Communio

A Reflection on the Music of the Mass

Article by Br. Angelus Atkison

Cantate Domino canticum novum; cantate Domino, omnis terra. Sing a new song to the Lord; sing to the Lord all the earth. - Psalm 95:1 -

Quid enim habet canticum novum, nisi amorem novum? Cantare amantis est. Vox huius cantoris, fervor est sancti amoris. For what does this new song hold, except a new love? The one who loves sings. The voice of this singer is the warmth of holy love. - St. Augustine, Sermon 336, on the Dedication of a Church -

Imagine it is your loved one’s birthday and all your friends and family have gathered to celebrate the life of this beloved person. At the height of the festivity the lights are dimmed, a hush falls on everybody, and a cake bright with flaming candles is brought forward. What happens next? It is, of course, a silly question, because we do not have to think about what happens next: we sing. Imagine how odd it would be if we stood around and spoke, in a casual monotone, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,” etc. It would be equally ridiculous if we solemnly chanted something unrelated, like the newspaper headline: “The Dow Jones is 33,876.97, +586.89, up 1.76%. Amen.” (At least it was at the time of writing this article, but the world’s fortunes are constantly shifting so by now these numbers are irrelevant to both the birthday party and the investor).

This example can help us understand what St. Augustine is speaking about. We sing because our love for the beloved moves us to sing; and what we sing are words given to make present this reality. If this is true of something so simple as a birthday party (though by “simple” I do not mean “trivial”- because something deeply profound occurs when we sing Happy Birthday. When we sing, we are essentially expressing, I am happy that you are.), how much more must this be true of the most holy Liturgy of the Mass, the canticum novum, the new song revealed and sung by Christ and his Church to God our Father?

It can be fruitful to consider the Mass in this way: as a song of love. Or, more accurately, as a participation in the love song of the Holy Trinity. In the liturgy, as members of Christ’s Body, we are drawn up into the eternal song of the heavenly liturgy of Christ’s total offering of himself to the Father and the constant reception of the Father’s unfailing love in the Holy Spirit. In this case the love that moves us to sing is absolutely unique. It is the love that exists before time began, the love that brought the whole cosmos into

Communio is a Gegorian Chant video series dedicated to the Communion Antiphons of the Mass. In each video the monastic schola shares the chant followed by a reflection on the melody and text and their relation to one another. You can stream Communio on our Youtube Channel: Youtube.com/kansasmonks

being and by which the world and each one of us is patterned, the love most fully revealed in the mystery of Jesus Christ’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. As St. John said, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). It is in this love – Love itself – that the new song of the Church is brought to life in history.

It is the Church’s understanding that “in the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims…” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, §8). There are many moments in the Mass which remind us of this profound reality. For example, before singing the Sanctus we hear the priest intone:

And so, with Angels and Archangels, with

Thrones and Dominions, and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your glory, as without end we acclaim…

And so we are reminded that the Sanctus – that hymn of praise revealed in the book of Revelation – is, in fact, like the whole Mass, a participation, with all the angels and saints, in the eternal song of heaven’s praise.

While most of us are familiar with those parts in the mass that are ordinarily sung, such as the Gloria (“Glory to God in the Highest..”), the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy Holy…”), the Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God…”), less of us, perhaps, are familiar with what are known as the “propers” of the Mass. The “propers” refer to those Mass parts given for a particular day, as distinct from the “ordinary” of mass mentioned above. Usually the “propers” designate the antiphons sung at the entrance, offertory, and at communion. Over the centuries Gregorian chants of passages from scriptures usually related to the Gospel or feast have developed around these events of the mass. So, for example, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) here at the Abbey we sing the Qui Manducat communion antiphon: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in me, and I in him, says the Lord” (John 6:56). And the following Sunday, the 11th of Ordinary Time, we sing a different antiphon, Unam Petii: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Ps 27:4).

There is something about the particular liturgical events which the antiphons accompany that can help us understand why such a rich tradition of chant developed. This “something” can, perhaps, be summed up in one word: pilgrimage. The entrance, the offertory, and the communion processions are each a kind of a pilgrimage – a movement that draws us deeper into the divine life, into our destiny, namely the “new love” named by St. Augustine. Because of this each procession is also a moment of change, of transformation, and of sacrifice.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote:

“A sacrifice, properly speaking, requires that something be done to the thing which is offered to God, for instance animals were slain and burnt, the bread is broken, eaten, blessed. The very word signifies this, since sacrifice is so called because a man does something sacred [facit sacrum].”

