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    • Feb 13
    • 19 min read

Music and Faith

Updated: 16 hours ago




A Message from the Editor


Psalm 95 reminds us to.“Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; ... Let us come before him with a song of praise, joyfully sing out our psalms.“

Music connects us to our soul and to God. We hope that the interviews and articles in this issue will enhance our understanding of Music and Faith.


Profiles in Catholicism is now featured in 69 countries thanks to Eileen Quinn Knight’s interview with Father Vladimer Zabyshnyi in Finland.


Please join us in praying for Alexei Navalny and the Russian people

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Special Prayer


It is sweet music to the ear to say: I honour you, O Mother! It is a sweet song to repeat: I honour you, O holy Mother! You are my delight, dear hope, and chaste love, my strength in all adversities. If my spirit that is troubled and stricken by passions suffers from the painful burden of sadness and weeping, if you see your child overwhelmed by misfortune, O gracious Virgin Mary, let me find rest in your motherly embrace. But alas, already the last day is quickly approaching. Banish the demon to the infernal depths, and stay closer, dear Mother, to your aged and erring child. With a gentle touch, cover the wary pupils and kindly consign to God the soul that is returning to him.

by Pope Leo XIII


A Prayer for the Murdered Children in Oklahoma


The death of children is the greatest sorrow and loss to humanity Lord. Help us all to be inspired by your words and example to always guard and protect children everywhere. Bring your words to the minds and hearts of everyone that children are most important in your Kingdom of justice and love, they need our care and protection.

May justice be done for the child victims of violence in Muskogee, Oklahoma they died through anger and thoughtless violence, may the children find peace in your presence.

May the perpetrator be brought to justice and be prevented from ever again harming anyone especially children. May he repent and do penance and find forgiveness.

Give us the wisdom and knowledge to bring peace and reconciliation and remove guns and weapons from our communities so we can live in safety and peace.

In your name Lord Jesus. Amen by Father Shay Cullen Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer for Murdered FBI gents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger


God of abundant life,

give the fullness of life to

Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger

who died defending our lives.

Console and protect their families.

Keep all law enforcement agents in your care.

Renew us in our appreciation and gratitude

for all those who serve us so generously. Amen

by Father Louis Cameli Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer for Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga

Good and gracious God,

We come to you today to ask for your assistance -the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa said on Thursday that Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga has tested positive for COVID-19 and is “stable and recovering” at a local private clinic. He also has the underlying condition of diabetes. Please ask all the people of Honduras to storm heaven and ask for the Cardinal's release from this disease. As the Cardinal of Honduras and as working at the Vatican in government we ask you Lord to bless him and help him resume his duties. By his priesthood, he shows his devotion to you, O Lord, and ask that you assist him in his recovery and return him to the aspects of Church work that he has so readily done in the past and is willing to do with the help of the Holy Spirit in the future. We ask you this through the intercession of St. Joseph and all our saints through Christ Our Lord Amen.. by Eileen Quinn Knight, Ph.D. Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer for All Those Who Have Died in the Indian Himalayas Glacier Disaster


Dear Lord!

Many thanks to your love who is protecting and guiding all people every day.

Even though you lead us, we are separated from you by our sins and suffer many problems. So protect us and hold us with your hand. Dear Jesus, I beseech you for all the souls who died in the avalanche. We pray for the eternal rest of these souls in the divine sanctuary. We can feel the pain of every family that has died. I urge you to embrace and protect every family. I ask you to protect the people from the natural disasters hat befall the world, to turn away from their sins, and to give them grace to walk in a pure way. Forgive the sins of people who do not deserve your mercy and protect them. We beseech you to protect all lives in your warmth. by Alwinrex Lazer Alphonesal Profiles in Catholicism


A prayer for the protection of Alexei Navalny and the Russian people


In the Service of the Truth (Part II)


Dear Mary, chaste spouse of Joseph and Mother of the Lord,


Among the people of today there is the stirring of a change,

Many are coming out onto the streets and many are standing,

Willing to be taken, without knowing exactly where, but away.


