Music Fridays- Liturgy, Mozart, and Modern Music: Part 2

Two weeks ago, I posted the first in this series on Mozart's Mass in C Minor compared to modern sacred music. In that episode, we focused on the Kyrie, which you may recall is the ancient prayer:

Kyrie eleison.

Christe eleison.

Kyrie eleison.

Which translates to:

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

This week, I want to share some more modern tunes which either use the Kyrie itself or which share the theme of mercy.

As a member of Generation X, I first heard the Kyrie thanks to this classic 80s one-hit-wonder from Mr. Mister:


The non-denominational monastery at Taize has at least two dozen versions of the Kyrie, which are modern though decided old school. If nothing else, these clips show that European protestants aren't afraid of looking too Catholic- and they make beautiful meditative musical prayers.






In the late 90s, Third Day offered up a Southern Rock cry for mercy sounds like something 38 Special might have recorded after attending a Billy Graham Crusade.


Modern worship leader Chris Tomlin offered up prayer on a recent album:


If you've got a favorite modern hymn or chorus about God's mercy, feel free to share it in the comments.

Check back next week as we dive into the Gloria!