Music carries meaning in the celebration of the Mass

The Catholic Mass intentionally engages all five senses. People see beautiful art, taste the Eucharist, feel rosary beads, smell incense and, of course, hear the music.

Catholicism and music cannot be untangled. While music holds significance in nearly all religions, Catholicism employs it with remarkable precision and has influenced the development of Western music as people know it today.

The Catholic Church’s art patronage led to some of the most famous works of art, and not just visual art. Monks and nuns were given the freedom of time and space to create music that people sing to this day. As an example, the “Do-Re-Mi” song originated from an eighth-century hymn written by a Benedictine monk.

The Roman Missal provides the music instructions for the Mass, and in it lays out Gregorian chant as the primary music of the Catholic Church. The pipe organ is the primary instrument of the Catholic Church. So each liturgy should involve either that music and that instrument, or music and instruments that were inspired by Gregorian chant or the organ. 

“What we often call ‘Gregorian’ chant was one of many chant traditions, and it formed the backbone of Catholic musical life for more than a millennium,” said Paul Feller-Simmons, Ph.D., assistant professor of music (musicology) at the University of Oklahoma. 

“Chant structured the daily rhythm of devotion, with monks and nuns sometimes singing six or seven hours a day. Early notation, musical education, and even later polyphonic styles all grew out of these chant practices, which remained alive long after the medieval period.”

Liturgical music is music specifically written for either Mass or for the Liturgy of the Hours, like Vespers. Just like how the readings, or lectionaries, follow a prescribed order, so that all the Catholic churches in the world universally offer the same readings each day, the music performed during Mass is also predetermined, but not only that, the content of the music, the words sung, align with the message of the day’s readings.

This is apparent when it comes to big solemnities, such as Christmas, where people expect to hear traditional Christmas carols like “Silent Night,” but in fact, every Sunday of the year is its own feast with music written specifically for that day.

On the continuum of music in the Church, Nolan Patrick Reilly, director of music and organist at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, said, “We are a Church that believes that the Communion of Saints is present at every Mass. We draw deeply from our ancestral history, and it’s important that we continue to incorporate the music our ancestors wrote. It gives me chills to realize that some of our chants have been sung for more than 800 years. Christians around the world – saints and sinners alike – have sung the very same words to the very same melodies in the very same parts of the Mass. Imagine that for a moment: your favorite saint likely raised their voice during Mass to sing some of the very same things you and I sing today.”

Earlier this year, a popular video of Pope Leo XIV chanting the “Regina Coeli” inspired the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music to launch a video series, Sing with the Pope. These short, instructional videos detail the theory and technique around certain phrases, teaching anyone how to sing simple Gregorian chants during Mass.

Music is a powerful way to not just deliver a message but to really drive it home.

A song stays in someone’s mind more than a lecture. That is why people sing the alphabet, to learn it. Singing not only supports the scripture during the Mass but is also explicitly mentioned in scripture. One of the oldest parts of the Bible is a hymn sung in Exodus, where the Israelites thank God for their arrival and safety. Singing is mentioned several times in the Book of Psalms, like in 98:5: "Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!" Saint Augustine is attributed to the well-known quote, “to sing is to pray twice.”

During Mass, a song is a prayer.

Olivia Dailey is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.

Photo: The Cathedral Choir performed during the Chrism Mass on April 15 at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City. Photo Chris Porter/Sooner Catholic.