What Hobbits Can Teach Us About Music for Mass

by | Mar 13, 2023 | Ad maiorem Dei gloriam!, Music, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

MARCH 13, 2023 What Hobbits Can Teach Us About Music for Mass MARK HAAS As human beings, we experience life through our senses. What we hear, taste, see, touch, and smell can have lasting effects on our psyche. The Catholic Mass should sound, taste, look, feel, and smell like something from another world, as it is from another world. The Mass is heaven coming down to touch earth. When you step off the street and into a Catholic Church, you should be transported to something far different from your ordinary life. Music for the liturgy should embody an other-worldly nature. It should be counter-cultural. In 2007, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gave instruction to music directors: “The liturgy, though it must always be properly enculturated, must also be counter-cultural.” (Sing to the Lord, 12) Similarly, in 2019, Pope Francis spoke about liturgical music: “[Liturgical music] is not just any music, but holy music…Above all, clearly distinct and different from that used for other purposes.” Liturgical music, at its best, expresses a beauty that draws us out of our current time/space/culture/etc. This music can lift us toward God, Who is outside of time and space. Such music nudges the spirit to...