The 5 Senses of the Catholic Faith: Sound and the Volume of Praise
- Abby Thomas
- 6 minutes ago
- 3 min read
When my daughter Rosie was a few months old, I was asked to lead Praise and Worship for a youth Adoration night! Given that my daughter was normally super chill, I was convinced the night would go smoothly. I brought my sister, Maggie, along just in case Rosie needed support, but I figured she would be content in the car seat at my feet.
Well, the night was far from chill.
After the first few songs, Rosie began squawking in her car seat. Because I was in the middle of a song and playing my guitar, I made eye contact with Maggie who swooped in and brought Rosie out of the sanctuary. But the farther they got from the church, the louder Rosie seemed to cry. Poor Maggie pulled out all the stops in an attempt to comfort the little baby.
Eventually, I knew the only way to quiet my girl was to put my guitar down and give the youth a moment to pray in silence while I went to tend to my daughter. Turns out, she just needed a little snack! After a quick nursing session, I was back in the church, ready to sing.
Only this time, I replaced my guitar with my daughter. As I held Rosie in my arms, I led the rest of the night using only my voice, with no instrumental backup.
I began singing “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake and was immediately moved to tears as the church was bursting with the sound of praise. The words of the bridge sound like this, “So come on, my soul Oh, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song , 'Cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up and praise the Lord.”
That is exactly what those young voices did. They let the lions inside their souls roar with shouts of praise! Their voices were loud and it was incredibly awesome!
Sometimes we are called to boldly proclaim our faith by throwing up our hands and praising Our Lord, The King of Kings, the Redeemer, and the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Other times, praise can be found as a silent prayer in our hearts, meant only for the Lamb of God to hear.
A few weeks ago, I was given a rare opportunity to attend Sunday Mass alone. My husband and children were home with a horrible cough. Due to a week of coughing myself, my voice was fatigued, and it was challenging for me to participate in singing any of the songs at Mass. So, instead of singing the Gloria out loud, I found myself silently praising the Lord in my heart.
I put into my own words what the congregation, in union with the angels and saints, were proclaiming. It was a beautiful opportunity to call to mind specific people and areas of my life that I wanted to glorify God for and acknowledge His overwhelming goodness!
Praise is an essential element of our prayer. It acknowledges that God is God and gives us the opportunity to recognize Him for who He is instead of just recognizing what He has done!
Praise can take many forms. We are given the opportunity to praise as a congregation at Mass during the Gloria and the various acclamations found within the liturgy. The psalms are a great resource of praise! I encourage you to crack open your bible because praise is encouraged individually during daily prayer and, of course, through song in the many, many, MANY praise and worship songs available to us. It is up to us to determine the volume of praise!
Until next time, your sister in Christ,
Abby
P.S. Take a listen to our Catholic Country Chronicles PRAISE playlist! Leah, Hannah, and I have compiled some of our favorite praise and worship songs to help you enter more deeply into praising during prayer.
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