Sacred Heart Chapel at Marygrove College Detroit

-A Year of Faith Journey- A pilgrimage to the Catholic worship spaces of Detroit

Sing to the Lord a new song

Sing to the Lord, praise his name

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High

Praise Him with trumpet sound

Praise Him with string and pipe

From the Psalms to the Acts of Apostles where Paul and Silas sing hymns of praise, the bible is filled with references to joyous song.
Acts of the Apostles
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them

At Sacred Heart Chapel, the organ filled the worship space with layer upon layer of sound. It was music with no beginning or end, like the angels singing continuous praise around God's throne. Voices lifted praise towards heaven and mixed with sounds of the organ. It was a moment that plays out at Catholic churches the world over. And here in the Gothic style chapel it felt medieval, for a brief moment I closed my eyes and was transported to a soaring cathedral in old Europe. 

Catholicism is filled with song and music. The ancient church sang in times of happiness and in times of sorrow, just as we sing today and we bible mentions the angels singing praise to God.

Song is both heavenly and earthly and ties both places together. We join with the voices of Heaven and sing praise to God.

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My Year of Faith journey will continue!

Saint Bartholomew - Saint Rita - Detroit

At this stop on my Year of Faith journey, I reflected on the importance of song in the Catholic worship service. During Mass we sing at both the beginning and the end of the service. We also sing during the procession of the gifts, we sing during communion and in many churches we sing the Psalms and the Lords Prayer. And why are we singing? Is it because song is so pleasing to God? or is it because our hearts are so filled with joy that all we can do is sing?

In our daily lives we all have songs that we just can't help but sing aloud to. We can't help but lift our voices when that favorite song plays on the radio while we are driving or in the shower. We sing because we are filled with great happiness. And it is no different when we are participating in Mass, we are singing because we are so very happy.

At Saint Bartholomew-Saint Rita we sang three hymns that I adore; O' Sons and Daughters, On Eagles Wings and Christ the Lord is Risen Today. Oh how I sang during that Saturday evening Mass. But the best was yet to come. At the end of Mass the priest acknowledged the birthday of a parishioner and we all joined together singing Happy Birthday- in Polish. (someone had to help me with the words, but it sure was fun)