St. Ignatius originally frowned on music, both liturgical and extra-liturgical. He wanted the Society of Jesus to focus on doctrine and teaching. Then he came to see the value of the arts in evangelization, first in Europe and then in the New World.
Wherever the Jesuits (and other orders) traveled, they brought music. They taught the building of instruments and singing in harmony. The Guidonian hand adorned the wall at Mission San Antonio in California. Hymns and sequences were liberally composed in vernacular languages. Choirs and orchestras flourished. And doctrine was taught through song.
What could be a better remembrance of this power of music than a clip from “The Mission”?
Go and play some music for the unconverted in your own corner of the world. Who knows what the results might be?
It was a great movie with a happy ending too!!!!
Too bad "Dominus ac Redemptor" didn't stick….
🙁
It just hit me that the first few notes are from the Veni Creator Spiritus.