• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Saint Antoine Daniel KYRIALE
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Music & Beauty

Guest Author · August 19, 2014

HROUGHOUT MY LIFE, I have encountered God’s presence many times through the experience of beauty in Sacred Music. One such occasion was on a trip to France, while I was visiting the historic Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris. This is where the Sulpicians, who originally staffed Saint John’s Seminary, were founded. The church contains Pigalle’s famous statue of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, which became a distinct mark of Sulpician spirituality. This is why we find a replica of it in our own Marian Courtyard. As I was praying after the daily noon Mass in the Blessed Sacrament chapel in the front of the church, suddenly the world-famous Cavaillé-Coll organ began to bellow out penetrating harmonies from behind us that filled the massive space. Soon thereafter, a choir of about one hundred voices joined in, intently singing the triumphant melody to Charles-Marie Widor’s Tu Es Petrus, which was originally composed on that very organ 136 years earlier.

It turned out that this professional choir was having a dress rehearsal for their concert that evening. As I sat there enjoying the free concert amid the beautiful surroundings of this historic church with its direct spiritual connection to Saint John’s Seminary, I was moved to tears by the way in which the music so powerfully captured the momentous encounter between Our Lord and Saint Peter. I had heard many times the scripture passage from Matthew 16:18, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” But it was not until hearing it in this setting that its profound significance really struck me. It’s one of those pieces of music that makes one proud to be a Roman Catholic!

I share this story to demonstrate the power of beauty in music, through which Christ is made present to the world in a unique way. In several of his addresses, Pope Benedict XVI used the words of the 14th century Byzantine theologian, Nicholas Cabasilas, to describe the encounter with beauty as “the wound of the arrow that strikes the heart” of man. 1 By opening him up to the transcendent and causing him to look beyond himself, “toward the ultimate Mystery, toward God,” beauty thus reveals God as the ultimate true, good, and beautiful. 2 By its appeal and inherent attraction to the heart, the Church’s tradition of Sacred Music, which the Second Vatican Council identifies as “a treasure of inestimable value,” 3 conveys the sacred texts in ways that are often more profound than a spoken proclamation or theological discourse. 4 The chants of the Sacred Liturgy in particular, dating back to the early years of the Roman rite, form a perfect marriage of text and melody, which St. Basil describes as God’s way of further disposing the hearts of man to receiving His truth: a type of divine pedagogy. 5

As history has shown, Sacred Music plays a central role in evangelization and the formation of culture. It is one of the primary ways in which we experience the presence of heaven on earth during the Sacred Liturgy, and will thus forever remain an indispensible aid in raising our hearts and minds to the contemplation of the mysteries of the faith. I believe a quote of Simone Weil, which Pope Benedict once referenced, aptly summarizes this: “In all that awakens within us the pure and authentic sentiment of beauty, there, truly, is the presence of God. There is a kind of incarnation of God in the world, of which beauty is the sign. Beauty is the experimental proof that incarnation is possible.” 6


Guest post by Patrick Fiorillo, a Seminarian for the Archdiocese of Boston.


Patrick Fiorillo is a seminarian at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts. This article was originally printed in the St. John’s Seminary Magazine and is reproduced here with permission.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty,” Address to the Communion and Liberation, August 24-30, 2002.

2   Pope Benedict XVI, “Address to Artists,” Vatican City, November 22, 2009.

3   Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 112.

4   C.f. Ratzinger, “The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty.”

5   Rev. Jonathan Gaspar and Romanus Cessario, O.P., “Worthy of the Temple: Liturgical Music and Theological Faith, Nova et Vetera, English Edition, Vol. 3, No. 4 (2005): 679. St. Basil, Homily on the First Psalm, PG XXIX: 209.

6   Pope Benedict XVI, Speech in Sistine Chapel, November 21, 2009.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    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

Random Quote

“Leave the Mass alone. Our churches are full—the Protestants, in spite of their vernacular, far otherwise.”

— Cardinal Godfrey (one of the Vatican II fathers)

Recent Posts

  • Apply Right Now! • Sacred Music Symposium
  • Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
  • PDF Download • Belgian Book of Gregorian Accompaniments (Official Edition)
  • Don’t You Agree About These?
  • Choral Vowels? Yes? No?

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2023 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.