Why We Sing at Mass
In my last article, “Using What You Have Been Given”, I mentioned that the parishes I serve have been undergoing a process to plan for the future. Included in this process were two listening sessions.
In parish life, when comments are sought on how a parish is doing, you can generally count on receiving comments about the type, style, or quality of the music sung at Mass. You can even find people making opposing comments. By “opposing”, I do not mean they are arguing with each other. Music can involve a matter of taste. What one person likes, another does not. Thus, the opposing comments.
The comments that we received at our recent listening sessions included that “music can be engaging or disengaging”, that it is sometimes “distracting”, it “fosters conversations”, and that some choose which Mass they attend by the music. These are genuine comments but we need to consider what is a matter of taste and what are the rubrics for music at Mass.
The comments we received also reminded us that “music is essential” because “music is a way of praising God.”
In this article, I would like to present a theological foundation for why we sing at Mass. Following this article, I anticipate written articles on who sings, where they sing from, and the style of music at Mass.
Why We Sing at Mass
The Mass is a wonderful gift for us from the Lord. However, we miss something if we think the purpose of Mass centers on making us feel good for the one hour we are there. (For a fuller understanding of the Mass in general, please see my 2020 series, Understanding the Treasures of the Mass.)
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of two purposes for Mass, “In what way is the Father the source and the goal of the liturgy? Through the liturgy the Father fills us with his blessings in the Word made flesh who died and rose for us and pours into our hearts the Holy Spirit. At the same time, the Church blesses the Father by her worship, praise, and thanksgiving and begs him for the gift of his Son and the Holy Spirit” (221). The Mass fills us with blessings. That is the Lord’s gift to us but Mass is not centered on us. The Mass is us giving praise and thanksgiving to God. In praising God and bestowing blessings on us through the grace we receive, the Mass fosters our relationship with our Lord. As such, it should be much deeper than just making us feel good for an hour.
As we seek to give praise and worship to God, music is an important part of this. The use of music as a means to give praise and worship to God is biblical.
The oldest biblical reference to music is found in Genesis 4:21, “His brother’s name was Jubal, who became the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the reed pipe.” By the time of the Exodus, we find that music is used as a way to praise God. Exodus 15 is song of praise and thanksgiving to God (see verse 1) for God’s rescuing them from slavery in Egypt.
Centuries later, when the Ark of the Covenant is finally brought to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6), the people respond with singing and instruments to praise God as 2 Samuel 6:5 describes, “while David and all the house of Israel danced before the Lord with all their might, with singing, and with lyres, harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.” (echoed in 1 Chronicles 13).
While the book of Psalms is written as text (poetry) in the Bible, we need to remember the psalms are really hymns of praise or lament to God.
Jesus’ disciples sang music as the Last Supper ended, – “Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30, see also Mark 14:26). In Acts 16:25, we see Paul and Silas uniting prayer and song, “About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened.” In Colossians 3:16, Paul speaks of hymns expressing gratitude, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”
The value of song is also found in the writings of the Church fathers. We read in The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), “Thus St. Augustine says rightly, “Singing is for one who loves,” and there is also an ancient proverb: “Whoever sings well prays twice over.”” (GIRM, 39).
The GIRM specifically calls for singing at all Masses, most especially Sundays, “Great importance should therefore be attached to the use of singing in the celebration of the Mass, with due consideration for the culture of peoples and abilities of each liturgical assembly. Although it is not always necessary (e.g., in weekday Masses) to sing all the texts that are in principle meant to be sung, every care should be taken that singing by the ministers and the people not be absent in celebrations that occur on Sundays and on Holydays of Obligation” (GIRM, 40).
Why? Because “God has bestowed upon his people the gift of song” (USCCB, Sing to the Lord, 1). As I wrote in my last article, “Using What You Have Been Given”, we make the best use of the gifts (talents) that God has given us when we use them in praise and service to God.
