Is Sacred Music a Way to Find God?

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4Horsemen said:
What made a deep impression on me as a child was the cascading flow of Gregorian chant in the Kyrie (does anyone else recall the Mass of the Angels and the Mass of the Blessed Virgin?), the lilting music of the Gloria, powerful, polyphonic Credo, inspiring, reverent Sanctus and Agnus Dei. It was truly heavenly.

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra, gloria tua. Hosannah in excelsis

:angel1::gopray::gopray2:
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We still sing the Missa de Angelis every Sunday and feast day unless another Latin Mass is prescribed. Even though I hear it so often it never ceases to inspire me. 🙂
 
And here is Mozart’s stunning “Ave Verum Corpus” with stunning visuals to accompany.

youtube.com/watch?v=OY5Bg6Nk6Gc

English translation provided.

Best heard in a darkened room with no visuals!

Other versions available at the same website - YouTube - including a tenor sing “Ave” at Pavoratti’s funeral Mass.
 
I’ve been a full time church musician for 34 of my nearly 52 years on this earth. Without a doubt sacred music is one path I use to find God in my prayer life!

Conversely, when so-called “Christian Rock” became stylish and my three children queried me about it I asked to listen to some of it before answering their questions as to whether they should try it out. Well, I did listen. It was not then nor is it now permitted in my home. It’s nothing but noise and disrespectful of our current Holy Father’s dedication to the fine arts and what he’s said on the subject.

I don’t demand nor do I want a completely classical music library. For instance I enjoy Robert Cochis, David Haas, etc., but Christian rock is out- I find nothing prayerful or Godly in it at all.🙂 c
 
*but Christian rock is out- I find nothing prayerful or Godly in it at all. *

More of the devil wearing his usual halo?
 
If evolution does not have God behind it, why did evolution produce a creature capable of praising God with majestic sacred music? If God is an illusion, as the atheist claims, why does evolution bother to produce a universal illusion with such great appeal both to the reasons of the head and of the heart? Why does evolution produce a creature capable of seeing taces of God’s will and His intelligence in the galaxies and in the microbes? Why would evolution provoke a universal lie in the hearts of men?
 
Clairmont

I’ve been a full time church musician for 34 of my nearly 52 years on this earth. Without a doubt sacred music is one path I use to find God in my prayer life!

I just noticed that this was your first post at Catholic answers. Welcome aboard!

Charlie
 
My wife and I have found that in our prison RCIA ministry the men respond more to the opportunity to sing hymns than to the business of talks, discussions, and readings. They like nothing more than to learn a new hymn. They don’t always sing on key … but that’s O.K. They laugh right along with us and want to start over because it means so much to them to get it right.

How do atheists answer the call to worship when they hear “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve?

Presumably atheists cannot compose sacred music with conviction. But since the urge to create music must exist in atheists as well as true believers, exactly what kind of music is or has been composed by well-known atheists?
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Presumably atheists cannot compose sacred music with conviction. But since the urge to create music must exist in atheists as well as true believers, exactly what kind of music is or has been composed by well-known atheists?
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Verdi was an agnostic and he composed a magnificent Requiem Mass. Frederick Delius was an atheist but he composed fine music depicting the beauty of nature…
 
Charlemagne_II said:
My wife and I have found that in our prison RCIA ministry the men respond more to the opportunity to sing hymns than to the business of talks, discussions, and readings. They like nothing more than to learn a new hymn. They don’t always sing on key … but that’s O.K. They laugh right along with us and want to start over because it means so much to them to get it right.

How do atheists answer the call to worship when they hear “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve?

Presumably atheists cannot compose sacred music with conviction. But since the urge to create music must exist in atheists as well as true believers, exactly what kind of music is or has been composed by well-known atheists?
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John Rutter, to the best of my knowledge, is not a believer. I don’t know that he is an “atheist” in the traditional sense, though.
 
Every thing may bea way to get in touch with God. Every because, he created all. Good and bad things have the power to connect us to God.

But not only sacred music, too a lot of songs that are not specifically religious. Every humans have something inside that could have the enough sensivity to be in touch with God. Of course, that is like faith. If you don’t have it fitted, you’ll never be “conected” to God…

Hispanicus
 
There is no evidence that Verdi was an atheist. As a youth he was an altar boy. And as the Jesuits like to say, “You can take the boy out of the Church, but you cannot take the Church out of the boy.” The Church was still very much in the boy when he wrote his great Requiem.

Any particular work by Delius praising nature that you like?
 
*John Rutter, to the best of my knowledge, is not a believer. I don’t know that he is an “atheist” in the traditional sense, though. *

Seems doubtful, doesn’t it, since he’s made quite a career of recording Christmas music?
 
Charlemagne_II said:
*John Rutter, to the best of my knowledge, is not a believer. I don’t know that he is an “atheist” in the traditional sense, though. *

Seems doubtful, doesn’t it, since he’s made quite a career of recording Christmas music?
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Not only Christmas music, but other sacred music as well. His Gloria, for example. But in an interview he gave on 60 Minutes some years ago, he described himself as “not particularly a religious man, but he is inspired by the spirituality of sacred verses and prayers.”

Sad, actually.
 
Hispaniarum

But not only sacred music, too a lot of songs that are not specifically religious. Every humans have something inside that could have the enough sensivity to be in touch with God. Of course, that is like faith. If you don’t have it fitted, you’ll never be “conected” to God…

This is true. Even the atheist unconsciously reaches out to God when he sings the praises of Nature, which reflect the glory of God.
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Here are three versions of Mozart’s “Ave verum Corpus” for those of you who missed them on the previous page:

Accompanied by visuals and translation:

youtube.com/watch?v=OY5Bg6Nk6Gc

Leonard Bernstein’s version of “Ave Verum Corpus.”

youtube.com/watch?v=6KUDs…eature=related

A version sung by the tenor Bocelli at Pavarotti’s funeral Mass.

youtube.com/watch?v=PL69Z0Ru5Z0&feature=fvw
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The first link is particularly excellent with the beautiful sacred art–another “Way to Find God”, I would think. At least, the visual art with the music was heavenly. The second and third link didn’t connect right on my computer. 🤷

God bless!
4Horsemen
 
4Horsemen

The first and third still work for me. Possibly the Bernstein piece has been removed?
 
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