Mantilla the Hon on Church Music

The children, they don’t know if the music you are giving them is old music or new music or folks music or chanting from the medieval monks. They don’t know, so why not give them something beautiful? So I am asking my cousins who like the old fat people singing and they tell me, “Mantilla you have to give the young people the music they like!” So I say, “But they don’t like this music! They are sitting there looking embarrassed that their old fat people are singing protest songs about ‘making a difference.’ I think what you mean when you say, ‘Give the young people the music they like’ is really saying ‘We will give the young people the music we like to think that they like but it is really the music us old fat people like.’

Look hon. I think this is not so smart. Music is not young or old. Music is good or bad. Church music is not young or old, it is sacred music or not sacred music. Too much of this music is not sacred. It’s like something from a Broadway musical or maybe a not so good pop music group. It’s like my vestments hon. We don’t make vestments out of tin foil and pipe cleaners and put flashing lights and a battery pack in it for the priest to try to make it cool for young people. We just make good vestments out of good materials with good craftsmanship and then the young people like them and the old people like them. You know what I mean hon? It’s the same with everything. So since that time in America I am all the time humming these chants from that monastery called Dizzy and now I am realizing what a chant does. It gets into your mind and your soul and before long it is helping you pray more. You know what I mean? Maybe that happens too with the other kind of music; it’s a tune that sticks in your head, but do you really want to be singing some marshmallow kind of song all day long about Jesus walking on the beach and making footprints? I don’t think so hon.