THE BOND OF UNITY
The Second Vatican Council in the Constitution on the Liturgy added the following admonition to its exhortation that the vernacular languages should find their proper place within liturgical celebrations: "Steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them."1
Pope Paul VI has followed this trend of thought in recent times.2 He is desirous that Gregorian chant, with its pleasing melody, accompany and support the eucharistic celebrations of the people of God and that the voices of the faithful resound in both the Gregorian chant and in the vernacular.
This booklet is a response to the wish of the Holy Father. In it some of the more simple melodies have been collected which the faithful—especially on the occasion of the Holy Year—can sing together.
Thus Gregorian chant will remain the bond which, in the name of Christ, will gather all peoples into a unity of heart, mind, and voice. Such a movement toward unity, signified by a harmony of voices using a variety of texts, rhythms, and melodies, wonderfully manifests the diverse harmony of the one Church. "Clearly there is a great bond of unity," Ambrose exclaimed, "when so many different peoples sing together in one choir! They are like the different strings of the harp, yet one concert. Often the fingers of the musician make mistakes with the simplest chords but among the people of God the Spirit is the artist who does not know how to err."3
May God grant that this common desire be happily fulfilled and that the heart of the Church at prayer throughout the entire world, by its pleasing and holy melodies, harmonize with those of heaven.
April 14, 1974
Easter Sunday
1 Constitution on the Liturgy, no. 54.
2 General Audience, August 22, 1973: Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae (CIMS) October 12, 1973; see letter of John Cardinal Villot, Secretary of State, to the Twenty-Fourth Liturgical Week, Piacenza, August 27-31, 1973 (see L’Osservatore Romano,) September 27, 1973.
3 St. Ambrose. Explanationes Psalmorum, Psalm 1, 9: PL 14: 925.