← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 157: God’s Word and Sacred Music (2025)
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Fr. Mike examines the words, actions, music, and singing involved in how we celebrate the Liturgy. He discusses how, at many Masses, there are signs that accompany the Word of God to emphasize the importance of the Word being proclaimed. He further explains that sacred music is a combination of music and words drawn chiefly from Sacred Scripture. When we sing during the Liturgy, we are making art out of God’s Word, itself, and that art forms a necessary part of the Liturgy. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1153-1158.
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we will read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 157. We are reading paragraphs 1153 to 1158. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes some foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and lastly, you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. This day is day 157. We are reading paragraphs 1153 to 1158, talking about two different things. Yesterday we launched even more deeply into how is the liturgy celebrated? Remember it the day before. Who celebrates the liturgy? Beautiful. Incredible. Yesterday, how is liturgy celebrated? Continuing? Yesterday we talked about signs and symbols, right? That way of we communicate through signs and symbols. That's how God communicates to us in signs and symbols. To the next two, signs and symbols we're talking about are words and actions and singing and music. So today we have three paragraphs on each, three paragraphs on words and actions that we basically, here is God speaking to us through Sacred Scripture, right? And speaking to us through the liturgical word in action. And also hearing here is singing and music and the importance of singing music. In fact, singing and music is so important. The Church says that out of all of the art, out of all of the things that can help us pray, well, singing and music is of inestimable value, greater than that of any other art. That's incredible. And here's we're going to find out why later on. We well, today, in the next few minutes, before we launch in, let's just. Let's just say a prayer. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for bringing us to this place. We thank you for communicating yourself to us and Sacred Scripture. Thank you for communicating yourself to us through the liturgy and not just speaking a word from afar, but coming close to us. Thank you for revealing your face and your heart to us in the sacraments. Thank you for speaking to us as two children, inviting us to respond, eliciting some act of faith and of hope and of love. Back to you who are our good and heavenly Father. Thank you. Please just receive our thanks today that we make in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 157. We're reading paragraphs 1153 to 1158. Words and actions A sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children with their Father in Christ and the Holy Spirit. This meeting takes the form of a dialogue through actions and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but the Word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to them so that the seed of the kingdom can bear its fruit in good soil. The liturgical actions signify what the Word of God expresses, both his free initiative and his people's response of faith. The liturgy of the Word is an integral part of sacramental celebrations to nourish the faith of believers. The signs which accompany the Word of God should be the Book of the Word, a lectionary or a book of the Gospels, its veneration, procession, incense, candles, the place of its proclamation, lectern or ambo, its audible and intelligible reading, the minister's homily which extends its proclamation, and the responses of the assembly, acclamations, meditation, psalms, litanies, and profession of faith. The liturgical word and action are inseparable, both insofar as they are signs and instruction and insofar as they accomplish what they signify. When the Holy Spirit awakens faith, he not only gives an understanding of the Word of God, but through the sacraments, also makes present the wonders of God which it proclaims. The Spirit makes present and communicates the Father's work fulfilled by the Beloved Son. Singing and Music the musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this preeminence is that as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or integral part of solemn liturgy. The composition and singing of inspired psalms, often accompanied by musical instruments, were already closely linked to the liturgical celebrations of the Old Covenant. The Church continues and develops this tradition as St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart. St. Augustine said, he who sings prays twice. Song and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant when they are more closely connected with the liturgical action according to three principal beauty, expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn character of the celebration. In this way, they participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions, the the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful. As St. Augustine How I wept deeply, moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed through your Church. What emotion I experienced in them. Those sounds flowed into my ears, distilling the truth in my heart. A feeling of devotion surged within me, and tears streamed down my face, tears