The House That Love Is Building BB 2023

6 Responses to The House That Love Is Building BB 2023

1. Gloria says:

   December 16, 2022 at 4:22 am

   Sarah Hart is prolific, but her music is terrible and not suitable for use at Mass. “The House that Love Is Building” is an attempt to replace Marty Haugen’s “All Are Welcome” and is obviously intended to be a veiled pro-gay anthem, as Haugen’s song has become. Besides which, her song doesn’t express Catholic faith: there are only vague references to “love” (meaning “luv”) instead of to God or Christ. Sarah Hart’s primary fanbase is post-menopausal liberal women, not youth and not knowledgeable, ardent Catholics. My parish doesn’t sing any of Sarah’s music, and I laugh at parishes whose music ministries (again, all consisting of post-menopausal liberal women) clamor to inflict the newest Sarah Hart song on their congregations. Sarah Hart’s motto in her workshops and appearances when she goes on tour is “be nice”. That’s about all her songs amount to. Her musical dreck is debasing the celebration of Mass, not elevating it, and malforming Catholics with her vapid, secularist lyrics. That goes for pretty much anything that OCP has published within the past twenty years, with very few exceptions. It’s almost all junk.

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   • admin says:

     December 16, 2022 at 6:23 am

     G’Day Gloria

     I’ve always thought being nice was a good start.

     I’ve also found that many very ardent Catholics weren’t actually knowledgeable at all, but there you go, you may be an exception.

     God can be glorified in many ways, and while I am not a post-menopausal liberal woman myself, I’m not sure there is actually anything wrong with being post-menopausal, nor being liberal, especially is that means being charitable and nice. I see the face of Christ revealed in post menopausal liberal women every day of my life.

     If a parish’s needs to worship and an assembly’s culture are best served by Latin chant, or traditional hymnody, or Australian hymns or OCP/GIA songs, or Wild Goose or Hope Publishing songs or home made music, then that is a work of the Spirit and I should not presume to second guess that.

     Looking at her lyrics, she envisions a church that could even include you. Take it is as a friendly invitation to outcasts like me and you, which may be the Reign of God Jesus was talking about.

     Lastly, whenever I am absolutely sure I am right, there is a good chance I am about to learn humility. If you have provided that to me you have my thanks.

     cheers

     Geoff

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   • Ryan says:

     December 16, 2022 at 7:14 am

     Geoff had a great response. I’ll make mine shorter.

     1 John 4:16 – “God is love.” The song is about God, a God who lovingly embraces every person regardless of whatever external characteristics they might have. Perhaps it would serve you well to try to be more loving and charitable like Him.

     P.S. I’m a 30 year old conservative male and I like this song, soooo…..

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     • Gloria says:

       December 18, 2022 at 3:35 am

       The song uses feminine pronouns to refer to “Love”. Read the lyrics. So if “Love” is meant to be God in the song, then God is being referred to in feminine terms. Yet God is never addressed in feminine terms in the Bible nor in Catholic worship. The song is not suitable for use in Catholic worship, and it subtly undermines Catholic faith by imaging God as feminine. That’s what you get when someone who knows very little about theology or Catholic liturgy and is committed to mushy progressive feminism and diversity attempts to write lyrics and music for Catholic worship. The whole OCP crew are ignorant dilettantes, and Catholics would be advised to avoid using their music.

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       • admin says:

         December 18, 2022 at 7:42 am

         Well goodness, Gloria.

         I have read the lyrics and think they are fine. I don’t believe that any concept of God worth having is bound by the limits of our language, especially as they relate to gender. Since many of the thoughtless exclusions in the Catholic church over the years relate to women, naming an aspect of the divine female is a reasonable corrective.

         Having said that, if we are reading our Bibles we get as far as Genesis 1:2 when we come across the feminine Hebrew word Ruach for the breath of God moving over the waters. How about, Sophia in Proverbs, the feminine Holy Wisdom from before the creation of the Earth.

         I have lived long enough to see the hateful effects a certain, black and white world view, where people think they have direct access to the mind of God and we demonise the “other” leads.

         At the very high risk of being patronising and if you are an American college student, as I suspect, my prayer for you is that you travel, read more widely, experience liturgies in different communities and meet the sort of people you are disparaging. You may then learn that people with other ways of worshiping are wonderful, other views will expand your way of thinking, and faith lives somewhere in the questions and mystery where language fails and we reach for God in music and ritual.

         Merry Christmas and best wishes.

         Geoff

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       • Ryan says:

         December 18, 2022 at 1:56 pm

         I’ve read the lyrics. I’ve sung the song. I even taught it to my students at the end of last school year.

         As Geoff points out, feminine references to God are in the Bible. But… the female pronouns in the song aren’t actually referring to God so that argument is kind of irrelevant.

         The word “her” is only used three times in the entire song, twice in verse 1 and once in verse 3. In verse 1, it’s obvious that “her” is referring to the house being built (“her rafters,” “her walls”). In verse 3, the “voices of her people” is referring to the song’s people. In both these instances, the house being built and the song being raised, as well as the garden being tended in verse 2, are references to the Church. The Church is ALWAYS referred to in feminine terms, so “her” is the only word that makes sense.

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