Choir

Devotions for Catholic Musicians

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In the Old Testament of the Bible, God’s people were praising Him through their dancing, playing, and singing. A lot. Their devotion was shown through prayers with a song. If singing is praying twice, these people had it down pat.

I think it’s no secret about the power of music in people’s lives.

Music Has A Way of Taking Over…

If you can believe it, Americans spend about 32 hours/week listening to music. Wow! For us church musicians, that often involves listening and preparing our church music. But have you ever thought about using a devotion or prayer to prepare for Sunday Mass?

It hasn’t much crossed my mind, until lately. I think about all the saints who must have been musicians and think about the prayers that might be available for faithful musicians to utter before they sing for their Lord in the Mass. I bet the list is longer than I think.

So here goes: what I found on Catholic prayers and devotions to music-related ideas. And a few non-related music ideas.

Catholic Devotions for Musicians

There are literally so many resources out there for any person trying to find a good devotional. To me, devotions don’t have to be just a daily reading and prayer combination or a reflection on certain Scriptures. A lot of them are.

However, I see a devotion the way the Church sees it. The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults* states:

Devotional prayer refers to the numerous forms of personalized prayer that have grown up outside, but complimentary to, the liturgical prayer of the Church. These devotions include the rosary, the Stations of the Cross; pilgrimages to shrines in the Holy Land and Rome, Marian shrines, and those dedicated to the saints; novenas, litanies; and similar expressions of faith. -USCC for Adults, pg 509

That puts an entirely new and huge realm of what is possible with devotions, doesn’t it?

Popular Devotions

Popular devotions can be a powerful form of prayer and a spiritual benefit to many who engage in them.

Chapter 22 of the Catholic Catechism for Adults* has many suggestions for what is most popular as a devotion.

[bctt tweet=”Devotions can be a powerful form of prayer and a spiritual benefit to many who engage in them. ” username=”SpiritualCantor”]

Here are some of them:

Lighting candles in church
Blessing of throats on the feast of St. Blaise
Corpus Christi processions
Ash Wednesday ashes
Palm Sunday palms
Novenas of any kind, but especially those to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Divine Mercy, and the Blessed Mother
Prayer groups like Cursillo, Teens for Christ, etc
Litanies
Use of icons, statues, holy pictures
The Rosary, of course!

As long as you perform these acts in accord with the laws of the church, you may practice any or all of these devotions. Speaking from personal experience, I have been blessed by many of these devotions in various areas of my life.

My Favorite Devotions

Since prayers of most kind are included in devotions, I thought I would outline some of my favorite prayer books. Most of them are small, pocket-sized and perfect for wherever you go. A few of them are bulkier and better left at your bedside table.

Small prayer books:

Handbook of Prayers-student edition*
- very comprehensive in spiritual direction, with all the normal prayers, how to examine your conscience, the power of the Holy Spirit, mysteries of the Rosary, how to pray for the dead and much, much more!
The Original Pieta Prayer Book*
- contains many excerpts and prayers from saints with close devotion to Christ himself; very intimate and powerful prayers in this books
The Little Burgundy Book*
- reflections on stewardship from the Gospel of John
The Catholic Devotional
- great little pocketbook for all of the regular prayers, as well as a few that you might not use regularly

Larger prayer books:

Saintly Support – A Prayer for Every Problem*
- this book is amazing. It includes little stories about each saint, plus a short prayer for intercession with whatever problem you are experiencing.

The book contains saints and prayers that could apply to musicians in many ways.

St. Luke the Apostle for artists
St. Vincent de Paul for charities
St. Cyril for Church unity
St. Thomas Becket for clergy
St. Quentin for coughs
St. Celia for music
St. Etheldreda for throat ailments

There are even more things that we could pray for and with. You never know when an ailment comes upon one of your church musicians or choir members. These prayers are easy and perfect for those types of situations.

[bctt tweet=”St. Cecilia, pray for us church musicians!” username=”SpiritualCantor”]

Online Devotional Resources

Some devotions you can get in your mailbox or through a daily reminder on an app on your phone.

Since a lot of us are familiar with St. Cecilia as the patron saint of music, you must know there exists a novena to her! I had no idea! Here is it over at Pray More Novenas!

Catholic Doors also offers a slightly different version of the Novena here.

If you are interested in just general devotions, you can check out these at the Daily Devotional, and Theresa Thomas does musical devotions on her website.

Prayers for Choirs from OCP – this post gives you some great and unique prayers to pray before Mass or during your choir practices.

Also, if you love researching your own, Catholic Saints has a whole directory on just saints who were musicians, as well as a wealth of information on them. Check it out here! There were many saints I had never heard of on this list.

My Favorite Online Devotions

It seems a bit hard to find exclusively Catholic devotions online, but I have recently discovered a few that are great for my time with God.

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song! — On YouTube, beautiful! It has over 8 million views!

I love Scriptural Rosaries — Kate n Mike on YouTube do a great job.

Pray More Novenas has been great for finding new novenas to pray that I never knew existed

Of, course, EWTN’s expansive selection of devotions can be found here.

Devotions That Mean Something

The goal is for you to find a devotion or two that really means something to you. If you have a closeness with the Blessed Mother, I would focus on prayers and novenas for her. If you yearn to get closer to the heart of Jesus, there are many resources for that.

I hope this post gave you a few ideas on where to start looking for devotions as a musician, or even just as a layperson looking to grow in your Chrisitan faith. That is more important than just focusing on our musicianship, after all.

What are your favorite devotions?