How I Pray Through Worship

LOUISA DANIELS

Thank You For The Music

In the perennial words of ABBA, ‘Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk; she says I began to sing long before I could talk.’ I’ve always been a musical person. Some of my earliest memories are Dad educating us with all his favourite music on family road trips, from Cold Chisel and U2 to Elvis Presley and Meatloaf. I’ve also always been Catholic, and music has always been connected to faith for me. I got involved in music for Mass at a young age, mostly so I could sit with my friends and whip out some sick harmonies. I didn’t really care about the words I was singing.

All that changed in late high school. I joined my parish youth group, and started to make my faith my own. The words I sang started to mean something to me. One night, I went to a prayer meeting that was totally different to anything I’d seen before. People were singing songs I knew, but they were more enthusiastic about it, closing their eyes and raising their hands. I was very confused – and to be honest, slightly terrified – until someone I knew explained to me that what was happening was a different kind of prayer, commonly referred to as ‘worship.’

My friend explained that they just wanted to express their love for God with their whole being, using their whole body. This helped them to focus on the words they were singing. The idea struck a chord (pun intended) with me, so I gave it a shot, and was immediately captivated by this style of prayer. Singing the words helped me to meditate on them and connect with them on a deeper level, as well as immerse myself in the mystery of who God is and what He’s done. Over the years, worshipping with music has become one of my favourite ways to pray.

Worship Is…

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, worship is ‘adoration and honour given to God.’[1] Whenever we adore God, looking on Him and loving Him, or give Him honour and glory, we are worshipping. The highest form of worship is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In Mass, God is most highly honoured as we participate in the sacrifice of His Son, the ‘sacrifice of praise.’[2] But this is not the only way to worship.

The Catechism explains that ‘The first Christian communities… composed hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard of event that God accomplished in His Son: His Incarnation, His death which conquered death, His Resurrection, and Ascension.’[3] When we sing songs that proclaim the mystery of Christ, whether they were written two thousand years ago or this year, we glorify God for who He is and what He has done.

What we commonly refer to as ‘worship’ is really just giving adoration, glory and honour to God, but doing so through music. St Augustine is famously quoted as saying ‘He who sings, prays twice.’ In his letter to the Ephesians, St Paul encourages us to ‘address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to the Lord with all your heart.’[4] The scriptures encourage us to engage our hearts with our prayer. For me, worshipping through music is the perfect way to do that.

How I Pray Through Worship

Praying through worship has become a regular part of my life. I start most days by listening to a worship song and praying with it. I pay close attention to the lyrics and really try to sing them from my heart, joining with the Holy Spirit within me, coming into union with God as I pray. I find it helps me to lift my heart up to God, and to be present to His love for me at the beginning of every day.

I also love it when my community gathers every week and worships together. When we sing praise and glory to God, whether in private or communally, we join in the eternal song of the angels and saints singing ‘holy’ around the throne of God, as described in Revelations. There’s something really special about knowing that reality when I worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

In Spirit & Truth

Sometimes it will feel like God is present, sometimes it won’t. But there is beauty in both feeling the presence of God in worship, and not. There is beauty in declaring the truth of who God is and uniting our wills to God’s, in spite of our emotions. And there is beauty in, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, allowing our hearts to burn within us in the presence of God. We are called to both. We are made for heaven, where we will worship God, in joyful union with Him, forever. Singing praise and worship to Him now is such a beautiful foretaste of that.

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[1] Definitions at the back of CCC, pg 904
[2] CCC 2463
[3] CCC 2641
[4] Ephesians 5:19