Educational Resource
Catechetical Sunday Resource: Music and the Proclamation of God's Word (2009)
Music has long played an important role in the life of the Church, especially in proclaiming, praying, and responding to the Word of God. The bishops who gathered at the Second Vatican Council recognized the intimate connection between word and music, declaring that the Church’s musical tradition is of preeminent value because “as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy” (Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy [Sacrosanctum Concilium], no. 112, in Vatican Council II: Volume 1: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, new rev. ed., ed. Austin Flannery [Northport, NY: Costello Publishing, 1996]).
Music Proclaims the Word: Music provides a powerful vehicle for the proclamation of the Word of God, particularly in the celebration of the liturgy. Although it is not currently a common practice in the Roman rite, a long-standing tradition in Churches of both East and West has deacons and lectors sing the Gospel and other scriptural readings of the liturgy.