It is under the emperor Alexander Severus that this young Saint, one of the most fragrant flowers of Christian virginity and martyrdom, suffered for the Faith she had chosen; to choose it was at that moment as certain an end to earthly felicity as it is a guarantee, at every epoch, of the eternal felicity of those who remain faithful to it. Cecilia was the daughter of an illustrious patrician, and was the only Christian of her family; she was permitted to attend the reunions held in the catacombs by the Christians, either through her parents' condescension or out of indifference. She continually kept a copy of the holy Gospel hidden under her clothing over her heart. Her parents obliged her, however, despite her vow of virginity, which most probably they knew nothing of, to marry the young Valerian, whom she esteemed as noble and good, but who was still pagan.
During the evening of the wedding day, with the music of the nuptial feast still in the air, Cecilia, this intelligent, beautiful, and noble Roman maiden, renewed her vow. When the new spouses found themselves alone, she gently said to Valerian, Dear friend, I have a secret to confide to you, but will you promise me to keep it? He promised her solemnly that nothing would ever make him reveal it, and she continued, Listen: an Angel of God watches over me, for I belong to God. If he sees that you would approach me under the influence of a sensual love, his anger will be inflamed, and you will succumb to the blows of his vengeance. But if you love me with a perfect love and conserve my virginity inviolable, he will love you as he loves me, and will lavish on you, too, his favors. Valerian replied that if he might see this Angel, he would certainly correspond to her wishes, and Cecilia answered, Valerian, if you consent to be purified in the fountain which wells up eternally; if you will believe in the unique, living and true God who reigns in heaven, you will be able to see the Angel. And to his questions concerning this water and who might bestow it, she directed him to a certain holy old man named Urban.
That holy Pontiff rejoiced exceedingly when Valerian came to him the same night, to be instructed and baptized; his long prayer touched the young man greatly, and he too rejoiced with an entirely new joy in his new-found and veritable faith, so far above the religion of the pagans. He returned to his house, and on entering the room where Cecilia had continued to pray for the remainder of the night, he saw the Angel waiting, with two crowns of roses and lilies, which he would place on the head of each of them. Cecilia understood at once that if the lilies symbolized their virginity, the roses foretold for them both the grace of martyrdom. Valerian was told he might ask any grace at all of God, who was very pleased with him; and he requested that his brother Tiburtius might also receive the grace he had obtained; and the conversion of Tiburtius soon afterwards became a reality.
The two brothers, who were very wealthy, began to aid the families which had lost their support through the martyrdom of the fathers, spouses, and sons; they saw to the burial of the Christians, and continually braved the same fate as these victims. In effect they were soon captured, and their testimony was such as to convert a young officer chosen to conduct them to the site of their martyrdom. He succeeded in delaying it for a day, and took them to his house, where before the day was ended he had decided to receive Baptism with his entire family and household. The two brothers offered their heads to the sword; and soon afterward the officer they had won for Christ followed them to the eternal divine kingdom. It was Cecilia who saw to the burial of all three martyrs. She then distributed to the poor all the valuable objects of her house, in order that the property of Valerian might not be confiscated according to current Roman law, and knowing that her own time was close at hand.
She was soon arrested and arraigned, but having asked a delay after her interrogation, she assembled those who had heard her with admiration and instructed them in the faith; the Pontiff Urban baptized a large number of them. The death appointed for her was suffocation by steam. Saint Cecilia remained unharmed and calm, for a day and a night, in thecalderium, or place of hot baths, in her own palace, despite a fire heated to seven times its ordinary violence. Finally, an executioner was sent to dispatch her by the sword; he struck with trembling hand the three blows which the law allowed, and left her still alive. For two days and nights Cecilia would lie with her head half severed, on the pavement of her bath, fully sensible and joyfully awaiting her crown. When her neophytes came to bury her after the departure of the executioner, they found her alive and smiling. They surrounded her there, not daring to touch her, for three days, having collected the precious blood from her wounds. On the third day, after the holy Pontiff Urban had come to bless her, the agony ended, and in the year 177 the virgin Saint gave back her glorious soul to Christ. It was the Supreme Pontiff who presided at her funeral; she was placed in a coffin in the position in which she had lain, as we often see her pictured, and interred in the vault prepared by Saint Callixtus for the Church's pontiffs. The authentic acts of her life and martyrdom were prepared by Pope Anteros in the year 235. When the tomb was opened in 1599 her body was entirely intact still.
Source:Les Petits Bollandistes: Vie des Saints,by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral; Paris, 1882). The account is based on aHistoire de Sainte Cécile,by Dom Guéranger, Abbot of Solemnes
Scripture(Hosea 2:16bc,17cd,21-22)
Thus says the Lord:
I will lead her into the desert
and speak to her heart.
She shall respond there as in the days of her youth,
when she came up from the land of Egypt.
I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the Lord.
