272. Twelfth Tuesday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 258 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

In the Liturgy we worship God with our whole being.

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. The purpose of man’s life, the only reason for his existence, is to praise God. The whole of creation is a song of praise to God, and it should be the supreme desire that fills our life on earth and all that we do. But we know very well that we are insufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our sufficiency is from God. For our life to be clean and upright - a song of love to God our Creator -we have to turn to Jesus for help, in the Mass. That is where we offer to God the Father a sweet-smelling sacrifice, a fragrant offering, a pure, immaculate Victim, a perfect hymn of praise and thanksgiving.

Our piety is nourished by the Mass, the centre of our inner life. And our participation in the liturgical celebration links us effectively to the Holy Sacrifice. Our whole being takes part: our understanding, our will, and our body too, through the actions and gestures we perform. The Second Vatican Council teaches that our union with the Church in heaven is put into effect in its noblest manner especially in the sacred Liturgy, wherein the power of the Holy Spirit acts upon us through sacramental signs. Then with combined rejoicing, we celebrate together the praise of the divine majesty; then all those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and gathered together into one Church, with one song of praise magnify the one and triune God.

Have veneration and respect for the Holy Liturgy of the Church and for each of its ceremonies, our Founder wrote. -Carry them out faithfully. -Don’t you see that, for us poor humans, even the greatest and most noble things must enter through the senses? In each rite and ceremony the Church is helping us to learn about and contemplate the truths of the supernatural order, especially the Eucharistic mystery, the centre of all liturgical life.

Our Father’s reflections so many years ago still hold a living meaning for us. You saw me celebrate the Holy Mass on a bare altar - table and altar-stone - without a reredos. The Crucifix, large-size. The candlesticks solid, with thick candles of graded height, sloping up towards the Cross. The frontal, of the colour of the day. A sweeping chasuble. The chalice rich, simple in lines, with a broad cup. No electric light, nor did we miss it.

-And you found it difficult to leave the oratory: one felt at home there. Do you see how we are drawn towards God, brought closer to Him, by the strictness of the liturgy?

Singing expresses the love and joy in our hearts.

In the liturgy we find a way to raise up our hearts to God and place ourselves under his protection, according to the Apostle’s advice: Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus for you. The Church gives us a very human way to express what we have in our heart: singing. It is a need that we feel, because as St Augustine says, singing comes naturally to people in love, and we are in love.

I have covered the roads of Europe with Hail Marys and songs, our Father often used to say. Love even teaches us to take up modern songs when they are clean and noble, and sing them to God, our Blessed Lady, and the Work - the loves of our life - giving them a divine dimension. There are also the family songs composed by brothers and sisters of ours, often inspired by our Founder’s words; songs which encapsulate our desires and aspirations: “Vale la pena”, says one song: it’s worthwhile giving up our lives to sow the world with joy and peace. In another song we sing of the “borrico de noria” - the donkey at the water-wheel. I am a little donkey belonging to Jesus, and my joy is to work. “Me gusta andar…”: I love to walk and never look back, staying absolutely faithful to our divine path on earth… Don’t give up singing these songs, our Father told us. You need to learn them by heart. We have to sing along all the roads in the world… You will weep for joy when, at the age of seventy, you hear the young ones singing the same songs.

Singing is an expression of joy, the genuine fruit of love. That is why our life, a life of love, needs to break out into songs of happiness, as happened with the just men and women who always sang to our Father God. The Church sings to God in her liturgy, and we do too, in order to give expression to our joy. The full, ringing tones of our songs come from a heart that is dedicated to God. In the words of St Paul: Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Putting loving care into singing as an expression of piety.

The Church has often indicated that the faithful should take an active part in liturgical celebrations by singing. This is a long-standing wish of our Founder’s. Express your piety through the Gregorian chant, sung with care and dignity, he taught us from the beginning of the Work. Gregorian chant should have a principal place in liturgical acts. And we sing at solemn Masses, at Benediction and at other ceremonies.

We can use the songs and chants of the liturgy for our prayer, because they are rich in doctrine. In the Creed we proclaim our faith in God, One and Three, in God the Creator of all things, in Jesus Christ the Son of God, qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. We praise him when we sing the Gloria; we acknowledge his supreme majesty in the Sanctus; we beg him to wash away our sins as we sing the Agnus Dei. And we adore our Lord’s Body and Blood, hidden in the Sacred Host for love of us: Pange, lingua… , Sing, my tongue, the mystery of his Body and his precious Blood. We confess our faith in his Real Presence: Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, sed auditu solo tuto creditor: Sight, touch, and taste in Thee are each deceived; / The ear alone most safely is believed. We sing to our Lady every Saturday: Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy. And we raise our voices to God in the Oremus pro Patre, praying for the whole of the Work in heartfelt, vibrant unison.

The Church sings, it has been said, because speech alone would not suffice for its prayer. You, who are a Christian, and a chosen Christian, should learn to sing liturgically. The liturgy reminds us of this in one of the Psalms recited in today’s Divine Office: My song is of mercy and justice; I sing to you, O Lord. We cannot allow ourselves to fall into routine when we sing to God. Ours should always be a new song, youthful and full of hope. That is why we do sometimes need to consider in our prayer the words that we sing with our voices.

Sing! Let your grateful enthusiasm for your God overflow into joyful harmonies, our Father told us. There are some people who are in a rage when they die. With the grace of God, I hope I shall die singing. We sing to our Blessed Lady, who is with us on our way: Our life, our sweetness and our hope … Turn then … thine eyes of mercy towards us… Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.