The Use of Singing  

Posted by Patricia Cecilia

A quote I came across today while searching for something else:

Q. What is the Use of Singing and of Organs in the divine Service?
A. To help to raise the Heart to Heaven, and to celebrate with greater Solemnity the divine Praises.
--Richard Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of the London District, 1758-81

I was struck by the parallel to the Catechism's definition of why Our Lord created mankind:
"So that we may Know, Love, and Serve Him in this Life and to Enjoy Him in the next."

The purpose of music at the Mass and in the Office is not to entertain, not to pacify, but 'to raise the heart to heaven', to awaken in us the desire and the capacity to know, to love, to serve. And 'solemnity', in the Church, always means a deep joy infused with worship. C. S. Lewis understood this when he wrote:

Joy is the serious business of Heaven.

He also wrote:
All joy...emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire.
Our best havings are wantings.

It was when I was happiest that I longed most...
The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...
to find the place where all the beauty came from.


This longing for God is what moves us to worship, and the beauty of our worship--the actual Rite as well as the beauty in which it is clothed by music and visual art and architecture--should connect us to God. Not to each other, but to Him.

May we be encouraged and encourage one another in restoring to the Church Her heritage and treasury of beauty that leads us to true worship.

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."







This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10, 2009 at Thursday, December 10, 2009 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

1 comments

Very eloquently said - so true!

December 11, 2009 at 1:13 PM

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