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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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Richard J. Clark

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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20 January 2021 • REMINDER

We have no savings, no endowment, and no major donors. You can help us (please) by subscribing to our mailing list. It’s incredibly easy; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address. Thank you!

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

The representative Protestant collection, entitled “Hymns, Ancient and Modern”—in substance a compromise between the various sections of conflicting religious thought in the Establishment—is a typical instance. That collection is indebted to Catholic writers for a large fractional part of its contents. If the hymns be estimated which are taken from Catholic sources, directly or imitatively, the greater and more valuable part of its contents owes its origin to the Church.

— Orby Shipley (1884)

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