Our use of music at Mass does indeed praise God. Our use of music at Mass is also for our own benefit at Mass, “A cry from the deep within our being, music is a way for God to lead us the realm of higher things…Music is therefore a sign of God’s love for us and of our love for him” (USCCB, Sing to the Lord, 2).
The Second Vatican Council brought a renewed understanding of the active participation in Mass of the people in the congregation. In Part I of my series Understanding the Treasures of the Mass, I explore what active participation means at Mass. In Sing to the Lord Music in Divine Worship, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) speaks of active participation in paragraph 11. The next paragraph speaks of what active participation means for us internally where it speaks in depth to our heart and soul. It then says, “Participation must also be external, so that internal participation can be expressed and reinforced by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes, and by the acclamations, responses, and singing. The quality of our participation in such sung praise comes less from our vocal ability than from the desire of our hearts to sing together of our love for God” (USCCB, Sing to the Lord, 13, emphasis added). It is the internal action in us that is most important, but the external action expressed in singing can reveal what is going on in our hearts.
Sometimes we can lose focus of the use of music as a means to praise God. We use it to make us feel good (this will be discussed in a future article on the style of music at Mass) but at Mass we must remember a higher purpose for music at Mass as described in the previous paragraph.
Content of What We Sing at Mass
If we use music at Mass to praise God and to foster our relationship with God, we need to consider the content of music, most especially at Mass. In their recent document, “Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church: An Aid for Evaluating Hymn Lyrics” (Catholic Hymnody), the USCCB points us to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “But “the texts intended to be sung must always be in conformity with Catholic doctrine. Indeed they should be drawn chiefly from the Sacred Scripture and from liturgical sources.” (no. 1158).”
The USCCB develops this further, “Different hymns may legitimately express or reflect different aspects of one doctrine, but if all of the hymns relevant to a particular doctrine express only one dimension of the doctrine to the exclusion of others, then the catechesis offered by the hymnody would, as a whole, not be in conformity with Catholic doctrine. For example, a collection of hymns that emphasized the Eucharist as table fellowship to the exclusion of the vocabulary of sacrifice, altar, and priesthood, would not represent the fullness of Catholic teaching and therefore would catechize those singing such hymns every Sunday with a deficient sacramental theology.” (USCCB Doctrine, Catholic Hymnody). The music we use at Mass, “must in itself be an expression of the Catholic faith” (USCCB, Sing to the Lord, 83).
One place where the selection of music at Mass may lose its focus on faith is at funerals. There is a temptation to think the music must speak of the deceased. However, at Mass “Music should never be used to memorialize the deceased, but rather to give praise to the Lord, whose Paschal Sacrifice has freed us from the bonds of the death” (USCCB, Sing to the Lord, 248). The music used at a funeral Mass may express a person’s faith and how they lived their faith. The better place for music that centers on the person is at the funeral home or reception.
Lastly, we need to understand that proper concern for Catholic doctrine does not rule any use of Protestant hymns. The USCCB writes, “nothing prevents the use of some congregational hymns coming from other Christian traditions, provided that their texts are in conformity with Catholic teaching and they are appropriate to the Catholic liturgy” (USCCB, Sing to the Lord, 115). I emphasis “some” to acknowledge that if we only use Protestant hymns, we will miss what is essential to us as Catholics, most especially the Real Presence in the Eucharist (see USCCB Doctrine).
We sing to give praise to God and to foster our relationship with hymn. I anticipate writing articles soon on who sings, where they sing from, and the style of music used at Mass.
(The next article in this series, “Who Sings at Mass”, is now available online.)
Peace,
Fr. Jeff
Bibliography
Compendium: Catechism of the Catholic Church. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. USCCB, 2006. Also available online at https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) including Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America (USCCB: Washington, DC). 2011. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20030317_ordinamento-messale_en.html
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Sing to the Lord Music in Divine Worship. Washington, DC: USCCB. 2007.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine (USCCB Doctrine), “Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church: An Aid for Evaluating Hymn Lyrics.” September 2020.