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Views from the Choir Loft

The Song of the Angels

Fr. David Friel · December 25, 2013

ANGER SCENES ever since St. Francis of Assisi have successfully led the faithful to deeper mediation on the great mystery of the Incarnation. Most nativity scenes are static displays, though, so they can’t replicate the smells, the cold, or the crying of the Bethlehem stable. Another feature of the moment that nativity scenes rarely capture is the music. Yet, that stable and its environs were a very musical scene.

Think about the song of the “multitude of the heavenly host” (Luke 2:13) for a moment: “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace to people of good will” (Luke 2:14). It’s like a one-two punch, a cause-and-effect, a natural progression. When we give glory to God, we receive His peace as a result. It is a simple formula, but one that so often goes untried. In our small-mindedness and short-sightedness, we fail to understand that the highest privilege we have as humans is to give glory to God. When we engage in divine worship, we are actually reaching our fullest potential. Said another way, we are most human in the moments we spend glorifying God.

So why do we spend so much time glorifying other things? Our world tells us to glorify all kinds of stupid things, like Xbox & iPhones & gift cards. Crazy news coverage almost forces us to glorify singers & actresses & athletes. I think it’s reasonable to say, though, that the primary trouble for most of us is not glorifying material possessions or celebrities. They are part of the equation, but the primary trouble is probably the time we spend glorifying ourselves. We fall into the habit of putting our own needs and wants before those of others. We worry about what other people think about us and fixate on preserving our reputation. We go out of our way to gain the praise & adulation of our family & friends & strangers.

Glorifying material possessions or celebrities or ourselves is simply a waste of time and energy. If our focus is only on those things, we’ll never be at peace. Only God brings us peace. Jesus is the very Prince of Peace, and when we give Him the gift of ourselves, we receive the reciprocal gift of His peace.

The angels who sang to the shepherds of Bethlehem had it right, and we’ve been getting it wrong ever since. We could all use a little more peace in our lives, so why not give their simple formula a try? It’s a truism that holds in every age and in every place. If we give glory to God in the highest, all the rest of our lives will fall into right order, and we will be blessed with peace.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

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    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    26 January 2023 • FEEDBACK
    “Jeff, I wanted to personally thank you for your spiritual witness at the Symposium & often blogs that you write too. Praying that prayer in the mornings My God, my Father and my all (by Cardinal Merry Del Val), mentioning saints’ stories of Brébeuf, Jogues, John Vianney, monks who fought in WWII, their hard work in spite of terrible conditions, their relentless zeal for the faith, their genuine love for the laypeople they served, etc. Overall though—more than anything concrete I can point to that you did or said—it was your demeanor at the Symposium. I could tell you really absolutely love and believe the Catholic Faith. You don’t get that everywhere, even in Church circles. And your humility is what then makes that shine even brighter. It is super inspiring! God is working through you probably way more than you know.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Why do we never sing “De Spiritu Sancto” (St. Athenogenes) in our churches? There are a dozen translations in English verse. Where could anyone find a better evening hymn than this, coming right down from the catacombs? Our hymnbooks know nothing of such a treasure as this, and give us pages of poor sentiment in doggerel lines by some tenth-rate modern versifier.

— Rev’d Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

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