Music teaches harmony with others, self and church, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic Church ought to perform like a choir the place each member contributes his or her distinctive half to create a harmonious entire, Pope Francis stated.

Simply as how in a choir or an orchestra “one needs the others” to create concord, within the church “each person is called to do his or her part well for the benefit of the whole community,” the pope instructed choir members June 8.

Pope Francis met within the Paul VI Viewers Corridor with scores of members of parish and diocesan choirs, choir administrators and musicians gathered in Rome for a world assembly of choirs to mark the fortieth anniversary of the choir of the diocese of Rome.

Music “creates harmony” via its influence on folks, the pope stated, similar to by “consoling those who are suffering, restoring enthusiasm to those who are discouraged and making bloom within each person marvelous virtues like beauty and poetry, a reflection of the harmonious light of God.”

He stated that music is a “universal and immediate language that has no need for translations nor conceptual explanations.”

Partaking with music helps folks develop a way of consideration by “elevating their emotions, feelings and thoughts, taking them beyond the whirlwind of haste, noise and a merely material view of life,” Pope Francis stated.

The pope extolled music as a method of serving to folks “better contemplate themselves and the reality around them.”

That’s why Pope Francis stated that those that make music have a “wise and calm gaze with which divisions and animosities are more easily overcome” by having the ability to modify dissonances right into a harmonious composition.

The pope praised liturgical choirs as “repositories of art, beauty and spirituality,” and urged the choir members to not let their minds be polluted by ambition, jealousy and division, which he stated make the group lifetime of a choir “sad and heavy.”

To fight such a bent, the pope inspired them to “keep up the spiritual tenor of your vocation with prayer and meditation on the word of God,” telling the choir members to take part within the liturgies they carry out “not only with your voice but also with your mind and heart.”

By enthusiastically residing out the content material and message of their music day by day, their performances might more and more turn into a “happy elevation of the heart to God,” the pope stated.