To Sing Is To Pray Twice...

[the_rev]

St. Augustine said, "To sing is to pray twice." Do you believe this is true.

Give your thoughts!

[willguy]

I think Augustine was getting at the power of music, which I don't think many would deny.

[the_rev]

So do you believe singing is praying twice?

[Adeodatus]

I'm sure the accurate quote (which I haven't been able to find yet) is:
"Too sing [b]well[/b] is to pray twice".

Or maybe when I'm confronted in the morning with the sounds the brethren make in choir before their first coffee, I'm just getting cynical........

[the_rev]

So if I smell of elderberries at singing, which I do, then I really wouldn't be prayingtwice?

[IcePrincessKRS]

You can chant! I think that people who stink at singing don't sound as bad chanting, and chant is a form of singing. We used to chant grace before dinner and we kids would joke that the next meal we didn't have to say greace since we'd "said it twice" by chanting.

[cmotherofpirl]

At Scouts all meals started with a sung blessing. It was beautiful and holy.

[Archangel]

I think St. Augustine was just giving some words of encouragement to ho-hum choirs so that they give it their all.

Any prayer, whether it is said, sung or silently contemplated, is music to God's ears.

[jmjtina]

[quote name='Archangel' date='Mar 6 2004, 12:26 AM'] I think St. Augustine was just giving some words of encouragement to ho-hum choirs so that they give it their all.

Any prayer, whether it is said, sung or silently contemplated, is music to God's ears. [/quote]
true.

I think my Catholic grade-school principal said it for the same reason.

[photosynthesis]

I think having a good voice makes musical prayer difficult because it can be a source of pride. Since I was very young music has brought great joy into my life and I have always been singing in choirs and choruses, with the occasional solo. Instead of playing sports, I was part of some very competitive choirs. This encouraged me to sing better and improve my technique, but I did this out of a desire to be better than everyone else and not to develop my God-given talent. Sometimes I find myself at Mass singing a familiar hymn and thinking to myself "I can sing this better than this person sitting next to me" or "man, that guy sitting behind me really needs to take voice lessons." Sometimes I'll be singing with this Gospel Choir at my college and I will totally miss the point of a song because I'm so busy thinking about diction and dynamics. When I focus on technique too much, I forget that I'm supposed to be praising God, who gave me this gift in the first place.

We can choose to use the gifts God gives us for our glory, or for His glory. I think that if you put your entire mind, body, and soul into your music and sing to the glory of God, then He will be pleased with that, even if you're off-key and your technique isn't great. But, if you've been blessed with a good voice and you don't use it in the way He wants you too, then you're not really praying at all.

[the_rev]

Thanks everyone for your input!

[willguy]

[quote name='the_rev' date='Mar 5 2004, 12:51 PM'] So if I smell of elderberries at singing, which I do, then I really wouldn't be prayingtwice? [/quote]
I think that singing well may have refered more to one's heart and disposition than the tone of one's voice.

[nikkan_hanil]

OK, here's my opinion, it only counts if the singing is liturgically correct, as in, unique to holiness: not dealing with secular things (doing it in church is a good example). I don't think it's praying twice if you are turning prayer into a funny, giddy thing like my youth group: they sometimes sing their prayers in popular music tunes (i.e. the blessing of food to the tune of Gilligan's Isle) and adding silly, senseless rhymes to it. But of course, the main objective in which you must fulfill is sincerity from the heart.

[Aloysius]

i disagree with 'to sing WELL is to pray twice'

singing prayers is praying twice if you're truly singing the PRAYER not singing the words of the prayer but really just singing Gilligan's island.

i think that if you join in you can never tell that it sounds bad. with a mix of everyone's voices singing, if youre really meditating on the words and joining in the song yourself it doesn't matter how bad everyone around you is singing.

i never quite liked the emphasis practice gets in choirs and liturgical bands... they really don't need too much practice cuz it shouldn't matter if they mess up, cuz if their music was truly bringin ppl into prayer they wouldn't even notice any mess ups.

[willguy]

[quote name='Aloysius' date='Mar 6 2004, 02:35 PM'] i never quite liked the emphasis practice gets in choirs and liturgical bands... they really don't need too much practice cuz it shouldn't matter if they mess up, cuz if their music was truly bringin ppl into prayer they wouldn't even notice any mess ups. [/quote]
Being in a worship band, and a choir, I wanna comment on this. We practice. Not as much as many other groups, but we still do. This isn't so that we can bring the attention to us. My worship band actually sets up so that the people don't even face us. We practice so that we don't mess up and impede on the worship. Sort of like if the priest in the middle of Mass were to just all out mess up, people would notice, and it would distract. We practice for the same reason, so that we don't distract people. We should be vessles that help bring them to God. We shouldn't get any of the attention ourselves. That is why we practice.