Letter from the Pastor
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June 9, 2022Last Sunday we concluded the Easter Season with the Solemnity of Pentecost. We concluded Pentecost with Solemn Vespers and the Extinguishing of the Easter Candle. It was a very beautiful and prayerful ceremony as we prayed for the Church, on her birthday. If you missed it this year, hopefully you can set aside some time to come and pray with us next year.
I would like to thank our Music Director, Mark LaRosa and our outstanding choir for their dedication throughout the year. The choir finished their singing until September. The music that they sung this year came from the beautiful repertoire of Church music down through the centuries; music which is written solely for the glory and honor of God. Sacred music is different than “praise music” which is popular religious music but not worthy in the worship of God at the Mass. Praise music can be appropriate in other forms of prayer.Pope St. Pius X in 1903 distinguished three characteristics of sacred music: “sacred music should consequently possess sanctity and goodness of form, which will spontaneously produce the final quality of universality.” (Encyclical: Tra le Sollectitudini)
Music to be sacred means it is not the ordinary, not the every-day. It is set aside for the purpose of glorifying God and edifying and sanctifying the faithful. It must therefore exclude all that is not suitable for Church, the ordinary, every-day or profane, not only in itself, but also in the manner in which it is performed (i.e. praise bands). That is the reason that popular, and Broadway songs cannot be used in Church as well as certain musical instruments are excluded. Sometimes at weddings or funerals the family may request a secular song, which cannot be used in Church. Best to be played and sung at the reception after Church.
Sacred Music must have excellence of musical form. There is a great difference between Three Blind Mice, and an aria from Puccini, or a Mass setting from Hayden or Mozart, not to mention Bach. Music is both an art and a science. Sacred music must be true art while respecting the science of musicology. Beauty is not opinion or subjective, it is not a matter of taste. There are objective criteria for that which is beautiful.
We all have personal tastes in music and nothing prevents us from preferring one form of music to another. But music that is suitable for sacred liturgy must be of a special kind. Personal preference can not be the sole criterion. Pope St. Paul VI wrote: “If music — instrumental and vocal — does not possess at the same time the sense of prayer, dignity, and beauty, it precludes the entry into the sphere of the sacred and the religious.”
Pope St. John Paul II in 2003 called on Church musicians to “make an examination of conscience so that the beauty of music and hymnody will return once again to the liturgy. They should purify worship from ugliness of style, from distasteful forms of expression, from uninspired musical texts which are not worthy of the great act that is being celebrated.” And we can add to that, the words of the hymn must be theologically correct.
We are blessed to have such a good choir and an excellent choir director who can bring the type of Sacred Music of which the Church expects to us every week and special occasions throughout the year.
If you like to sing, we are always in need of more voices, Mark will teach you, all you need is a willingness to learn and enjoy singing beautiful music. The time commitment is a rehearsal once a week for about 90 minutes and the Mass on Sundays. So, turn off the TV, get off the couch and come be a part of a great experience. There is a great camaraderie among choir members. Singing is in our blood, just walk by The Saloon, Murty’s or Uncle Tommy’s on a Sunday afternoon!
In addition, we would like to start a Children’s Choir (choristers) from grades 3-8. More information will be coming over the summer. Remember the words of St. Augustine: He who sings well, prays twice.”
Congratulations to the Class of 2022
This past Friday, June 10th, 27 students were graduated from St. Margaret’s School. It was the 66th Graduation Class. All but 8 are continuing on in Catholic high schools throughout the region. We congratulate our new alumni and especially our parents who sacrificed much to send their children to St. Margaret’s. We look forward to seeing and hearing about your future success.
