“The most powerful experience at the National Eucharistic Congress was the Adoration, Father. Tens of thousands of people all turned intently toward the Lord in silence. My wife and I both felt like we had a glimpse of heaven with everyone united in that powerful moment of prayer.”
In a recent conversation with Father Cody Jorgensen, OP, campus minister at the University of Utah and surrounding schools, about my experience of the National Eucharistic Congress with my family, I mentioned the power of that moment and how it was both diminished and enhanced by music.
“You could hear a pin drop. You could feel the power of the silence. But then it stopped. Something else started and got in the way, like a wall. The electric guitar started playing, and a voice started singing loud pop-style praise and worship music, and I had trouble continuing prayer,” I said.
“Do you want me to tell you why that’s the case?” Father Cody asked.
“Yes, of course!” I replied emphatically. “But I should add that on one of the four nights, another group, Floriani, performed traditional chants and hymns, and the same thing didn’t happen. It didn’t interrupt my prayer, but actually enhanced it. I heard other people saying the same thing as we walked out of the stadium that night.”
Father responded, “It’s only my theory, but I’ve seen it here in campus ministry, especially for young men. I wrote my master’s in philosophy thesis on the meaning of music. And music has this ability–Aristotle talks about this–to simulate emotions. Music has this emotive experience that makes you feel something. Aristotle distinguishes between cathartic music–and here you’d understand some big pop music that makes you feel something; it’s very visceral throughout your body, this emotional experience that’s very highly charged–and intellectual music like classical music and Gregorian chant, which doesn’t cause this kind of catharsis.”
Father Cody continued: “And that’s why when you experience pop music in the liturgy, there is an emotion that’s being communicated by the music, very strongly so, at Adoration, at Mass. You’re going to find some interior resistance because an emotion is being projected to you, and you may not feel that, or you may not want to feel that, so you resist that emotion. Whereas things like chant create a larger space for you to feel what you want to feel as you pray, to create a space for you to feel whatever you need to feel in prayer. That’s what I’m talking about. I think men are very averse to things that try to force you to feel something in an artificial way. It’s not that men aren’t in touch with our emotions, but I think we react very strongly against being forced to feel something when it’s not authentic to what we’re going through.
“I think about that with the liturgical music we do here on campus. We don’t do Gregorian chant, but we do things like Taizé, which is repetitive and inspired by chant, but creates this meditative place where you can sing–you don’t have to sing–you can pray–it’s not microphoned and blaring at you over the loud sound system. You’re called to pray in these moments, whether singing or praying quietly by yourself. That’s how I’d answer that: it’s the difference between being forced to feel something. And pop music does this. Pop music tries to force you to feel this way.”
Father Cody kindly allowed me to share our conversation and unlocked something important for me. Why do some forms of music seem to fit with the sacred, and others pull us away from it, even when they contain sacred lyrics? We live in a culture that seeks constant entertainment, which essentially offers an artificial experience, whether music or video, to fill a void of boredom in our lives. When we walk into church, we often look for the same thing: something loud and visceral to keep us engaged, but that something also prevents us from encountering the Lord in the stillness.
The National Eucharistic Congress truly gave us a pivotal moment for Eucharistic revival. And it was a glorious one, with pilgrims taking over the heart of downtown Indianapolis as we lifted up the true king to bless the modern city. Many speakers rightly pointed out that we must take this momentum back home with us.
To do so, however, we must also rediscover what Cardinal Robert Sarah called “the power” of silence. Contrary to the noise of contemporary culture, we can find in the silence of the Lord’s presence that “the sentiments that emerge from a silent heart are expressed in harmony and silence. The great things in human life are experienced in silence, under God’s watchful eye. Silence is man’s greatest freedom” (Sarah, The Power of Silence, Ignatius, 35).
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“Be still and know that I am God,” and, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, and all thy strength”, mean that quite literally, and yet event planners with no still center run worship and then wonder, “Where did everbody go?”. People in the modern world always want background noise, earbuds in the wilderness, silence and stillness abhorrent.