Writings
(Year C). In the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, it is very clearly written: “The treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and cultivated with great care” (n. 114). Indeed, this text highlights that the participatio actuosa of all the faithful in the sacred action is a fundamental part of the liturgy. The relationship which was still harmonious in the Constitution later, in applying the Council’s recommendations, often developed into a dramatically tense relationship. Important circles in the Liturgical Movement held that in the future for great choral works and even for sacred orchestral works, there would be room only in concert halls, not in the liturgy, where there would only be room for the hymns and common prayer of the faithful.
On the other hand there was dismay over the cultural impoverishment of the Church, which would necessarily arise from this. How could the two things be reconciled? How could the Council’s provisions be implemented fully? These questions were being asked me and many other faithful, by simple people as well as by those with theological training.
At this point perhaps it is fair to ask the basic question: What, in fact, is music? Where does it come from and to what does it aspire? I think that one can identify three “places” from which music flows. One of its primary wellsprings is the experience of love. When people are seized by love, another dimension of being opens to them, a new magnitude and scope of reality. It also impels them to express themselves in a new way. Poetry, song and music in general arise from being struck in this way, from this opening to a new dimension of life. A second origin of music is the experience of sadness, being touched by death, by sorrow and by the abyss of existence. In this case too, new dimensions open up in the opposite direction, new dimensions of reality which can no longer find answers in words alone. Finally, music’s third place of origin is the encounter with the divine, which from the very beginning is a part of what defines humanity. More important still, is that it is here that are present the wholly other and the wholly great which inspire in mankind new forms of expression. Perhaps one could state that in fact even in the other two spheres — love and death — the divine mystery touches us and, in this sense, it is that being touched by God which is the overall origin of music. I find it moving to observe how, for example in the Psalms, singing is no longer enough for man, and all instruments are needed: the music hidden in creation, its mysterious language, is reawakened. With the Psalter, in which the two motives of love and death work, we find ourselves directly at the origin of the music of the Church of God. One might say that the quality of music depends on the purity and greatness of the encounter with the divine, with the experience of love and of pain. The purer and truer the experience, the purer and greater will be the music which is born and develops from it.
At this point I would like to express a thought which in recent times has come to my mind more and more, as various cultures and religions have begun relating to each other. In the most diverse cultures and religions there is great literature, great architecture, great painting and great sculpture. And music too is present everywhere. In no other cultural environment, however, does the greatness of music equal that born in the sphere of the Christian faith: from Palestrina to Bach, from Handel up to Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner. The music of the West is something unique, which has no equal in other cultures. This should make us think.
Of course Western music goes far beyond the religious and ecclesial realm. Nevertheless, its deepest source can be found in the liturgy in the encounter with God. In the works of Bach, for whom the glory of God ultimately represented the aim of all music, this is quite evident. The great and pure response of Western music was developed in the encounter with a God who, in the liturgy, is rendered present to us in Jesus Christ. I feel that this music is a demonstration of the truth of Christianity. Wherever such a response develops, there has been an encounter with Truth, with the true Creator of the world. For this reason great sacred music is a reality of theological rank and of permanent significance for the faith of the whole of Christianity; even if it is by no means necessary that it be performed always and everywhere. On the other hand, however, it is also clear that it cannot disappear from the liturgy and that its presence can be a completely special means of participating in the sacred celebration, in the mystery of faith. If we think about the liturgy celebrated by St John Paul II on every continent, we see the entire range of the possible expressions of faith in the liturgical celebration. We also see that the great music of the Western tradition is not extraneous to the liturgy, but is born and grows from it and in this way it continually contributes to giving new form to it. We do not know the future of our culture and of sacred music, but one thing is clear: where an encounter really occurs with the living God who comes to us in Christ, there too arises and grows the response, whose beauty springs from truth itself. (Pope Benedict XVI; August 2015)
Musical Selection(Ursula Vaughan Williams)
Sing for the morning’s joy, Cecilia, sing, in words of youth and praises of the Spring, walk the bright colonnades by fountains’ spray, and sing as sunlight fills the waking day; till angels, voyaging in upper air, pause on a wing and gather the clear sound into celestial joy, wound and unwound, a silver chain, or golden as your hair.
Sing for your loves of heaven and of earth, in words of music, and each word a truth; marriage of heart and longings that aspire, a bond of roses, and a ring of fire. Your summertime grows short and fades away, terror must gather to a martyr’s death; but never tremble, the last indrawn breath remembers music as an echo may.
Through the cold aftermath of centuries, Cecilia’s music dances in the skies; lend us a fragment of the immortal air, that with your choiring angels we may share, a word to light us thro’ time-fettered night, water of life, or rose of paradise, so from the earth another song shall rise to meet your own in heaven’s long delight.
Collect
Eternal Father, whose servant Cecilia buried the bodies of your holy martyrs before being put to death herself: hear our prayer for all who have died in the faith of Christ; bring us with them to share in the joy of your kingdom, where sorrow and sighing are no more. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.(English Missal)
