• 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

Broken Rosaries and a Triptych of Wisdom

Richard J. Clark · August 30, 2019

ROKEN ROSARY beads can be highly frustrating! It happens all too frequently. Such frustration certainly works against prayer and contemplation!

First grain of wisdom: simple words of consolation from a friend, now a priest said, “That means they’re being used.” Well, no kidding! That’s pretty obvious. And perhaps profound.

What has this to do with sacred music? Perhaps a good deal. Our tools for prayer and music are far too often fragile and broken. If we are to be honest with ourselves, perhaps so are we. This extends to the people with whom we make music (and pray) and to the very people we serve and pray for.

This includes music programs built with love, tenacity, and painstaking perseverance perhaps over a period of years or decades. They too are fragile and potentially subject to the whims of new personalities. They are also subject to our own limitations or imperfections, which we may strive for years to overcome or at least improve.

Church musicians, no matter how talented, are potentially vulnerable, but persist nonetheless in prayer and the need to make music for the glory of God. Despite brokenness, we persist in prayer and in music. Such perseverance will yield much fruit—some we may never witness personally. But know it is there.

SECOND GEM gem of wisdom I recently heard from a homily (paraphrased and summarized): My thoughts are never at rest, always worrying endlessly about an infinite number of things. But I am only at rest when I am proclaiming God’s great glory.

I am only at rest when praising God and giving him glory.

This sentiment resonated with me greatly. We have many worries about things real and perceived. (I certainly do!) Am I a good enough musician? Did I program the most stellar (and admired?) music? What do they think of me? Am I doing enough? Did I get everything done that I need to?

All ridiculous.

I am only at rest when praising God and giving him glory.

Only if I am honest with myself so these words ring true. Perhaps I should pay attention to this truth.

HIRD: Rev. James Keenan, S. J., whom I have heard preach regularly for more than a dozen years, speaks often of mercy. He defines mercy as: “the willingness to enter into the chaos of another.” This sounds entirely inadvisable at first, but is in perfect harmony when viewed through the prism of compassion and recognition of another’s dignity, beauty, and worth regardless of what incomprehensible disorder may be taking over their lives.

And what does this have to do with sacred music for Holy Mass?

Everything.

I never tire of repeating that we don’t know what burdens, grief, and pain people carry in their hearts when they enter the doors of our churches. Therefore, mercy is our starting point.

Keenan states: “I believe that mercy defines Catholicism.” Lex Vivendi: mercy informs us of how to live our lives and treat each other: (E.g., Matthew 25. e.g. John 13:14 Mandatum Novum e.g., Ubi Cariatas et amor Deus ibi est.)

If we are not praying (especially in our brokenness), if we are not resting in the Lord by praising Him, if we are not merciful to our neighbors (i.e., choir members and parishioners), then our music only serves ourselves.

But mercy does not mean we don’t strive for excellence in sacred music. Quite the opposite: excellence is a form of service. Excellence demands singing prayerfully, singing with praise and in mercy to those we serve.

FINAL WORD word on mercy and charity with regard to sacred music: I have no stomach for disparagement of each other, i.e., ad hominem attacks or disparagement of music we deem unworthy, distasteful, or simply not to our liking. This must stop. It is deleterious to the soul and counterproductive to the cause of catechesis.

We are united in the love of Christ—although perhaps not necessarily in other things. It is OK to disagree on certain topics. Disagreement is not mutually exclusive with unity. This second line of Ubi Caritas: Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor is a perfect reminder of our commitment to unity.

This does not mean we don’t observe the Three Judgments as outlined in 2007 US Bishop’s document Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, or the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM).

I don’t apologize for my deep passion for traditional sacred music. (Some of you are well aware of my eclectic musical background and interests.) I will continue to shine the light on our living traditions because I believe our Catholic faith and treasury of sacred music is a jewel. I advocate for the Church’s treasury of sacred music—new and old—not merely because it is what the Church asks of us, but based upon its own merits which I believe to be salutary and transformative.

But all this means nothing without prayer, praise, and mercy. I pray I can live by my own words.

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

Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

When the matter is thus regarded, an assertion which is being made today, not only by laymen but also at times by certain theologians and priests and spread about by them, ought to be rejected as an erroneous opinion: namely, that the offering of one Mass, at which a hundred priests assist with religious devotion, is the same as a hundred Masses celebrated by a hundred priests. That is not true.

— Pope Pius XII (2 November 1954)

Recent Posts

  • Vespers for Easter Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
  • Hidden Gem: Ave Regina Caelorum (Steven Talley)
  • Four (4) Shimmery Hymns for Lent & Passiontide
  • “Go!” • The Word That Changed My Life Forever
  • Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)

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.