With One Voice

Over this past summer, Pope Leo XIV gave a series of Wednesday General Audiences on Sacrosanctum Concilium , Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. On August 19, reflecting on sacred music, Pope Leo taught us:

“Indeed, music is part of the liturgical action and is not merely a decorative part of the celebration… Singing also fosters communion. It contributes to the unity of hearts, overcoming differences between people and bringing everyone together in praise of God through the symphony of voices.” ¹

In that same audience, Pope Leo noted that the Council “attributes great value to Gregorian chant, without excluding other genres of sacred music from the celebration.” ² What does this mean for us in the pews? In the Church’s liturgy, there is a gentle gradation of chant: while a cantor or choir may at times sing the fuller Latin melodies of the Graduale Simplex or ornate Gregorian chant from the Graduale Romanum , Pope Leo emphasized that when music is “intended to be sung by the whole assembly,” its melody “must be at once noble and simple, of high musical quality and easily performable.” ³

For our congregation, that means simple plainchant, as when we unite our voices in the simple chant of the Pater Noster , following the call of our modern Popes:

• Pope St. John Paul II, who reminded us that the Roman Church has “has special obligations towards Latin, the splendid language of ancient Rome, and she must manifest them whenever the occasion presents itself” ⁴ and that chant holds “pride of place” in the Roman Rite; ⁵
• Pope Benedict XVI, who asked that “the faithful be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy” to manifest the unity of the universal Church; ⁶
• And Pope Francis, who noted that when “in the Liturgy resound Gregorian chant… it is as though all the generations, past and present, were there to praise God.” ⁷

How should we chant it, and what if Latin feels unfamiliar? First, don’t worry if you don’t know Latin or don’t consider yourself a singer, and rest assured, this is not a secret push to bring back the pre-Vatican II Traditional Latin Mass! On the contrary, this is 100% the vision of the Second Vatican Council itself ( Sacrosanctum Concilium § 54), ⁸ which Pope Leo XIV has been unpacking all summer: that while our Mass is celebrated in English, Catholics around the world in the Latin Rite should also be able to pray the most foundational prayers, beginning with the Our Father, together in the Church’s universal language of unity.

You don’t need a Latin dictionary to pray the Pater Noster , because you already know every petition of the Our Father by heart (and the English is printed side-by-side with the Latin). Even better, simple plainchant is actually easier to sing than modern songs: there are no high notes to belt or tricky off-beat rhythms, just a gentle, speech-like melody. As Pope Leo XIV said in his June 3 audience:

“The rite involves us in a well-defined sequence of gestures and prayers, which can sometimes be at odds with our individual tendency towards spontaneity. Its logic, however, is not to constrain freedom within rigid frameworks. On the contrary, with the solemn simplicity of its rhythms, the rite interrupts our frenetic activities, leading us back to what is essential. We thus discover another dimension of action that is not guided by calculations of productivity, and another experience of time and space. In the rite, we experience a logic of gratuitousness, we find a pause that regenerates the heart, we recognize that we are preceded by divine grace and we learn to live in a rhythm inhabited by the Holy Spirit.” ⁹

Let your mind pray the familiar meaning of each line while your voice follows your neighbors, so that, in the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch quoted by Pope Leo on August 19, we may “with one voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ.” ¹⁰

Singing the Mass Itself: Why We Sing the Propers

How do we truly “with one voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ”? Not merely by singing our own words about God, but by taking onto our lips the very words of Jesus Christ Himself: the Word of God given to us through Sacred Scripture and His Bride, the Church. This is the heart of why we sing the Propers of the Mass.

Alongside the Ordinary of the Mass (the unchanging prayers we sing every week, such as the Kyrie , Gloria , Sanctus , Pater Noster , and Agnus Dei ), the Church gives us the Propers : the scriptural texts that change with each Sunday and feast day, namely the Entrance Antiphon, Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, Offertory Antiphon, and Communion Antiphon. Drawn from the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Gospels, these antiphons are not human poetry added onto the liturgy; they are the inspired Word of God, placed into the Roman Missal by the Church so that Christ the Head and His Mystical Body may pray with one voice to the Father. Set to simple, speech-like English plainchant in our pews, these antiphons allow all of us to sing the words of Christ together.

This is also why, when we sing the Propers, we do not replace the antiphons of the Mass with standard verses-and-chorus hymns. As Pope Leo XIV reminded us, sacred music “is part of the liturgical action and is not merely a decorative part of the celebration.” ¹¹ When a metrical hymn is substituted for the Propers, we inadvertently set aside the very words of Christ in Scripture that the Church has appointed for that moment of the sacrifice. By singing the Propers instead, we move from merely singing at Mass to actually singing the Mass. Hymns still have a cherished place in our worship after Mass has formally ended (“Go forth, the Mass is ended”) as a song of thanksgiving while the priest processes out. Within the Mass itself, however, singing the Propers ensures that our worship is anchored in the living Word of God, uniting our voices with Christ Himself as He offers praise to the Father.