Why couldn't it be "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent"?

Inside Catholic columnist Elizabeth Scalia's recollection of her First Holy Communion back in the 1960's brought me back to my own back in the early 90's.

A second grader back then, First Holy Communion marked a turning point in our lives. But even then, even with my relatively innocent view of the world around me, I found the rite to be a mish-mash of what seems to be two conflicting ethos. On one hand, we had a fairly traditional and solemn manner of reception. Just take a look of this pic:




I mean what's not to like in receiving the Lord in the most reverent manner possible in those days?

But this same Mass, this same special celebration consisted of us first communicants singing, complete with animation, a song by ex-priest Carey Landry "Bloom Where You're Planted":

Ref: Bloom, bloom, bloom, where you're planted. You will find your way. Bloom, bloom, bloom, where you're planted. You will find your day.

1) Look at the flowers, look at them growing; they never worry; they never work; yet look at the way our Father clothes them, each with a beauty of its own. (Ref.)

2) Some plant the seeds that others will wather, but in al things God gives the growth. Come, let Him garden the flowers within you; come and discover some you've never known (Ref.)

3) Look at the love that lies deep within you. Let your self be! Let your self be! Look at the gifts you have been given. Let them go free. Let them go free. (Ref)

Pretty atrocious, don't you think? Even at that tender age, I found it that way. I mean, I never really understood, then and now, why such a song found its way into the liturgy, especially one as special as this. Alright, I admit it has allusions to the Gospel,

[Matthew 6:28-30 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith?]

but artistic freedom has gone overboard with the song. It sounded like a frustrated Beatle songwriter wrote it.

Of course I did the most appropriate thing for a child of 11 and decided to shut my mouth and go with the flow. But I've never forgotten and have always looked back to that Mass where I had sing that corny song with animation.