I Am The Bread Of Life

[MithLuin]

[quote name='InHisLove726' post='1938324' date='Aug 1 2009, 09:45 PM']I very much despise that song. It's theologically incorrect. I will not sing it, or any other song that puts me in the place of God. I want to shout: "I am not the Bread of Life! Jesus IS!" [/quote]

So Psalm 95 is not to your taste, then?

[quote]Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our saviour. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his. For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us.

For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. To day if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts: As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works. Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart. And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.[/quote]

The first 8 verses are fine, but then we do switch to the divine point of view. And this psalm is used in the Invitatory every day in the LotH, so.....

I'm not saying you have to like the song in this thread. (Is it by Marty Haugen?) Certainly, you can dislike it on the grounds of musical taste, and theology, possibly, in some lines. And you can even dislike singing from God's POV (ie, as in 'Lord of the Dance', the Shaker song). But it is not theologically inaccurate to sing a song in the voice of Jesus.

Give the congregation some credit; we know you're not Jesus .


[Oh and, yes, we sang this at my parish this weekend.]

[InHisLove726]

[quote name='MithLuin' post='1939179' date='Aug 2 2009, 07:04 PM']So Psalm 95 is not to your taste, then?[/quote]

I love Psalm 95.

Edited August 3, 2009 by InHisLove726

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Slappo' post='1939004' date='Aug 2 2009, 02:16 PM']No but I do believe we should refrain from trying to evangelize protestants during the liturgy of the Eucharist through the music selection.

Notice that RCIA candidates have already left for that part of the mass... It definitely isn't about evangelization.[/quote]
What about evangelizing Catholics? Surveys I've seen show that a large number of Catholics do not believe in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. What better way to emphasize the fact that Christ is actually present than to sing a sing reiterating the Gospel selection we just read as people are going forward to commune?

I thought about this particular conversation while we were going forward for communion yesterday, singing that song, and while I have no particular love for the setting, I think it is valuable as a tool to keep people focused on the connection between what Jesus says in John 6 and the Eucharist we take.

[jeffpugh]

[quote name='MithLuin' post='1939179' date='Aug 2 2009, 07:04 PM']So Psalm 95 is not to your taste, then?



The first 8 verses are fine, but then we do switch to the divine point of view. And this psalm is used in the Invitatory every day in the LotH, so.....

I'm not saying you have to like the song in this thread. (Is it by Marty Haugen?) Certainly, you can dislike it on the grounds of musical taste, and theology, possibly, in some lines. And you can even dislike singing from God's POV (ie, as in 'Lord of the Dance', the Shaker song). But it is not theologically inaccurate to sing a song in the voice of Jesus.

Give the congregation some credit; we know you're not Jesus .


[Oh and, yes, we sang this at my parish this weekend.][/quote]
The latter is divinely inspired though and a direct reference... you know what? Nvm.

Edited August 3, 2009 by Sacred Music Man

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='VeniteAdoremus' post='1938267' date='Aug 1 2009, 08:36 PM']1. The crazy people here in my mum's parish insist on liturgy and hymns in either Latin or French (I hear more parishes in France have that problem)[/quote]

This sounds like a good idea. They have to be better than the English hymns, right?

[quote name='VeniteAdoremus' post='1938267' date='Aug 1 2009, 08:36 PM']2. I am not the Bread of Life. I'm not even Living Bread.[/quote]

In fairness to the song, are the lyrics not quoting the words of Jesus?

Thankfully, I didn't have to hear that song. Heaven is a place where that song is never heard. Or ever been heard of. Ever.

I hadn't noticed before that God not only gave Israel bread from heaven, but he also gave them flesh in the evening. Hmm... bread [i]and[/i] flesh... delish.

[BG45]

Yeah it was among the hymns Sunday.