did a
46:06
few good, good songs and everything. I never got the
46:09
great appeal behind the Beatles. Some of their stuff was
46:11
really good. I love Blackbird and a few other but
46:13
you know, that's not church music. I'd certainly take the
46:17
Rolling Stones over the Beatles, and that's certainly not church music.
46:20
Probably John Mayol's Blues Breakers would have been my favorite
46:23
from that era. You know, Some Clapton was in the band,
46:27
Jeff Beck was in the band, great guitar players, Jimmy
46:31
Page was in the Blues Breakers. Always high quality musicians,
46:35
none of which has any place in church music. But
46:37
why anybody wanted to suddenly like change all the church
46:40
music to sound either like Peter, Paul and Mary or
46:43
the Beatles, and somehow the Vatican went along with that.
46:47
I will never understand, but it's always we got appeal
46:49
to the youth. We got appeal to the youth. No, no, no,
46:53
we have to appeal to God and then the youth
46:58
will find the value in that. That's what led me
47:00
to the church. I ran as far as I could
47:02
get from the praise and worship music at that Baptist university.
47:09
What I would do during that time is I'd sneak
47:12
into the library and I would read religious books devotion
47:18
while they were having their praise and worship crap. And
47:22
I started reading The Only Church Fathers Wow, and then
47:25
I became Catholic.
47:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.
47:30
Speaker 1: Anyway, y'all have a good one and I'll talk to
47:33
you next time.