To Pray in Beauty-Cistercian Nuns of Mount Saint Mary's Abbey

To Pray in Beauty

Gregorian Chant, Ever Ancient, Ever New

Cistercian Nuns of Mount Saint Mary's Abbey

To Pray In Beauty: that is the ideal of monastics as they sing the Mass and the Hours in choir. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta expressed a similar ideal in her phrase “something beautiful for God.” The beauty is not for beauty’s sake; it is for God—for his glory. It was St Augustine, that great lover of beauty, who called God “Beauty ever ancient, ever new” and lamented “late have I loved Thee!” All created beauty reflects something, however faint, of the divine Beauty, but Gregorian Chant does so in a special way, for it is itself both prayer and beauty—but a beauty that reveals itself only gradually, disclosing ever new depths and connections.

The Cistercian version of the chants presented in this recording have always played an important role in the lives of the Cistercian nuns of Wrentham since the time of its foundation in 1949. In the early years of its history, chant alone was used to provide the musical setting for the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours. Since English was introduced into the liturgy after Vatican II, the nuns gradually built up a rich repertory of chants in the vernacular, but twice a week they continue to use Gregorian Chant in the celebration of the Eucharist as well as at Vespers on Solemnities. Gregorian Chant is itself both prayer and beauty—but a beauty that reveals itself only gradually, disclosing ever-new depths and connections.