that did me good. The harmony of signs, song, music, words and actions is all the more expressive and fruitful when expressed in the cultural richness of the people of God who celebrate. Hence, religious singing by the faithful is to be intelligently fostered so that in devotions and Sacred Exercises, as well as in liturgical services, in conformity with the Church's norms, the voices of the faithful may be heard. But the texts intended to be sung must always be in conformity with Catholic doctrine. Indeed, they should be drawn chiefly from the Sacred Scripture and from liturgical sources. Okay, there we are. Paragraph 1153-1158. Gosh, you guys. Okay, words and actions. Let's go. Let's launch into this. I love the very first line. 1153. A sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children with their Father in Christ and the Holy Spirit. And that's it. This is what is happening at every sacramental celebration, obviously in the Eucharist, in the Mass, completely, yes, but also in all of the sacraments. I even think of the way in which the Church has asked us to practice and enter into the sacrament of reconciliation. It involves the proclamation of God's Word. At the very beginning, the priest, as he welcomes us. I mean, a lot of times our experience of it is kind of simplified, right? So it's brief introduction, here's a blessing, and then the person goes to confession. They confess their sins. But in the fullness of the liturgy, in the fullness of this action, there's always a proclamation of God's Word. And sometimes that Word of God is very simple, sometimes that Word of God is a little bit more extended. But there is the speaking of the Father, right in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, that speaks to us, a word that is meant to elicit faith. And so, of course, that always happens in every liturgy. If you've ever been part of the anointing of the sick, you recognize that the Word of God is proclaimed if you've ever been part of sacrament of matrimony, even outside of Mass, the Word of God is proclaimed. And that's so, so important because this is. If this is going to be a meeting of God's children with their Father, then the meeting takes form of a dialogue. And that dialogue happens through actions and words, right? So there's obviously the symbolic actions that are happening and the words of the liturgy. But obviously the Word of God is going to have a very, very important place. That's why in paragraph 1154, it highlights. So when it comes to the Liturgy of the Word, that's integral part of sacramental celebrations. And so there are signs there that emphasize the role of the Word of God. So, for example, typically we want to have the Book of the Word. So that's usually a lectionary, right? The book that we read from at Mass, or maybe a book of the Gospels, there is oftentimes a veneration. And if there's no veneration, what I mean by that is like sometimes it's a procession or there's incense. When, remember when, you know, the deacon goes up or the priest or bishop, whoever's proclaiming the gospel, they go up and they say, the Lord be with you and with your spirit. Everything from the Holy Gospel according to John, Glory to your Lord. And then they take the incense and they will incense the Word of God there. That can happen if it doesn't happen, if there's no procession. I've been at many, many Masses where there hasn't been a procession of the Gospel book or of the lectionary at all. But what happens is this is just remarkable. I think this is really beautiful. Is especially if I go to Mass with a bunch of priests, is that wherever the Word is being proclaimed from, like that ambo or that lectern, wherever that is, typically all the priests who are standing, the bishop, whoever is listening to the Word of God, they will turn so that their whole body is facing whoever it is who's proclaiming the Word of God. And that's just. Again, it's just. It's. It's a small thing, but it highlights the. This what we're doing. It highlights the beauty, the power and the goodness, the gift that is the Word of God proclaimed in the liturgy. Keep this, keep going in mind here. I Love this. Paragraph 1155 says this. It says that not only when the Holy Spirit awakens faith in the liturgy, he not only gives an understanding of the Word of God, but through the sacraments, also makes present the Wonders of God. So here's the Holy Spirit that helps us to understand God's Word. I mean, this is one of the gifts you can pray for right now. If you've. If you've ever said, ah, gosh, I can't understand Scripture. I just, I listen and I don't know what it's saying. One thing to do. Well, we can obviously study more Scripture. That's wonderful. But we can also ask the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, teach me. Holy Spirit, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me. Help me understand your word as yous're proclaiming. So the Holy Spirit awakens faith and gives us, gives us an understanding of the Word of God, but through the sacraments, also make present the wonders of God. And this is the thing we've been saying so many times, right? What Jesus made possible the Holy Spirit makes actual the wonders of God made present by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, last thing here, when it comes to singing and music, this is. I think this is really incredible. This is beautiful. Is that the musical tradition of the Universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than of any other art. Art. We have statues, we have incredible buildings, we have incredible