Monday, August 3, 2009

Unity in our Liturgy

I think so much emphasis on “multiculuralism,” can lead to more diversity than unity and even become a distraction in our worshipping God as one community of faith. When we can worship together in our liturgy as one family of God in unity, we can also respect different ethnic groups and cultures on a personal level and see them as brothers and sisters in one family.
True liturgical music fosters the sense of sacredness of the Holy Eucharist, and any music that fosters our attitude of casualness towards the Holy Eucharis is not in the right direction of ministering the faithful and deepen our Catholic faith. True liturgical music is not about pleasing people and their taste of individuals. It is about God and pleasing Him, and when we sing the Church’s music with humility and giving up individuals’ taste, God will be most pleased, and we will receive more grace.
Aren’t humility and sacrifice what our Christ showed us in His love? If we insist on what we like and don’t like in our worship, how can we go out and show true Christ’s love?
I’d like to add the followings, not just because “the Church says so period”, but because the respect for the Church and the Pope and following their instruction is basis of my Catholic faith, and also as one who experiences the beauty of sacred liturgy through sacred music.

"An authentic renewal of sacred music can only happen in the wake of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony" Pope Benedict XVI, 2006
"The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given first place in liturgical services." (Section 116, the Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy)
"Steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them." (Section 54, the Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy)

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