Latin and vernacular speak

I am no linguist: witness my Grade E at French 'A' level in 1976. Similarly, I was hopeless at Latin.

I have, of course, sung plenty of Latin texts and so I can convert (I hesitate to say translate) some Latin into English. It is obviously easier when one knows the English anyway. So "Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris” is "(Thou) who sits at the right hand of the Father" and Pater Noster is how the Lord's Prayer begins.

In my last teaching job, which involved training the school's church choir, the Head said to me, when I was planning my first Carol Service, "You aren't going to pick lots of 16th century Latin carols are you?" This was because he thought that all organists (from the same stable as me) were dead keen on Latin church music. I do agree that an ordinary congegation members do not know what a choir is singing about when they use a Latin text so they just have to sit back and admire the music.

I am really glad that I was exposed to Latin both at school and in my church career and, I think, were I to study it now I would find it more of an intellectual puzzle than a punishment. (Note - I do not enjoy Sudoku puzzles because they remind me too much of working out music timetables)

Most people do not meet much Latin in church which is fine. It is also the case that many hymns contain English vocabulary which young people neither understand nor care about. How many 10 year olds know what a Paraclete is - do I really? When I was a chorister I sang, in the psalm 48 "Mark well her bulwarks" There is a useful page of difficult words HERE.

It is the case that hymn language can enrich one's vocabulary so we encounter phrases such as "tempestuous sea", "resounding all the day" and "With every fleeting breath" as just 3 examples.

There is a trend in worship to move away from 'traditional' hymns and just keep singing "Oh Jesus, Jesus, I love you" I also cite

Make my life a prayer to you
I wanna do what you want me to
No empty words, and no white lies
No token prayers, no compromise.