It is mentioned in this thread, but just in passing:

Sung to Dirksen's tune it is a great procession hymn in churches that must have procession hymns.

And it is, [gulp] uplifting. And not the drivel of GUI...

It looks like it would be enjoyable to sing, like a national anthem or a school song would be, but there isn't much theology in it. I don't believe it would be helpful for faith. I certainly wouldn't use it at Mass. Lift High the Cross would be a better choice, as it has the same mood and cross-centered theme, but with a good sense of theology: baptism, redemption, Christ's sacrifice and its effects.

Bobby, it would be preferable to sing this in place of almost everything in OCP's missal/music books. I don't have the love for Lift high that other's do, possibly since it comes out of the Protestant church and is considered to be the national anthem of many Lutheran churches.

And, I suppose that this is what bothers me the most is that, we didn't carry the cross and many of use would have stood back and not helped...so singing, telling everyone around us to do it seems a bit self-righteous.

But mostly because of the harmonic progression in the last measure of the verse.

Whether a hymn is used as an anthem by any group is exactly the kind of thing I think should not be considered in evaluating a hymn for worship. "Anthems" as such seem inappropriate for liturgy. They celebrate us as a praying people, rather than praising God. Lift High the Cross, as a hymn, manages to avoid this while still celebrating *being* a people. It's theological, in fact Christological. It has anthemic, even triumphalist themes, but these are grounded in the causal activity of Christ's sacrifice--that is the whole point of the hymn. Faith of Our Fathers is like that, as is Sing with All the Sons of Glory.

Rejoice, Ye Pure of heart is more like We Are One in the Spirit, or Tom Conry's Anthem, in that it's primarily about us and our action, not about God's saving action.

This issue has come up on other threads, and I think it is worth discussing.

Catholicism should not, I believe, define itself in terms of other Christian bodies. In other words, Catholicism isn't what you have left when you've removed all that icky Protestant influence. Defining our Church in that way leaves us with a very weak conception of a very robust faith.

In accord with an uninterrupted history of nearly five centuries, nothing prevents the use of some congregational hymns coming from other Christian traditions, provided that their texts are in conformity with Catholic teaching and they are appropriate to the Catholic Liturgy.
-Sing to the Lord. 115d

Obviously those qualifiers eliminate a lot of things, but blanketly saying "no music from other traditions" seems a bit... myopic.

Here's a rough example of the tune I was thinking of:

Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart

Noel,

I wouldn't adopt a minimalist framework of Catholicism for all the tea in China.

Or rather like it's not our religion, Noel.

I'm sorry if you take offense, but his something that is really important to get straight in this particularly time in the life of the Church. As Fr. Zuhlzdorf constantly says, "Pope Benedict is the Pope of Christian Unity." This has been evident from the beginning of his pontificate (as the quotations below demonstrate) and it is compellingly clear today, in his actions. moreover, the Holy Father has been willing to work very carefully with the ecclesial communities, not only as individuals who are reuniting with the Catholic Church, but with entire parishes and dioceses. Whatever is good, can come, and they can bring the good things of their heritage with them.

Yesterday (!) the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith really got the ball rolling for the implementation of the Holy Father's Apostolic Constitution that allows Anglican/ Episcopalian groups to reunite with the Catholic Church in personal ordinariates--that is, with bishops (or the near-equivalent) of their own--and with a liturgy respecting their liturgical heritage.

These are the actions of the Holy Father in our own day.

"5. Nourished and sustained by the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but feel encouraged to strive for the full unity for which Christ expressed so ardent a hope in the Upper Room. The Successor of Peter knows that he must make himself especially responsible for his Divine Master's supreme aspiration. Indeed, he is entrusted with the task of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22: 32).

With full awareness, therefore, at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome which Peter bathed in his blood, Peter's current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This is his ambition, his impelling duty. He is aware that good intentions do not suffice for this. Concrete gestures that enter hearts and stir consciences are essential, inspiring in everyone that inner conversion that is the prerequisite for all ecumenical progress.

Theological dialogue is necessary; the investigation of the historical reasons for the decisions made in the past is also indispensable. But what is most urgently needed is that "purification of memory", so often recalled by John Paul II, which alone can dispose souls to accept the full truth of Christ. Each one of us must come before him, the supreme Judge of every living person, and render an account to him of all we have done or have failed to do to further the great good of the full and visible unity of all his disciples.

The current Successor of Peter is allowing himself to be called in the first person by this requirement and is prepared to do everything in his power to promote the fundamental cause of ecumenism. Following the example of his Predecessors, he is fully determined to encourage every initiative that seems appropriate for promoting contacts and understanding with the representatives of the different Churches and Ecclesial Communities. Indeed, on this occasion he sends them his most cordial greeting in Christ, the one Lord of us all." First Message of Pope Benedict, April 20, 2005
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/pont-messages/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20050420_missa-pro-ecclesia_en.html


"Here I want to add something: both the image of the shepherd and that of the fisherman issue an explicit call to unity. 'I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must lead them too, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd' (Jn 10:16); these are the words of Jesus at the end of His discourse on the Good Shepherd. And the account of the 153 large fish ends with the joyful statement: 'although there were so many, the net was not torn' (Jn 21:11). Alas, beloved Lord, with sorrow we must now acknowledge that it has been torn! But no - we must not be sad! Let us rejoice because of Your promise, which does not disappoint, and let us do all we can to pursue the path towards the unity You have promised. Let us remember it in our prayer to the Lord, as we plead with Him: yes, Lord, remember Your promise. Grant that we may be one flock and one shepherd! Do not allow Your net to be torn, help us to be servants of unity!" Inaugural Address
http://www.boston-catholic-journal.com/inaugural_address_of_Pope_Benedict_XVI.htm

Anyhoooooo, "Lift High the Cross" is riffing off Venantius Fortunatus' song "Vexilla Regis", and I think there are vexilla=cross hymns that are even older than that but I can't remember before coffee.

The point is not that Christians carried the cross for Jesus (though by carrying our own crosses, we do participate as co-workers in the plan of salvation, as our current pope's motto "Coworkers of the Truth" points out), but that Christians carry the processional cross at Mass (or in processions) the same way the legions carried their trophaeum (sp?) or the Roman cavalry carried their vexillae (banners or pennons) -- particularly the dragon banner of the Scythian cavalry, which became the dragon carried in Christian processions at Rogation or whatever you call it, as well as King Arthur's Pendragon banner.

This is why, in Venantius Fortunatus' country, they used to call the guy who carries the processional cross at Mass a "vexillarius" or "draconarius".

So people singing "Lift High the Cross" are stealing something Catholic back, not singing something inherently un-Catholic. You can argue whether there are better cross/banner songs, and there probably are, but at that point we're at prudential choices.

Heh.... Yeah, I gotta say that A Mighty Bad Plan Is That Song. Also, people have a tendency to stop singing with the devil triumphant, which is even worse. But... I suppose that you might always point out its political, bloodsoaked past if nobody wants to come out and say anything critical about Luther. Many of the people who aren't prudent about how they do ecumenism are very careful about not glorifying war (and that's not wrong), so you might be able to get the point across that way.

Ah Maureen, but it would be just as well to break them of the tendency to shorten hymns (which is not exclusively a Catholic one, of course) in any case. The first time we sang Ein feste Burg out of the Catholic Community Hymnal, verse one only was announced. I was waiting for the amen... I'm not sure when it first turned up in German Catholic books, but wouldn't be surprised if it was long ago. At a mass in Mainz it was treated as any other venerable hymn.