paintings, icons. All of these things are amazing. But the musical tradition of the Universal Church is of inestimable value, far greater than any other art. Why? The main reason, many reasons, but the main reason is because sacred music, the musical tradition of the Church, is a combination of sacred music and words, and it forms a necessary part of the solemn liturgy. So it's a combination of sacred music. So here's the. Here's the music, here's the tune. The tune, right. But it's also the words. And typically those words are supposed to be, as it says in paragraph 1158, it should be drawn chiefly from Sacred Scripture and from liturgical sources. And so the art you're making, when you're making sacred music, you're making this art out of God's Word itself, right? So you're taking a psalm, and you're setting that psalm to music. You're taking the words God has revealed to us. Again, divinely inspired God breathed words to us and making those into another piece of art. You're using those words to create another piece of art, the musical tradition of the church. And that piece of art forms a necessary part of the liturgy. So it's not just kind of like, you know, you can have a statue in the corner, you can even have a big crucifix. That's beautiful. And it Just moves you to reflect on Christ's passion, his love for us. And that's awesome. That's incredible. But neither of those things are essential or integral parts of the solemn liturgy. But when we sing the Sanctus, when we sing the Kyrie, when we, we sing the Psalms, that is actually a necessary part of the song liturgy. I think this is just so, so important. I love the St. Augustine quote because I heard it ever since I was a kid in Catholic school and I didn't want to sing. And they would say, well, you know, St. Augustine says he who sings prays twice. So you can, you know, it's kind of a twofer situation, or maybe it's a matching gift situation. If you, if you sing that, God matches that with the gift. Keep on moving. There is something very powerful about this, the way in which the Church has asked us to utilize music, the function of music in the liturgy, and that that function is the more it's going to lift our souls to the Lord, the more it's going to bring us into contact with God. It has to have three principal criteria, and those three principal criteria are beauty, expressive of prayer. So it's meant to be prayer. It's not background music. Right. It's not background music. So beauty, expressive of prayer. Secondly, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments. So it's not meant to be just a solo. In fact, I know that there are many places that say we don't do pre recorded music here in the liturgy. Why? Because for the prerecorded music, you're just listening in to something else. Whereas music in the liturgy is meant to have the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments. So we're all meant to sing. No, that doesn't mean to say you can't have a solo because it's live, it's there, it's a member of the assembly is currently presently offering up the praise. And so the designated moments, when it's the cantor's job or the soloist job, but oftentimes it's the unanimous participation of all of us. And then thirdly, the solemn character of the celebration. And so we always want to match the, the, the, the music to the character of the celebration. So for example, at a wedding it makes sense for things to be joyful. At a funeral, it makes sense for things to have more somber tone. On Good Friday, it makes sense that our music would be kind of on a minor key. And on Easter Sunday, it would make sense that our music would be lofty, exalted. Does that make Sense. So these are some principal. Three principal criteria. And because of that, because of that, we can participate in the purpose of the whole thing in the first place. And what's the purpose of the whole thing in the first place? You know, this purpose is the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful, that God be glorified and the world is sanctified. That's what we're called, called to do. So good. What a gift. There's more in paragraph 1158 if you want to go back and read about. It's meant to express the cultural richness of the people of God who celebrate. So you have different music in the Far east, you have different music in South Africa, you have different music in the west that. Than you do in other parts of the world. And that's. That's good. It's expressive and fruitful when expressed in the cultural richness of the people of God who celebrate. And yet it always has to have that unity, always has to have that unity of the church's norms being in conformity with the Church's norms. Hope that makes sense. Uh, you guys, this is a little bit of a longer day. We had some short days, though, so let's. Let's make up for this. You guys, I'm so grateful for all of you, honestly, every single one of you who made it all the way here today. 100, 157. I hope that you're all learning. I know that. I know that. I hear from so many people who are saying that every single day, there's just another thing that God is unpacking, another thing that God is opening up in their heart, in their mind. And I hope that this second pillar of the Catechism on the sacramental life is no different. Tomorrow we're gonna talk even more about some more holy images. And then later on, when is the liturgy celebrated? But that's for tomorrow. That's for the next days. That's for future us to worry about today. I wanna let you know something. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.