This manifests itself in each moment. The entrance procession ushers us into the beginning of Mass (and really begins even earlier, whenever we depart from our home to travel to the church) and what was once a disparate scattering of persons is gathered together as a people, in the unity of the body of Christ offering himself to the Father. In the offertory profession we bring to the altar the gifts of bread and wine – fruits of the earth and the vine already transformed by the work of human hands, and the priest in the Epiclesis (“invocation upon”) then “begs the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, so that the offerings may become the body and blood of Christ and that the faithful, by receiving them, may themselves become

As a part of our study, we look back to the earliest chant manuscripts and the lineless neumes (markings above the letters) to better understand how these words have informed the melody throughout the centuries.

Gregorian chant can be a bit intimidating at first glance, but the beauty of the prayers and music opens up an even deeper relationship with the Lord through his word. The propers of the Mass prompt us to engage with the unique nature of that day in the life of the Church. On the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, the Communion antiphon calls us back to the Magnificat – the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth – in which Mary offers one of the great prayers of praise in the Gospel.

a living offering to God” (CCC, §1105). And, finally the great culminating pilgrimage of communion, a kind of double procession in which Christ the pilgrim-king comes down from the altar to give Himself to us and we beggarpilgrims approach to receive and unite ourselves to and in Him in his eternal self-offering to the Father.

So, fittingly, the Church, over the ages, has raised her voice in song during these mysteries; the voice itself is changed, lifted, and transformed into song, becoming a literal sacrifice of praise (hostiam iubilationis), as Circuibo, the communion antiphon for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B) put it.

These antiphons, sung over the ages, are particularly suited to a “pilgrimage song,” so to speak. Unlike the Sanctus or Gloria, which are hymns at which we are meant to stop any other action and sing them all the way through, an antiphon, which consists of a repeated refrain and verses, can be concluded easily at any point whenever the procession has stopped. It thus accompanies the liturgical action and expresses its deeper reality in a kind of sung lectio divina.

The monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey have chanted English propers for years but recently, in the last year, we have begun chanting the Latin Gregorian Chant communion antiphon, followed by an English version and verses, and concluding with the Latin. For many of us though, this chant can be quite strange and new, and so recently our monastic schola (choir) began a new video series called Communio: A Reflection on the Music of the Mass. The schola engages the communion chant for the upcoming Sunday, sharing what we have learned in our practice and preparation for the liturgy. Inspiration for this offering came from our Holy father St. Benedict, who says of prayer, “mens concordet voci,“ “let the mind be in harmony with the voice.” It’s our hope that this brief preparation—a recording of the antiphon, a translation of the Latin, and a meditation on the marriage of word and music—will invite each of us into deeper prayer and awareness of the great Mystery we encounter in the holy liturgy, where the Word made flesh meets us and draws us into the divine life of God.

It seems best to leave the last word to St. Augustine, who profoundly understood why the pilgrim sings:

As we walk along in Christ, pilgrims still until we arrive, sighing with desire for the unutterable peace that abides in that city- a peace concerning which we are promised what eye has not seen, nor ear has heard, not human heart conceived- as we walk, I say, let us so sing as to enkindle our longing. All who long for it are singing in their hearts, even if their tongues are silent… - Sermon on Psalm 87

Br. Angelus Atkinson has been a monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey since 2019. Having a background in music, Br. Angelus lends his voice to the monastic schola and helps to, along with Br. Florian Rumpza and Br. Leven Harton, produce the Communio series. Br. Angelus currently serves the monastic community as Asst. Retreat Master.

In the liturgical experience, Christ the Lord is the light which illumines the way and reveals the transparency of the cosmos, precisely as in Scripture. The events of the past find in Christ their meaning and fullness, and creation is revealed for what it is: a complex whole which finds its perfection, its purpose in the liturgy alone. This is why the liturgy is heaven on earth, and in it the Word who became flesh imbues matter with a saving potential which is fully manifest in the sacraments: there, creation communicates to each individual the power conferred on it by Christ.