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Music in Our Liturgy, Part 6
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Music in our Liturgy Part VI
Why do we sing the Mass?
Dear parishioners,
Since I began addressing the subject of music in our liturgy, I have received some feedback from parishioners and staff. As I mentioned in a previous letter, my intention at the moment is to instruct. Decisions on the future course of our music will be a product of prayer, consultation and thorough discernment. And it would largely be determined by what the Church teaches and what is pastorally feasible, given our context. I appreciate your comments, they tell me you are reading my letter and are interested in the subject matter as I am. This week I want to address the reason we sing the Mass.
The Church’s teaching on music in the liturgy cannot be found in one single document, but in multiple sources. All these documents build upon one another. And their authority and scope is determined by their provenance, whether Pope, Ecumenical Council, Roman Curia, Episcopal Conference, and so on. My goal this week is to highlight from papal, conciliar and curial documents why we sing the Mass (not just sing at Mass), and the important role music plays in the liturgy. I hope to encourage everyone to see music not as something we do because we like to sing, but because it is integral to the liturgy, and as such, something we must pay particular attention to. We do not sing at Mass because we prefer to sing or because we have great singing voices. No, we sing because it is intrinsic to the nature of the Mass that it be sung, as much as possible.
The saying, “to sing well is to pray twice,” often attributed to St. Augustine, acknowledges that singing is actually praying. When the Church sings, she clothes her prayers with the beauty and grandeur appropriate for God, who is beauty itself as well as its source. Our prayer acquires more solemnity when it is sung. The liturgy is by nature logocentric. That is, word-centered. The rituals are couched in words derived from Scripture and liturgical sources. Singing clothes the liturgical text. Referring to singing, Pope Pius X writes, “Its object is to make the texts more efficacious, so that the faithful through this means may be the more roused to devotion, and better disposed to gather to themselves the fruits of grace which come from the celebration of the sacred mysteries.” (Motu proprio, Tra le Sollecitudini, November 22, 1903).
Music is integral to the liturgy. By its very nature, the liturgy is sung. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council write, “The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy” (Sacrosanctum Concilium SC, 112). For this reason, music in the liturgy cannot be seen as an extra or an inconsequential element. In singing the liturgy we participate in the very purpose of the liturgy itself, namely, the glorification of God and the sanctification of the faithful. Singing and music are sacramental signs that make present spiritual realities. Our singing in worship is a participation in the cosmic praise of God rendered by all of creation and the hosts of heaven. Cardinal Ratzinger (who became Pope Benedict XVI) wrote, “The cosmic character of liturgical music stands in opposition to the two tendencies of the modern age…, music as pure subjectivity, music as the expression of mere will. We sing with the angels. But this cosmic character is grounded ultimately in the ordering of all Christian worship to logos” (The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans by John Saward, San Francisco, CA 2000, 155).
The 1967 instruction Musicam Sacram offers a summary of the effects of the sung liturgy: “Indeed, through this form, prayer is expressed in a more attractive way, the mystery of the liturgy, with its hierarchical and community nature, is more openly shown, the unity of hearts is more profoundly achieved by the union of voices, minds are more easily raised to heavenly things by the beauty of the sacred rites, and the whole celebration more clearly prefigures that heavenly liturgy which is enacted in the holy city of Jerusalem” (Congregation of Sacred Rites, Instruction Musicam Sacram, March 5, 1967, art. 5).
We do not sing at the liturgy because we enjoy singing, but because it is the fullest form of the celebration. “Liturgical worship is given a more noble form when it is celebrated in song, with the ministers of each degree fulfilling their ministry and the people participating in it” (SC 113). In fact, Musical Sacram directs pastors to do all they can to ensure the liturgy is sung (art. 5). The order proposed by this document is: first the dialogues between priest and the people, as well as the presidential prayers sung by the priest celebrant. These should be done with full voice. In my experience, many of us sing more lightly than they speak. The second degree of singing in Musical Sacram includes the chants of the Ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. The third degree of the parts of Mass to be sung are the propers of the Mass: Entrance, Offertory and Communion. This could be either in the Gregorian or simplified versions set in the vernacular, with choral/cantor versed. With short refrains, these simple chants could be more accessible to parishes such as ours or even to big city parishes with all the sophistication.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted wrote in 2012, “when the Order of the Mass is sung, the liturgy becomes most true to itself, and all else in the liturgy becomes more properly ordered” (Singing the Mass: Liturgical Music as Participation in Christ, in Adoremus 18/3 (2012).
With blessings from my heart,
Fr. Julius