VIDEO: The hymn Walt hopes never to hear again (after this)

"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn, written in 1772 by John Newton, an English poet and Anglican clergyman. The words come from Rev. Newton's personal experience. He grew up without any particular religious conviction, but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by others' reactions to what they took as his recalcitrant insubordination.

He was pressed (conscripted) into service in the Royal Navy. After leaving the service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely that he called out to God for mercy. This moment marked his spiritual conversion but he continued slave trading until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring altogether and began studying Christian theology.

Thanks to Agent 6 for sending us the link to this beautiful rendition by Monica Narranda, at a concert at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia Cathedral. Ms Narranda is accompanied by the Barcelona Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Catalan Xuntanza Harmonica Band and the Puig-Reig Polyphony.



Now I need to explain the headline. There are three good (IMHO) reasons why I change channels or hit the "mute" button every time I hear the first notes of "Amazing Grace" on TV.

Although it's in the modern Catholic hymnals, "Amazing Grace" isn't sung in the SSPX chapel I go to, because it's not really Catholic, and that's my first reason. The theology is wrong. It was Martin Luther who said one could be saved by grace alone. Saint Thomas Aquinas and Catholic theologians down through the centuries say there's more to salvation than that.

My second reason is the inevitable bagpipe accompaniment. The music lends itself to being played as a lament, and the image of the lone bagpiper playing on a windswept hill is burned into our race memory, or so it seems. IMHO bagpipes should be used to play only marches. Period.

The third reason why I abhor "Amazing Grace" is that it's been done to death in recent years. Every time there's a news clip of the funeral or grieving following some kind of killing or disaster, that's the "music" you hear. It seems people know only that one hymn, so that's the default and it's usually played badly and sung worse. (What's with this modern style of singing, where you waiver through four notes for every one that's written? Listening to the modern interpretation of national anthems before sports events is just excrutiating!) So you hear this terrible caterwauling and the images are of fat women hugging each other and rubbing each other's backs. Bah! Please, people, stop abusing this fine hymn. Stop it, I say!