Music In Prayer

High Museum
Atlanta, GA
April, 2007

St. Augustine once said, "that a song sung, is a prayer prayed twice." So even when I am humming a song I am often reminded that I am, indeed praying the words as they run through my mind. Consider there are 150 Psalms. Early Christians recited them daily. Hear the Gregorian Chant during prayer. Music is centering. Music is harmony and discord. Music is life.

I reflected on these words by Archabbot Lambert Reilly, O.S.B. from his book Latin Sayings for Spiritual Growth.

Cantare amantis est
("To sing is characteristic of the lover")
St. Augustine

When one is in love one can't stand still and keep quiet. One must speak to the beloved. One must speak of him. And sometimes, filled with the love that is too much for words, one must sing.

The Psalms are our love songs to God. Some are attributed to King David, others to unknown figures, all of whom bring forth tin their songs all the sentiments, emotions, feelings, and desires that anyone who knows love is able to experience.

It is the Spirit who inspires the lover and it is the lover who sings the glorious dependence on the Lord God in the Psalms, the prayer book of the Holy spirit.

But I will sing of thy might;
I will sing aloud of the steadfast
love in the morning.
For thou has been to me a
fortress and a refuge in the
day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises
to thee, for thou, O God, art
my fortress, the God who shows
me steadfast love.
~Psalm 59:16-17~

So it is as a lover of God, one's music becomes a gentle offering of prayer. Voices lifted in praise, thanksgiving, petition and repentance, like incense, rise to heaven as an offering to the Almighty God! Whether gifted in voice and music or not, one should not be restrained from offering this gift. And so I say to one and all, "SING!!!"

~~~^j^~~~
Thanks be to God!