Praise & Worship for Holy Mass?

I remember attending Mass after a spirit-filled Easter Rally when I was in high school. Some of the hymns were replaced by praise and worship songs (specifically, by Hillsong) and I thought to myself 'Wow, if only they would play more of these songs during Mass!'

Today, I would really think otherwise and frown if I do hear the choir singing one during Holy Mass. Fr. Christopher Smith explains it quite well why praise and worship is really not suitable for Mass at all!

Read his interesting post  here:

Why Praise and Worship Music is Praise, But Not Worship

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Here is an excerpt of what stood out to me in his article:

P&W music assumes as its first principle relevance.

P&W recognizes that music is important in the Church’s worship. But it also posits that music must “reach people where they are.” It must be relevant to those who hear it. Relevance, however, is an ambiguous notion. What is relevant to me may not be relevant to someone else, and so P&W introduces into the liturgy an element of subjectivism based on human concerns.

Often P&W is directed at an ostensibly missionary effort. The idea is that, if people find the music at Mass attractive or relevant, they might be brought into a deeper relationship with God. Yet, faith is a gift that comes from God, not from us. P&W attempts to clear the way for divine action, as if relevance could accomplish that.

P&W music confuses transcendence with feeling. 

The deliberate manipulation of the emotions by P&W often produces an excess of sentiment. The very strength of that feeling can induce some to think that such an event is the work of the transcendent God in them. Musical forms which truly are transcendent, in that they disengage from the emotional and bring the person above their emotions, such as Gregorian chant, are rejected because they do not necessarily cause an emotional event, which is seen as proof of divine action.

The constant spiritual tradition of the Church has taught to distrust feelings and to prize the transcendent holiness of God. It also teaches that human manipulation of other people’s intellects and wills is a violation against the freedom of the human person. When done in the name of God, it is also a violation of God’s sovereignty over the intellect and will of man, as it replaces the free action of God in the soul with a gimmick to make that action in theory possible.

•  Relevance is irrelevant to a liturgy which seeks to bring man outside of space and time to the Eternal.
• The Church must sing the Mass, i.e., the biblical and liturgical texts contained in the Missal and Gradual, and not sing at Mass man-made songs, if it is to be the corporate Worship of the Church and not just Praise designed by a select group of people. 
• The deliberate intention to manipulate human emotions to produce a religious effect is abusive, insincere, and disrespectful of God’s power to bring about conversion in the hearts of man.
•  The Church’s treasury of sacred music inspires and requires the highest attention to artistic excellence. It is also an unfathomable gift to the Church, and must be presented to the faithful so that they may enjoy that rich gift.    
 

Other related article you may also be intereted in:

• Questions on Sacred Music