Pray Twice

This morning my parish chanted Morning Prayer, finishing up the Triduum.

I just love this so much. I wish I could do it every day. I am not much of a prayer in community guy. I always feel I am reciting more than praying or that I am less focused. Chanting the morning prayer in community feels significantly different for me, where I can linger more on the words of the Psalms.

While there is no evidence that St. Augustine wrote/said, “He who sings, prays twice!”, that does not disprove the aphorism. From his other writings, I think he would have approved of the meaning of this, especially being taught/formed under the great hymn writer St. Ambrose.

Sacred music influenced my conversion, and to an extent, this is also true of my hopeful continuing conversion. Beauty can drive us to our knees to worship God, “O Beauty, even ancient, ever new” to refer again to St Augustine.