FALL 2018 EDITION

THE PATRONS OF SACRED MUSIC WORK WITH THE AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM FOUNDATION
TO RESTORE THE SACRED MUSIC OF THE CHURCH “FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD.”
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SACRED MUSIC HAS A MISSION

A church musician is “like the master of a household who brings both new and old things out of his treasure
chest” (Mt. 13:52). We must make wise use of the musical treasures that are our heritage, so that we might envel-
op the prayers and praises of all people. Thus, sacred music has a mission. Church musicians find their “mission
statement” and mandate in the Psalms:
“Praise God in His sanctuary...praise Him with the strings and pipe…let everything that has breath
praise the Lord” (Ps. 150).
As we strive to be “all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22), we are like St. Francis Xavier, who donned the silk gar-
ments of Japanese nobility in his missionary work in Japan. Sacred music “wears the clothes” of those it seeks
to evangelize; it absorbs cultural forms, and organically develops, as it sounds forth God’s praises in its rich
and varied accents. Yet, our sacred music must not be earth-bound, restricted to man’s culture, because our
song rises heavenward.

The poet Robert Bridges observes:

“If we consider and ask ourselves what sort of music we should wish to hear on entering a church we
should surely, in describing our ideal, say first of all that it must be something different from what is
heard elsewhere; that it should be a sacred music, devoted to its purpose, a music whose peace would still
passion, whose dignity should strengthen our faith, whose unquestioned beauty should find a home in
our hearts, to cheer us in life and death; a music worthy of the fair temples in which we meet and of the
holy words of our liturgy; a music whose expression of the mystery of things unseen never allowed any
trifling motive to ruffle the sanctity of its reserve. What power for good such a music would have!”

In our times, let us bring about an authentic renewal of sacred music, by preserving the old forms and fostering
new growth. This is how a gardener cares for a plant, how Christ tends our souls, and how the Church’s sacred
music—carefully preserved—is able to surprise us and more importantly glorify God with new and delightful
growth.

Fr. Scott A. Haynes, SJC

Chaplain, Patrons of Sacred Music
Learning to sing, to sing in chorus, is not merely an exercise of external hearing and the
voice; it is also an education of inner hearing- the hearing of the heart-an exercise and an
education in life and in peace. To sing together in chorus and to have all the choruses sing
together demands that we pay attention to each other, to the composer, to the director, to
the whole complex of music and culture. In this way, singing in chorus teaches us about
life, about peace, and about walking together.
—Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

“At times, a certain mediocrity, superficiality and banality have prevailed to the detriment
of the beauty and intensity of the liturgical celebrations. That is why the various actors in
this field, musicians and composers, conductors and singers in scholae cantorum, and
those involved in the liturgy, can make a valuable contribution to the renewal —especially
in quality — of sacred music and liturgical chant...Sacred music and liturgical chant have
the task of giving us the sense of God’s glory, of his beauty, of his holiness which enwraps
us like a ‘luminous cloud.’”

—Pope Francis
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