Cardinal Sarah on Sacred Music, the Four Last Things, and True Peace
‘We are created to sing the praises of Almighty God for all eternity,’ the African cardinal reminds the faithful.
The vital importance of sacred music to the liturgy, the need for every Catholic to be watchful and prepared for the Four Last Things, and the recognition that only Christ’s kingship will bring true peace were among the key messages Cardinal Robert Sarah brought to the United States late last year.
Cardinal Sarah’s visit to the U.S. was centered around the launch of his new book, The Song of the Lamb: Sacred Music and Heavenly Liturgy, co-written with Church musician Peter Carter.
In two talks on Nov. 21 and 22, 2025, delivered at Princeton University, where Carter serves as director of sacred music for the Aquinas Institute, Cardinal Sarah underscored that at a time when, for decades, the Church’s liturgy has “too often been instrumentalized,” it is important to understand what the liturgy is and why sacred music is a central part of divine worship.
Noting that the liturgy “has become politicized” in recent decades, the prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments also defended those who have legitimately highlighted abuses, denouncing as “wrong” the fact that some Church authorities have “persecuted and excluded” these critics.
Recalling Benedict XVI’s hermeneutic of continuity between the reformed and pre-reformed liturgy and the late pontiff’s emphasis on “what earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too,” Cardinal Sarah said liturgical abuse detracts from the twofold nature and purpose of the liturgy: to “render to Almighty God the worship that is his due” and to recognize that the liturgy “is not about what we do,” but rather about what the Lord “does for us and in us.”
Through the worship offered by the Church in her liturgical rites, “we are sanctified,” Cardinal Sarah stressed, which is why “full, conscious and actual participation in the liturgy is essential.” By participation, he said he was not referring to many external actions but rather attuning “our minds and hearts and souls” to the “meaning of the sacred rites and chants and prayers of the Church’s liturgy.”
“That is how we ‘plug-in’ to, or connect with, the saving action of our Lord Jesus Christ in the liturgical rites,” he said. “This, my friends, is why the liturgy is ‘sacred.’”
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Really powerful reminder that participation in litrugical music isn't just about singing along but attuning ourselves to the rite itself. The distinction betwee what we do versus what God does for us through liturgy tends to get lost when music selection becomes more about audience engagement than vertical worship.
We have a small semi-rural Oregon parish. Our pastor is one of two in our regional area who does the Latin Mass weekly at 30 mikes away at another parish, but it has always been at 3:30 on Sunday. That tends to reduce the attendance, especially in the winter. But our local parish is still deep in the tyranny of outrageously expensive and copyrighted OCP/GIA missals. Those choir teams apparently get their marching orders from the “helpful” OCP/GIA marketing department. They saw fit to use a modern music version of O Come Emmanuel at Advent and it ruined my four weeks. And this is the diocese with Archbishop Sample who wrote brilliant letters regarding use of sacred music at his former diocese. The new bishop of Marquette took those letters and helped the diocese formulate its own reverent hymnal over five years. But no, here in Portland diocese the All Are Welcome tyranny continues apace even years later.
You might enjoy this expose about the Hymnal Industrial Complex.
https://www.lepantoin.org/wp/the-hymnal-industrial-complex/