Losing my religion?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    The West has borrowed a lot from the Eastern churches (including the most important Marian feast days).
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Matilda
  • KARU27
    Posts: 184
    I can't resist posting obvious things from Wikipedia although they may not be 100% authoritative, they're often not bad:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschal_greeting
    Thanked by 1Matilda
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,232
    for the aedification of his people


    Don't forget their sanctification, friend!!

    Having hung around with Greek Orthodox folks, and having LONG Roman experience, I agree with Chonak: "Christ is Risen" is definitely an Eastern greeting.

    Finally: one can also lose one's faith by entering a Catholic church for Mass and hearing what passes as 'church music' in that particular place. Or hearing Betsy One-Foot stomp out a demi-dance pedal accompaniment, or hearing a Tammy Wynette wannabee blast out a hymn or two with the 'country hook' intonation.
  • Don't forget their...
    A good reminder, dad29.
    However, for me there is a very thin line, if any at all, betwixt 'aedification' and 'sanctification'. Some would likely quibble with this position, and I could (with some effort) see some legitimacy in their their quibbling. However, as I see it, they are two sides of the same coin. Where one is, there will the other be.
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    I have found, in the face of the routine of performing music, that meditation on the texts we sing, even prayerfully reading a commentary on it, can bring it alive in performance. This even works for choirs.
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,232
    betwixt 'aedification' and 'sanctification'.


    There's a rough parallel to "....(raising the) 'minds' and 'hearts' (of the people to God)". IOW, it is essential that the music engage both 'mind'/aedification AND 'heart'/sanctification. One without the other produces a deformity, or is the result of a deformity.

    Much of the current crop of ...ahhh....'music' is all sweetness with no 'bite' of intellectual rigor. That is usually the case with pops-like 'church' music; see, e.g., "Mother Dear O Pray for Me."

    Like the poor, perhaps this will always be with us, too.
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    >>meditation on the texts we sing, even prayerfully reading a commentary on it, can bring it alive in performance. This even works for choirs.

    Quite right! I once had an organist who was practicing a solo of O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden at speed.
    I asked, you just got back from Europe, didn't you? Did you by any chance go the Louvre, and see the Ecce Homo ?
    "Yes! It was so beautiful."
    I said, close your eyes, and see it again. I counted to maybe ten and said, now play.
    What a transformation.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,798
    Reni's is the most copied, but the Louvre's search engine of course has 11 results for an "ecce homo" search.
    210px-Guido_reni,_ecce_homo,_1639-40_ca..JPG
    210 x 249 - 17K