Chant itself, as a musical style, is specifically ordered towards prayer. As Dominicans, we know that our exterior practices both express and affect our interior devotion. We find that singing our traditional Dominican chant throughout these liturgical celebrations intensifies the unifying effect of the liturgy in our life. (The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, consists of Psalms, hymns, Scripture passages, and other chants, which vary according to the day and the liturgical season.) Seven times each day, we return to our monastery chapel to pray the liturgy. The most important action of our life each day take place in the liturgy: offering ourselves to God in union with Christ in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and continuing this praise, intercession, and thanksgiving throughout the day in the Liturgy of the Hours. The solemn celebration of the liturgy is the heart of our life as Dominican nuns, and the chief source of its unity. The Liturgy in Our Life (or, Why we Sing Dominican Chant) The Dominicans are devoted to contemplating and preaching the Word of God for the salvation of souls, and chanting the Scriptural texts is like lectio divina in song.ĭominican Chant Offertory for the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady:Īnd most worthy of all praise, because from you arose Our Dominican chant is less ethereal, perhaps, but nonetheless beautiful and elevating. While earlier monks had elaborated the chants of the liturgy to great length, the Dominican friars preferred more succinct musical settings in order to set aside additional time for study at the service of their preaching for the salvation of souls. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers in the early 1200’s, he kept the community celebration of the liturgy as a central part of the spiritual life of his new Order. Dominican chant is the special Dominican variety of the ancient Gregorian chant, standardized in the mid-1200’s under Blessed Humbert of Romans, the fifth Master of the Order. Most people have a general idea of Gregorian chant, that solemn, somewhat ethereal style of singing Latin liturgical texts that raises the soul to God.
0 kommentar(er)
