Justine Ward

 

The roots of singing in Christian worship lie deep in the Old Testament. Whether the victorious hymn of deliverance by Moses or most obviously the Book of Psalms, song has always been an essential part of the prayer of God’s people. As the corporate worship of God in the Catholic Church developed throughout the centuries, chant, whether or not accompanied by musical instruments, became a very important way Christians expressed intense devotion in the liturgy. But by the modern period, the congregation had come to rarely participate in the singing or chanting of the Liturgy, and one of the goals of the modern liturgical movement, encouraged by no less an authority than Pope Pius X ( 1903-14 ) , was to restore to the laity their appropriate and active role in sung prayer during the Eucharist.
One of the most active forces in the renewal of sung liturgical prayer was Justine Ward (1879-1975). A convert to the Catholic Church, she was a scholar and musician who promoted an understanding and appreciation of the Church’s musical heritage among the laity at every level, from elementary schools to the cofounding of the Pius X School of Music in 1918 at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart. Through her work at this school and her many writings and addresses, Justine Ward tirelessly promoted the work of liturgical beauty and renewal.

In an essay entitled “The Reform in Church Music”, published in 1906, Justine Ward developed the idea that church music is an art made up of music and prayer. Thus musicians involved in the liturgy must not only learn the musical arts, but also learn the ways of prayer by listening to the saints. As human beings and part of nature we need ritual, but this ritual must express the faith which lies behind it.

“In the Mass, music is not merely an accessory, but an integral part of the ritual. Words and music form together an integral whole.”1

Liturgical music then is not something to be added to the liturgy to create a sentimental atmosphere, and the forms of music which fit the liturgy “need not fit the latest fluctuation of popular taste.” Music is not a mere aesthetic exercise, but must directly contribute to help the liturgy to teach and to pray.
Justine Ward also stresses how liturgical prayer is an expression of the whole Mystical Body of Christ, not a private devotion:

Liturgical Prayer is not the expression of individual reaching up to God, as in private devotion; it is the Church praying as a Church, officially, as a corporate whole. Her prayer has a fixed form, the outgrowth of the spiritual evolution of the Church, a survival of the fittest in the realm of religion. This prayer has, first of all, dignity: it is addressed to Almighty God.2

Music must not distract the congregation from contemplating the Word of God and the Mystery of the Eucharist. Instead it must act upon the imagination in a way which interprets and intensifies the hidden beauties found in the realm of the Spirit.
It was a deeply held conviction of Justine Ward that the celebration of the Eucharist would be greatly enhanced by the active and informed chanting of the Mass by both priest and congregation in their respective liturgical roles. She felt that the revival of church music must be a “democratic and participatory movement.” As she said on another occasion:

“The desire of the church that the people should take an active part in the liturgical singingí would be pointless unless that singing were one of the essential ingredients of a full Catholic life, unless its vivifying influence were like oxygen to the body, required by each of us, whether rich or poor, talented or not–winged words of eternal life.”3
Finally, it must be said that Justine Ward did not feel music was somehow a “neutral”ingredient of the liturgy. Even the most beautiful music of the world’s most esteemed composers, let alone the merely mediocre and trendy, had no place in the celebration of the liturgy if it did not directly contribute to the task of the liturgy to raise one to the heights of the supernatural. The mere presence of hymns and cantors and congregational singing does not necessarily lead to sung prayer. There is no place for music in the liturgy which interrupts and distracts God’s people from the seriousness and sublimity of hearing the Word of God proclaimed and participating in the Eucharistic Sacrifice:
“If chant is not there to make me pray, let the cantors be silent. If chant is not there to appease my inner anxiety, let the cantor leave. If chant is not as valuable as the silence it breaks, let me go back to silence.”4

1. Justine Ward. The Reform in Church Music. . Educational Briefs Series, 1906. p. 7. Originally published in “The Atlantic Monthly”, April, 1906.

2. Ibid., p. 12.

3. Justine Ward. In Orate Fratres 1 (1927): 112.

4. Justine Ward. Spoken in Paris, 1957. Quoted from How Firm a Foundation; Voices of the Early Liturgical Movement. . Compiled and Introduced by Kathleen Hughes. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1990. p. 256.