Many are rising out of slipping shackles, unbuckling fears:

Temper the divide between standing out and resisting, recover

Our common humanity concealed under gladiatorial clothes.


Mother of mothers, be with the families of all, whether detained

Or waiting, whether young or old, softening with listening

The rejection of change changing us into impersonal forces.


Dear Joseph, chaste spouse of Mary and foster-father of the Lord,


Stand with either side, siding with the sensitivity to speak the truth,

Working for transparent government and the opening of closed Doors, sparing brothers and sisters from the blows of brutalization.


Help us build between differences, recognizing any good to be

Shared, any desire to help, any actual helping to hold back the

Unhelpful harm and open up the damned up helping to do good.


Foster-father, unfold your chaste care of all, leaving no one aside,

Turning all to go beyond today, touching the coming of tomorrow,

Wherein sacrifice and pain are blessed into blossoming change.


Dear Lord, son of Mary and adopted child of Joseph,


Take the witness of a few as a witness to be multiplied many times,

Whether by one voice calling across the world or many people

Manifesting a witness to the winter’s ending the freezing of hope.


Move among us, melting through forgiveness, bitterness and regret, Disappointment, and revenge, gradually, gently, opening the Clenched fist, releasing reconciliation and renewal among us.


Son of the Father, show us your love in the hidden places of hurt,

Healing the way forward to begin again and again the slow walk

To where our paths come to take us together, together forward.


Oh Holy Family among us, common ground between us, grant us

The grace to rediscover the freedom to speak the truth in love and

To unite in untying the bonds of blanket silence or persecution.


Oh Holy Mother Church, ring out your appeals to the Father of

Mercies, the Mother of all helps, the leavening love we all need

And give us the inspiration to transform wrangling into justice.


Oh Blessed Trinity, origin of all gifts given to all for the good of all,

Give us the guidance that opens our hearts, our families and our Nations to the good of all, embracing all and rejecting no one.

by Francis Etheredge Profiles in Catholicism


A Quote to Remember


“Whether it is Bach or Mozart that we hear in church, we have a sense in either case of what gloria Dei, the glory of God, means. The mystery of infinite beauty is there and enables us to experience the presence of God more truly and vividly than in many sermons. But there are already signs of danger to come. Subjective experience and passion are still held in check by the order of the musical universe, reflecting as it does the order of the divine creation itself. But there is already the threat of invasion by the virtuoso mentality, the vanity of technique, which is no longer the servant of the whole but wants to push itself to the fore. During the nineteenth century, the century of self-emancipating subjectivity, this led in many places to the obscuring of the sacred by the operatic. The dangers that had forced the Council of Trent to intervene were back again. In similar fashion, Pope Pius X tried to remove the operatic element from the liturgy and declared Gregorian chant and the great polyphony of the age of the Catholic Reformation (of which Palestrina was the outstanding representative) to be the standard for liturgical music. A clear distinction was made between liturgical music and religious music in general, just as visual art in the liturgy has to conform to different standards from those employed in religious art in general. Art in the liturgy has a very specific responsibility, and precisely as such does it serve as a wellspring of culture, which in the final analysis owes its existence to cult.”

by Pope Benedict XVI


Music Interviews

Non-Music Interviews

Music Articles/Commentaries

General Articles/Commentaries

Featured Report

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Book Reviews/Commentaries

Film Reviews/Commentaries

Television Reviews/Commentaries

Feasting with the Saints

Videos


Panis Angelicus


Modeh Ani – Legendado


Break forth into Joy, Robert Starer, The Zamir Chorale of Boston

Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah


Praying at the Piano - Paulist Fr. Ricky Manalo

Ave Maria - Marco Lo Russo Coro Voces del Mar OEPV Made inItalyconcert Teatro Vallarta Mexico 2018

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