From the fourth century on, Catholic worship services have been called the “liturgy of the hours” or “canonical hours” and there were eight services throughout the twenty-four hour day.
Vatican II, the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church changed the number services from eight to seven.
Catholic churches in the world do not usually offer all seven services, but you will find the seven services celebrated in the convents and monasteries around the world.
In fact, Vatican II significantly changed the liturgy for churches around the world.
Now, in Europe, there was one particular monastery whose religious calling was to sing every service. Their entire liturgy was in song; there was no talking only singing.
Vatican II offered them the option to speak the liturgy instead of singing it. After hundreds of years of singing their “liturgy of hours” these monks quit singing and began speaking their liturgy. At first, there wasn’t much difference in the monastery; everything went along as usual. But after a few months the monks began to get sick. Their overall health began to decline; pain, illness, allergies, chronic conditions began to appear where there were no problems before. After a while one of their doctors suggested it might have something to do with their singing, or specifically, their decision to stop singing their liturgies.
While it seemed like a silly diagnosis, or observation, out of desperation they decided to sing again.
You know what? all their recent medical problems disappeared. It seems that when they sang they were much healthier than when they didn’t sing.
Recent scientific studies show that those who sang regularly in choral groups not only had improved lung function and reduced stress and tension, but they believed their social, emotional, and spiritual lives were improved from singing.
Singing is not only good for the soul; it is good for the body.
Scholars believe that singing, chanting, or some kind of melodic expression has been a part of humankind’s worship since the beginning.
We see Miriam and her brothers Aaron and Moses singing and dancing after they escape the Egyptians and that was over 4,000 years ago.
There was a time in our country during the middle part of the twentieth century when there were a lot of revivals and people flocked to those because they were filled with hymn singing. Today, there are praise churches in America who start singing an hour before the service begins, because the singing brings them to a spiritual place they would not otherwise experience.
A few weeks ago there was an article in the Washington Post that measured sound around the city, and they discovered that a large Black praise church in northeast Washington that had thousands of members had higher noise decibels than a Washington Redskins football game.
These churches that sing a lot are Black churches, White churches, and integrated congregations and many of them are growing by leaps and bounds.
However, ministers of mainline churches, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, United Church of Christ, and the Unitarian Universalists will tell you that if the service is scheduled as a “hymn singing service,” the attendance will be lower than average that Sunday.
One more observation in the research shows that mainline churches which do not sing a lot are generally not growing either.
What is the difference between those churches that are growing and those that are generally not growing?
The singing.
When congregations intentionally create a worship environment that “sings to God,” there is joyous, worshipful experience.
And the key word here is joyous. When we have a joyous, Sunday-morning experience, we connect—with God and each other.
I am not saying I believe we ought to install video screens and start displaying the hymns at the front of the chancel.
What I am saying, is that singing, brings many benefits to individuals and to congregations. It is a part of worship that has existed as long as humans have worshipped.
We need to recognize that “singing to God” may be one of the most important rituals of our worship experience.