Three Paths to Sacred Music

This is a beautiful article by Jeffrey Tucker (Editor of Sacred Music by CMAA) on how people fall in love with Gregorian chant music. You will love this article.

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2008/11/three-paths-to-sacred-music.html

After I read his article above, I happen to meet a priest (at the Mass in Our Lady Center in Ellicott city) last week who was just like the one described in the article. So, the following is my own that I posted in CMAA forum.

Today, I met the same old priest you mentioned in your article. The one who sang chants alone at the altar and converted you, Jeffrey. This got to be the same priest. His pitch and melody got off here and there. But there was something so holy and beautiful... made me cry. I think his singing was so sincere and honest, nothing to pretend and overdo, in front of God, I was so moved. He wasn't singing for himself nor for the others in the pew. He was singing only to glorify Him and express his joy and love for Him. If our church choirs can sing like that sincerely, I think we can convert many people, including catholics. Also if the congregation sings like that, isn't that the true 'active participation ?" Chant teaches humility, Christ's humility, to musicians and the catholics. Without that humility, we cannot truly love God and others. If we are just to be nice to others, maybe Christ didn't have to come and die for us. (By the way, our pirest said that ' nice' means 'know nothing') Chant is beautiful for many reasons. I think one of them is it's because it's humble as Christ is. I thought I converted to catholicism 20 years ago. I'm becoming a true catholic since I started to sing chants last year.