“… Courage needs to be shown in recovering elements of our liturgical identity so we can give God the beauty he deserves.”
Fr. Michael Rennier
Another parish discovers that the way forward for the Church involves both truth and beauty, and is revitalized in the process.
Aug. 9 & 10
Music directors, accompanists, interested singers, parish clergy and seminarians: join us at St. Mark Catholic Church in Highlands Ranch for an intensive two-day conference designed to lay out the fundamentals of building a strong, faithful parish music program.
Learn more and register:
Sacred Music is the indispensable instrument of the Holy Spirit in leading souls in their march toward Heaven…
Fr. John A. Perricone
Authentic sacred music isn’t a luxury or a mere affectation—it is a necessary element in right worship. As Fr. John Perricone sets out in the article linked below (h/t Crisis Magazine), our souls are moved in profound ways by the music we encounter, and this is especially true in the liturgy. He writes:
This music transforms him and pierces man’s soul to the core of his being. Often, it produces a contrition so profound that a man’s life can take a wholly different course.
This basic understanding is what guides our music program at St. Mark. Music for Mass isn’t about “filling in the gaps” or giving people something to do. It is an expression of our love for God, which in turn lifts and transforms our souls. But for this dynamic to truly work, the music must be fitting. Not necessarily complicated or expensive to produce, but fitting.
Happily, we have available to us a long tradition of music that is well-suited to the worship of the Most Holy Trinity. Some of this music ornate and difficult, and some is quite simple and accessible, but all of it has been proved over the course of centuries to both render right praise to God as well as “pierce man’s soul.”
Read the entire article below:
There’s a lot of weird stuff on YouTube, but every once in a while you stumble across something that makes you think, “Wow—why have I never seen this before?” That’s what I thought when I came across this video (below) by the Catholic musical group Harpa Dei.
Continue reading
In order for sacred music to reach its full stature, composers and musicians need to exercise true artistry, in which knowledge, inspiration, and skill all play a vital role in creating works of dignity and beauty.
Paul Jernberg
You may not have noticed, but the past 30 years have seen the beginnings of a kind of renaissance in Catholic sacred music. It has been very slow and has largely gone unnoticed at the parish level, but it’s real and it’s bearing fruit.
Continue readingA significant number of people have asked why we celebrate Mass the way we do, especially the ad orientem posture of the priests and the increasing use of Latin. We realize that Mass at St. Mark may not look like Mass at other parishes. To help both parishioners and visitors understand the reasons why our Masses look and sound the way they do, we created this brief 10-minute video.
Here is the fourth and final part of the series, “What is Catholic Sacred Music?” Here we see the top 10 reasons to sing Gregorian chant. We hope you enjoyed this series! Tell us what you think in the comments.
We continue this week with Part 2 of this series on music in the liturgy.
Truth & Beauty 