I just think of all the enthusiastic but shallowly catechized youth who are lost without at least a guitar playing at every meaningful moment in a mass, every prayer reflection MUST have background music and worship means busy busy busy….
And they learn this at shallow local parishes, in a muchly shallow Catholicism, where the USCCB says partaking of and being one with God MUST be accompanied by music and hymn singing, and who is really paying attention to God when so busy, much less, loving God?
As a long-time (since 3rd grade, and I’m now 67) church pianist/organist and accompanist (choirs, soloists, instrumentalists, etc.) as well as a member of several music organizations (AGO, Sigma Alpha Iota, etc.), I think that both SILENCE and MUSIC have a place in our worship–at appropriate times. For example, I don’t think Eucharistic Adoration should utilize any music (unless someone feels the need to wear headphones and listen privately to their particular music preference during a time of Eucharistic Adoration).
But I DO feel strongly that the Mass music in many parishes is…very badly done. Badly played, badly sung, no one opens the hymnal to read the words (even if you don’t sing, you should at least read the words and consider them part of your prayer of the Mass!!!), and usually skipped verses of hymns–would you skip reading paragraphs in a story or article?! No one knows squat about the origin of most of the hymns, and generally, the same 30 or so hymns are sung week after week, month after month, year after year–why do we even BOTHER to spend the money to produce hymnals or missalettes when we could produce an online Top 30 Mass Hymns and let people use their phones to utterly ignore the words of the hymn and not bother to sing?!
In my current parish, not one child is taking piano lessons or participates in any kind of children’s choir (including in the parish school). What does this mean for the future of Mass music? Will we eventually see a Mass in which the Offertory consists of watching a child kick a soccer ball into a goal?
I often hear Catholics opine about “Gregorian chant” and how they wish we could do more of it. I just want to laugh…and cry. It’s not likely that anyone will learn how to read the neumes and use the correct vocal techniques to sing Gregorian chant when they can’t even sing, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” or “Here I Am, Lord.” Who are they kidding, anyway?!
I hope I am completely wrong, but I predict that the current generation of Catholics who are children/teens will experience Masses that have pretty much eliminated hymns, songs, and spiritual songs because no one knows how to sing or play an instrument (other than guitar and drums). As the congregation walks back to their cars after Mass, an old person will quietly sing an old hymn and the children will ask, “Mommy, why is that person making that noise?”
AND…even more alarming, I think more and more Catholics will be very attracted to the Praise and Worship music, along with the traditional organ and choir music offered at the “Traditional Worship Service”, that many Protestant organizations still offer. Actually, I already know Catholics who attend Mass to fulfil their “obligation” and then drive to the local P and W church for the glorious and uplifting MUSIC!
Music is a universal language–and American Catholic parishes need to learn how to start speaking it, remembering that when early Christians were herded into the arena to be violently martyred, they sang hymns.
Mrs. Sharon,
I’ve often thought that Catholics ought to emulate protestants by having a dedicated weekday evening of singing participatory praise and worship. I did this at my parish in South Carolina when I gave parish retreats. I would intersperse meditative talks with songs of praise with words projected on a screen. With the added feature of a shared community meal, it built up community – especially among those newly-initated into the Church – very effectively.
Sacred music is described by the Church, and is not dependent on the feelings and whims of those who are responsible for its performance. A good summary is provided by Brant Pitre https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/230475?.src=fp. And Gregorian chant is the Church’s music of choice, difficult as it may be (I learned it as a teenager over 65 years ago.) What else in the teaching of the Church do we find difficult? Does that give us a dismissal card? Music in the Church today is generally much less than desirable, on m any levels.
I’ve been going to Mass for decades Mrs. Sharon & I sang in the choir for 2 of those decades but I don’t ever remember anyone in the pews singing much at Mass. Occasionally one or two voices maybe, but that was about it. I don’t think it’s a new thing.
And simple Gregorian chant’s pretty easy to sing. There are no parts, harmony, or musical accompaniment to it. Simple music for simple people.
🙂
The silence of mass starts before mass and continues after the recessional. However, the silence disappears with all of the talking. The plans for vacations, who attended what party. Everything but GOD is discussed.
