"We offer you our failures, we offer you attempts . . ."
  • Paul_OnnonhoaratonPaul_Onnonhoaraton
    Posts: 434
    In general, I believe that we are called to stay positive and only promote the GOOD. We are not called to complain about the bad.

    However, I have to say . . . This is really, really bad:

    We rise again from ashes, from the good we've failed to do.
    We rise again from ashes, to create ourselves anew.
    If all the world is ashes, then must our lives be true,
    an offering of ashes, an offering to you.

    We offer you our failures, we offer you attempts,
    The gifts not fully given, the dreams not fully dreamt
    Give our stumblings direction, give our visions wider view
    an offering of ashes, an offering to you.

    Then rise again from ashes, let healing come to pain,
    Though spring has turned to winter, and sunshine turned to rain,
    the rain we'll use for growing and create the world anew
    From an offering of ashes, an offering to you.

    Thanks be to the Father, who made us like himself,
    thanks be to the Son, who saved us by his death;
    thanks be to the Spirit, who creates the world anew,
    From an offering of ashes, an offering to you.


    !!!!!!!

    I have to be honest: I have no idea what this song is talking about !!!
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    Let's throw it in the trashes, this song we hate to sing,
    It talks about the ashes, but it don't mean a thing,
    Its words are incoherent, its rhymes begin to cloy,
    Let's burn this song to ashes, and give ourselves some joy.

    Thanked by 15Kathy Ben lmassery Earl_Grey CHGiffen francis Salieri JacobFlaherty Heath Chris Allen magistra6 tomboysuze tomjaw nicolem mmeladirectress
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    This song is heretical, since it teaches Pelagianism. Pelagius taught that moral perfection was attainable in this life without the assistance of divine grace through human free will. Not so! We are not able to create ourselves anew, or rise from ashes without divine grace and assistance.
    Thanked by 3ryand chonak tomjaw
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Pelagianism


    That's giving it too much credit.

    I would call it:
    New Age-ianism.

    New Age taught that something something, divine something, feelings something, energy.

    This song is a clear expression of the New Age belief in something something, and some other thing about something. Ashes.
    Thanked by 6Liam CHGiffen Andrew Motyka Salieri jeffinpa JacobFlaherty
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    This song should be a dead letter for anyone who visits here, pretty much with most of the Conry catalogue. We cannot really affect what is programmed this day in parishes we don't serve, so the thread and all previous ones about it has served its purpose. IMO/YMMV.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,499
    I think I link to this every year http://hymnographyunbound.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/dad-that-songs-weird.html
    Thanked by 2Earl_Grey CHGiffen
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    There are no new heresies. New Age is just a dumbed-down version of the earlier ones.
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood CHGiffen
  • ContraBombarde
    Posts: 471
    I am actually very glad you guys posted this up at the top. I was trying to remember the reasons why we never use this song at any of my Ash Wednesday Masses, so that I could explain to my senior cantor why it is heretical. Needless to say, as I arrived to do my noon Mass, I was early, and of course this was one of the trimmings for the "school mass" I just had to shake my head. They sure got their fill of ashes at that mass, and hopefully they realized they aren't creating themselves anew.
    Thanked by 1teachermom24
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    we rise again as a**s if we don't go to confession.
    Thanked by 1Chris Allen
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 944
    I, for one, am always aware of my dreams which are not fully dreamt.

    Wait, wha?
    Thanked by 2Kathy tomboysuze
  • Paul_OnnonhoaratonPaul_Onnonhoaraton
    Posts: 434
    I know ... who wakes up and says, "Wow, my dreams were fully and completely dreamt last night."
    Thanked by 1Andrew Motyka
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    If you don't like this song, don't program it.

    I don't like it. So I didn't program it. That was easy.
    Thanked by 3melofluent Liam ParleyDee
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    My Ash Wednesday lineup was as follows:

    Forty Days and Forty Nights
    Attende Domine
    Adoro Te Devote
    SEP at Offertory
    O Lord Throughout These Forty Days

    This music worked for every liturgy, including the children's mass for the school. I refused to use "Ashes". Nobody said anything, but I could see the grimaces on the faces of the teachers.

