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Views from the Choir Loft

The Fruit of Silence is Prayer

Richard J. Clark · March 19, 2020

EAREST musicians, colleagues, and friends, I wish you all God’s peace and protection during this exceptionally difficult time. Societal lockdown and cancelation of Mass is unprecedented in any of our lifetimes. It’s a spiritual, emotional, and economic challenge. It is difficult to know where to place our energies while remaining physically safe and adhering to our grave responsibility to keep others safe.

I’m concerned about those who may suffer creeping depression from prolonged isolation or underutilization. I am concerned about underemployed and unemployed liturgical musicians,  pastoral staffs, and teachers who are not lucratively paid during the best of times. I am concerned for the safety of our priests.

I am worried about volunteers who depend on their choirs and communities to sustain their spirit. I am concerned for more vulnerable volunteers.

The litany of worry is endless. We are forced to trust in God, perhaps to a degree that makes us uncomfortable. (I am speaking for myself.) We are brutally — and mercifully — confronted with the necessity of prayer.

Likewise, there are opportunities such as learning new repertoire, composing, or preparing for the future — or better yet — opportunities and blessings to be more present to our families, friends, and neighbors.

“Music arises out of silence and returns to silence.”

Perhaps the greatest opportunity is for prayer. Under normal circumstances, most of us would be exceedingly busy preparing for Holy Week. Now Holy Week celebrations are shrouded with a big question mark. The likelihood is that we are facing prolonged silence.

Yet the fruit of silence is prayer. Cardinal Seán O’Malley is fond of quoting Saint Theresa of Calcutta:

“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace.”

On the surface, silence is antithetical to musicians. But prayer is not. Church musicians are familiar with sacred silence; its importance cannot be underestimated. Today, we may be given the gift of an overabundance of silence, but perhaps its fruit will reverberate for years. “Music arises out of silence and returns to silence.” (Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship, No. 118)

My mother is quite fond of saying, “Man proposes. God disposes.” (Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit) Thomas à Kempis writes in The Imitation of Christ:

“Just men depend on the grace of God rather than on their own wisdom in keeping their resolutions. In Him they confide every undertaking, for man, indeed, proposes but God disposes, and God’s way is not man’s.” (Book I, Chapter 19)

Disruption

Plans and lives uprooted, we may be called to examine aspects of our lives otherwise neglected. With silence and prayer comes faith and love. Faith and love may drive inspiration, call to service, and renewed action. Certain opportunities may be limited today. God will assuredly bless you tomorrow with renewed plans that arise unexpectedly and joyfully.

Gratitude

Meanwhile, our Lenten fast has radically shifted course just before Laetare Sunday. We likely don’t feel the inspiration to rejoice, but we might with a spirit of gratitude. Rejoice in gratitude for each other’s prayers. Rejoice in gratitude for God’s eternal love. Rejoice in the Lord always who will see us through hardship while drawing us to Him closer than we have ever been before.

Furthermore, we have Pope Saint Pius X to thank for the paradigm shift of encouraging frequent reception of communion — something we take for grated now, but was rare throughout the Church’s history. In fasting from the Eucharist now, we may have greater appreciation for the grace of the sacraments, prayer, and a renewed understanding of the power of Spiritual Communion. Our joy when receiving the Eucharist again may be boundless!

I don’t pretend to have any answers or possess wisdom greater than any of you. I am attempting to learn with each passing hour. I am greatly comforted by your prayers. Know you are in mine every minute of every day.

Oremus pro invicem
Let us pray for each other.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: March 20, 2020

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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).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    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
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“For me, religious music ceased with the sixteenth century. The fresh, childlike souls of that time alone expressed their vehement, untainted fervor in music free from worldliness. Since then we have had pious musical improvisations more or less made for show. That wonderful man Johann Sebastian Bach only escaped because of his natural genius. He built harmonic edifices as a devout architect and not as an apostle.”

— Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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