People’s conversations could be held outside of the church. But no, they have to be comfortable sitting in the church.
The is no encouragement to spend personal one-on-one time with GOD.
The virtue of reverence is derived in part from the knowledge that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator who is worthy of the greatest respect and honor we can produce (and more), and also from the knowledge that He is our Father (right relationship with our fathers is intrinsic to the virtue), and worthy of all the love, trust, confidence, and closeness that we can produce (and more). It spills over into treating other people as children of the same Father, who loves them infinitely as He does us.
These kinds of truths are utterly irreconcilable with conversing with each other in the church before, after or during Mass. It is therefore sinful, and encourages the vice opposed to the virtue of reverence.
I wonder if Fathers of VCII envisioned loud rhythmic music and clapping to the music in the renewed Mass. Did they consider loud rhythmic music and clapping as a sign of true and real “active participation”?
Active participation is also achieved in silence. Active listening may be construed as a listening to the Lord when he speaks to the soul, the heart, the mind.
If participation in the Mass is construed as sharing in the grace of God, why would a ‘listening’ church require anyone to listen to that which offends his heart, mind, and soul?
‘Being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off, saying to Moses: You speak to us and we will hear. Let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.’ (Exodus 20:18)
Is it possible? If loud raucous rhythmic music during worship is preferred to silence, is it possible the people of God and her ecclesiocrats prefer the sounds of men to the voice of God?
Staudt and Fr Jorgensen come to a very real conclusion. Pop religious music speaks to our sensuality, Gregorian chant, traditional hymns, Palestrina I would add, the spiritual. Gregorian chant especially, music that my seminary music teacher justifiably said is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Religious communities seeking means to develop and enhance silent prayer have turned to listening to chant as a prep to prayer. There is spoken to the soul the beauty of the divinity, music itself a purer expression of the soul. A powerful antidote to the mind altering drugs destroying our youth and culture.
Staudt concludes by quoting Cardinal Sarah and his “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise” (Ignatius, 2017). A treasure trove of concise reflections such as this:
“The notion of sacredness is abused, particularly in the West. In the countries that claim to be secular, emancipated from religion and from God, there is no longer any connection with the sacred. A certain secularized mentality attempts to be liberated from it. Some theologians assert that Christ, by his Incarnation, put an end to the distinction between sacred and profane. For others, God becomes so close to us that the category of the sacred is consequently outmoded. Thus, some in the Church still have not managed to detach themselves from an entirely horizontal pastoral approach centered on social work and politics. In these assertions or these behaviors, there is a lot of naivete and perhaps genuine pride” (Sarah, p. 119).
Now, about the Synod on Synodality, in its 20,428 words the Instrumentum Laboris does defer to “silence,” prominently, but exactly once: “Our journey has been characterised [sp.] by silence, prayer, listening to the Word of God, dialogue and joyful encounters.” Because variations of “synod” appear some 228 times, is the typo allusion to “characters” an unwitting revelation of sorts?
May the periodic silences in the echo-chamber, Synod on Synodality, grow to totally transform its flat notes.
” is the typo allusion to “characters” an unwitting revelation of sorts?”
Are we to understand this question as anything other than ignorance about the spelling of English outside the northern half of the American continent?
Until I could no longer get to a church with a professional choir – Palestrina, Victoria, the lot – I had no first-hand knowledge of what was going on in UK parish churches. My experience at Mass has now been broadened by guitars and ‘folk’ songs, and even by a pastor who brings his own guitar and treats his congregation to one of his own songs, delivered in a fake American accent, after the communion. (He justifies this by claiming it as an aid to thanksgiving.)
It seems to me that one way of managing this is to see the whole performance (including the applause that he allows for himself and encourages for the ‘choir’) as an opportunity for mortification. I suspect that desires for one’s own comfort are stronger in old age. Perhaps this is a way of making something constructive from my new experiences. But should I join in the applause?
May I extend my empathy?
