Overview

Description: The Choir of Christ the King studies, rehearses, and performs a wide breadth of sacred music, with the aim to elevate and make more noble the celebration of Mass. The choir gives Gregorian Chant pride of place. The members of the choir rehearse weekly and serve at the 5:30 PM Mass on Sundays in the Fall and Spring, with a Summer and Winter break. 

What the Church Says

“As a manifestation of the human spirit, music performs a function which is noble, unique, and irreplaceable. When it is truly beautiful and inspired, it speaks to us more than all the other arts of goodness, virtue, peace, of matters holy and divine. Not for nothing has it always been, and will it always be, an essential part of the liturgy.” 

- Saint Pope John Paul II (1989)

“Sacred music is a necessary and integral part of the solemn liturgy [whose purpose is] the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.” 

- Sacrosanctum Concilium (Vatican II, 1963)

“The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy...Therefore sacred music is to be considered the more holy in proportion as it is more closely connected with the liturgical action, whether it adds delight to prayer, fosters unity of minds, or confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites.” 

- Sacrosanctum Concilium (Vatican II, 1963)

“The liturgy is inherently linked to beauty:  it is veritatis splendor. . . . Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation.”

- Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, (2007)

“The beauty of the liturgy . . . more than anything else it deserves to be called the splendor of the truth. It opens to the small and the great alike the treasures of its magnificence: the beauty of psalmody, sacred chants and texts, candles, harmony of movement and dignity of bearing. With sovereign art the liturgy exercises a truly seductive influence on souls, whom it touches directly, even before the spirit perceives its influence.”

- Dom Gerard Calvet, OSB (1927-2008)

“Provision should be made for at least one or two properly trained singers, especially where there is no possibility of setting up even a small choir. The singer will present some simpler musical settings, with the people taking part, and can lead and support the faithful as far as is needed. The presence of such a singer is desirable even in churches which have a choir, for those celebrations in which the choir cannot take part but which may fittingly be performed with some solemnity and therefore with singing.” 

- Musicam Sacram, Instruction on Music in the Liturgy (Vatican II, 1967)