In today’s response, which is taken from Psalm 137, the people lament the dreadful experience of exile. They have been taken away from their homeland and their place of worship by their captors, who prod them to play their harps and sing a song from their tradition. It seems that the people could not bring themselves to play one of their songs. They hang up their harps on the poplar trees by the rivers of “Babylon”. This shows the importance of music and singing for the community. What a sad circumstance to suffer exile not only from the temple, but also from the gathered community glorifying God through music and song.

Last year, I made my annual retreat at the Trappist monastery, New Melleray Abbey, in eastern Iowa. I had visited in the past and always found the chapel to be a good place for contemplative prayer. This recent experience gave me a good opportunity to make retreat in a prayerful place, and to sing some of the Psalms with the community.  The Trappists—like other religious communities in the Benedictine tradition—put everything aside several times each day to gather in the chapel for liturgy and to pray the Hours. I joined them for most of these (I admit the 4:30 am vigils were a bit too early for me most days). Praying the Psalms in this way helped me reflect on the prayer of Jesus. He sang the Psalms with his disciples (Mark 14: 26), and also referred to the Psalms that spoke of him after his Resurrection (Luke 24:44).

While I was on retreat, and chanted some of the Psalms and prayers with the community, I was struck by the bond of music and prayer we have with our ancestors across the ages. And if we consider the Psalms, we see that they are filled with reference to music and song, as well as the instruments used by the community in the temple. It must have been an amazing experience to enter the temple thousands of years ago, and to hear—and sing—the songs of the community at prayer. Even more amazing, to my mind, is the notion of singing a “new song” to the Lord (as noted in Psalms 96 and 149). What might that have been like, to hear a new song with the community at prayer? I returned to my ministry after retreat with a deeper appreciation for the music and song that enriches our prayer and liturgy. What a gift we have to gather together and glorify God in song!