You should certainly decide for yourself, but as for me, I do not join in any applause when I must by circumstance beyond my control attend an NO Mass. I do not participate in any hugs, kisses, or handshakes on my way out of the pew to receive Eucharist. I do likewise during the ‘Kiss of Peace.’ I kneel at and after receiving Holy Communion. I kneel at the “Lord I am Not Worthy.” I kneel during the Consecration and at the beginning of the Sanctus. I sometimes kneel at mention of the Incarnation. I bless myself frequently.
Occasionally I depart from Mass after the Final Blessing, before the final ‘song.’ SI visit the restroom when a person other than the priest or deacon delivers a homily or another person appends the homily with a statement or story immediately following the homily. Yes, I have offered all that up and I apologize to God for any acts which have offended Him. I have been accused of not showing charity, and I’ve put that into my examination of conscience, not entirely sure to what extent that charge may or may not have been true.
Yes, I agree that annoyances and sorrow are good sources of mortification. I trust that God will grant other methods if avoiding these “Mortifications by Mass” is not what He would will.
The priest’s aid to thanksgiving would be my relief that such a tawdry ‘performance’ of the Mass had come to an end. My savior departs with me, thankfully. Praise Him that He too lives through tough times exactly as and exactly when we do too.
This sounds like a difficult set of “add-ons” to the Source and Summit of our faith. Please — do not join the applause. It would not be reflective of who you are. “Be who you are, and be that well.” – St Francis de Sales
My son & I attended Mass in Cornwall several years ago & were surprised to hear the same 1970’s selections that we have in our NO hymnals back home accompanied by guitars & tambourines. Lovely people at Mass though.
Last year we went to Mass in Mexico City & were treated to a Bob Dylan melody with guitars. So I guess it’s a universal thing. Lovely folks at the CDMX Mass also.
Guitars, tambourines, and Bob Dylan. That pretty much summarizes everything wrong with music in the church today. If I hear Dylan’s music in church I would immediately walk out.
It was only words put to a Bob Dylan melody, not the actual Dylan song, but yes it was disappointing. Especially in that very beautiful church whose side altar contains the relics of Blessed Miguel Pro.
But the people at Mass and in Father Pro’s museum next door were just lovely.
Having a tin ear for liturgical music doesn’t cancel out every other good thing.
🙂
I was at the Congress…..I loved every bit of the music. I love how it started as silence…. and broke out in song over time. I loved the electric guitar and the music that, in all cases, drew me closer to Christ. I periodically listen to the music from the Congress, and it continues to draw my closer to Christ. I can sing our Lord’s praises in every music genre. To me it’s about the words that I am singing…..and how they draw me into praise. I very much enjoyed the variety of types of music while at the Congress.
As someone who suffers with very distracting tinnitus, I really appreciate silence. Sometimes I put a headset on with Gregorian Chant to drown the steady ringing. I had my hearing damaged in an accident around jet aircraft. Great article.
“Why do some forms of music seem to fit with the sacred, and others pull us away from it, even when they contain sacred lyrics?”
Simply put, because the overwhelming majority of communication does not take place in words. This isn’t limited to music. The art and architecture, vestments, vessels, the way the sacred ministers stand, face, move, and gesture, the underlying flow of the Mass and the deeper flow of the seasons – everything communicates. And if it isn’t communicating good and fitting things, it will be communicating bad or unfitting things.
Amanda you are correct. Sacred means “set apart.” If we hear sacred words set to secular melodies, it takes away the sacredness. Conversely if we take a Gregorian chant melody or a hymn tune and replace the words with how much we love pepperoni pizza, it ceases to be sacred. It’s not an either/or, it’s a both/and.
Music in the Catholic church, if done properly, will sound other-wordly, not worldly. Most people instinctively know one from the other when they hear it.
I read a very interesting article about the brain and classical music. In summary, it discusses how the brain “likes” classical music, particularly from the 17 and 18 hundreds because of its mathematical quality, the way it alternates between soft and loud and between fast and slow. It makes your brain “relax”, if you will. Modern music lacks that quality and thus causes arousal. One of my many faults is that I tend to get impatient when driving. I have started listening to Strauss in my car CD, and I find myself a kinder, gentler driver!