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

Corpus Christi Watershed

We’re a 501(c)3 public charity established in 2006. We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and run no advertisements. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors.

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

The Difficulty of Cultivating a Prayerful Focus for Musicians

Richard J. Clark · August 12, 2016

AM NO EXPERT. Ironically, prayer can be a struggle for church musicians. Grueling schedules, juggling personalities, and navigating politics (as normal routine) can rob prayerful focus. Musical focus is challenging enough. Add to it the vulnerability of being on display and judged on a weekly basis by anyone and everyone. (When it comes to music, everyone is an expert.) Sometimes, this can be spiritually draining, if not edifying.

So where does prayer come in? It only comes in the quiet, and it may have to come when the Sunday Masses are over. Or we need to “block out the noise” during Mass—challenging to do over the course of seven or eight Masses per weekend for some.

I don’t have an answer, or good advice. However, I have found prayer in a few things I will list here. I need these reminders for myself. Perhaps this list may be of some help. What is on your list?

1 • Preparation is prayer. Every bit of it. Be forever mindful of this.

2 • Being patient with all kinds of people and personalities, including those who get on your nerves—is prayer. I am mindful that I get on theirs too. I ask for their patience as well.

3 • Expressing gratitude to God for the opportunity to serve Him week in and week out is prayer.

4 • Composing on scripture is wellspring of prayer. I have come to rely upon this to save my life.

5 • Bringing the scriptures alive for your choir (and hopefully all the faithful) is prayer.

6 • Teaching is nothing but prayer.

7 • Continuing to serve God cheerfully (and very often flexibly) in the midst of professional crisis or adversity is prayer. Since dealing with some level of adversity is the norm, there is great opportunity for personal sanctification!

8 • Remember we are deeply flawed sinners—a most humbling state. This reality calls us to greater compassion to those who may appear to be easy to judge. Mindfulness of this is mercy, and is prayer.

9 • In humility, seek strength and nourishment from the sacraments.

LSO IRONIC, PRAYING WITH FAMILY AT MASS is rather impossible when working for the Church. It is especially challenging with small children. Again, I have no easy answers, but to take every available opportunity to cultivate prayer with your children. Teaching your children is a powerful form of prayer, for there are no greater prayers than those that spring from children. They may take to prayer reluctantly at times, but at others, it pours forth with powerful innocence and purity.

Children are also far more sensitive than adults realize to the needs of those around them. They understand the need for prayer. Take every opportunity to encourage children to not only learn specific prayers, but to cultivate a personal prayer life by speaking to God in their own words. These are powerful words.

Finally, prayer that seems to have nothing to do with music, or prayer that is far away from our jobs, will make us better musicians. More importantly, it will make us better servants of God, his people, our families, and each other.

Oremus pro invicem
Pray for each other.

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

About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one willful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.”

— Saint John Henry Newman (1865)

Recent Posts

  • Now Available! • “Hymns of Cardinal Newman: Kevin Allen’s Legendary Choral Settings”
  • Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
  • (Rehearsal Clips) • Sacred Music Symposium 2025
  • Hidden Gem: Ascendit Deus (Dalitz)
  • PDF Download • Soprano Descant — “Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above”

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 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.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up