    If we continue to give in to those who know little or nothing about sacred music (i.e., teachers), then we will get nowhere. We need to proceed full throttle under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with prayer.
    Thanked by 2Gavin tomboysuze
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    For future use, commit this helpful question to memory:
    "What theology is behind this song?"

    That should squelch it.
    Thanked by 3Kathy CHGiffen mmeladirectress
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    My Ash Wednesday was:

    Lord, Who throughout These Forty Days (St. Flavian)
    Richard Rice chants for Imposition of Ashes
    Mass XVIII
    Richard Rice Communion Proper
    Parce Domine
    Again We Keep This Solemn Fast (Erhalt Uns Herr)
  • tomboysuzetomboysuze
    Posts: 289
    Yay, Musicteacher56!! I applaud you. I know, I know. The other teachers are a major pain in the ash. Many regard the school music teacher as no more than a babysitter for them and A. don't want you to give the students any homework so it doesn't interfere with their "important" subjects and b. play things everyone knows at mass... ...to which I liked to reply..."If we only sang songs we knew, we'd still be singing the alphabet song!" Ugh. K-8. For Ash Wed. one year, I had the 3rd graders sing "Parce Domine". I admit it was a headache going over and over and over it till they had the refrain memorized....but it was so worth it. Good job!
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    I was asked to do this song while the Ashes were being distributed... I did not appreciate the imposition.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • elaine60elaine60
    Posts: 85
    Not sure why the bishops let this one get through. Very bad theology.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Do the Bishop's stop ANYTHING from being published?
    Thanked by 2tomboysuze CHGiffen
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Of course they do. That's why publishers don't sell things like this

    Oh wait...never mind.
    Thanked by 2chonak SouthernSam
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    I wouldn't even listen to that in the car.
    Thanked by 4nicolem chonak CHGiffen SouthernSam
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    There is one thing that song tells me... that I am generic in God's eyes and He loves everyone the same no matter what, and NO ONE is special to Him.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Recommended for First Communion? First Communion???

    Whoever made that recommendation should be ashamed of himself.
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    If you don't like this song, don't program it.
    I don't like it. So I didn't program it. That was easy.

    True as far as it goes, but there should be something like consumer warning labels on these things. :) Bad liturgy costs souls!
    Thanked by 2SouthernSam Jenny
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    Ben, I am so stealing that.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Bad liturgy costs souls!

    I can't seem to find that in the CCC, Scott. Being such a legislation junky as Gavin, can you cite? ;-)
    If'n that's in the catechism, then there will be only 144K souls in heaven, mine excluded!
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Oddly enough, I found it a while back when I was feeling curious and did a search for the most inane and nonliturgical phrase that I could think of: I am special.

    Lo and behold, GIA could still "help" me in that case. Sad, sad, sad.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    "I'm generic (you're generic); God loves me (God loves you);
    You're generic (I'm generic); God loves you too (God loves me too);
    God is so wise to love me so much, and I love me, I love me."
    Thanked by 2francis Ben
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Hahahaha!!

    edit: this completely non-substantial post is my 1,000th post...
    Thanked by 3Gavin CHGiffen SouthernSam
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    wow, Ben. You need a cake with a thousand little neumes on it. Congrats.
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468

    I can't seem to find that in the CCC, Scott. Being such a legislation junky as Gavin, can you cite?

    Somewhere in the back. :) Probably near where it says sticking your hand in a blender and hitting purée will cause extreme flesh trauma.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    truth about God's love for us:

    “God loves his creatures, and he loves each one the more, the more it shares his own goodness, which is the first and primary object of his love. Therefore he wants the desires of his rational creatures to be fulfilled because they share most perfectly of all creatures the goodness of god.

    And his will is an accomplisher of things because he is the cause of things by his will. So it belongs to the divine goodness to fulfill the desires of rational creatures which are put to him in prayer.”
    ― St. Thomas Aquinas
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