ATCHING BIG SPORTING events, you will sometimes hear the roar of an anthem suddenly fill the stadium. Maybe it is like the 7th inning stretch that our new Pope may have heard at a baseball game or the “Olé” they sing at soccer games. But there are special chants that crowds roar. They bring people together. Jonathan Haidt calls it a “hive switch” and he describes it as:
We have the ability (under special conditions) to transcend self-interest and lose ourselves (temporarily and ecstatically) in something larger than ouselves. . . [The hive switch is] a group-level adaptation designed by group-level selection for group binding . . . made out of neurons, neurotransmitters, and hormones.
I’ve been in many choirs where I’ve felt that switch “click.” Maybe first in my high school jazz choir, where we just blended well. Thinking about it, those mariachi groups that go from Mexican birthday party, to baptism, to corporate dinner, to everywhere else must have some deep expertise in this phenomenon because each even is a different group. Well, I’ve felt that click with them, especially when surrounded by family.
And of course, in our Church choirs, I could write an entire novel about this. When you listen to Mr. Ostrowki’s choirs, you’ll often hear how much effort we put in trying to be one blended unit singing to God with a very intimate earnestness.
But what about those stadium chants for huge groups? Here is more from Haidt:
If evolution chanced upon a way to bind people together into large groups, the most obvious glue is oxytocin, a hormone and neurotransmitter produced by the hypothalamus. Oxytocin is widely used among vertebrates to prepare females for motherhood. . . What a lovely hormone!
I think this is what explains the feeling to see our Holy Father, not a professional musician (!), chant the Regina Caeli this Mother’s Day weekend.
Regina caeli laetare,alleluia.
Quia quem merúisti portáre, alleluia
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia
Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia
Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluiaQueen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
For He whom you did merit to… pic.twitter.com/Px1Hy5lQIW— EWTN News (@EWTNews) May 11, 2025
It’s the same feeling hearing my children, in their wobbly toddler voices, chant. Their voice melts my mother-heart. That’s why those videos go viral on social media.
So now, our Holy Father intones (and completes) the chant, and we sing with all of our hearts on fire for this Faith.
P.S.
I should add that this experience is magnified in retreats and in events like the Symposium! Just look at how these three participants remember:
(a) Eighty voices chanting compline nightly and leading the music at high Mass were profound experiences which, as I say, I will never forget.
(b) We breathed out praise together, beautifully. I felt so alive, so full of joy.
(c) Most especially, singing and learning with all like-minded and fervent Catholics, seeking to do the will of God in manifesting His Beauty through sacred music and to evangelize through our joint effort was the most touching and inspiring experience in my life.
(d) I had to stop singing for a moment while trying not to cry.
