Yesterday, my sons wanted to chat with Santa. For the first time, my wife and I stood from a distance and watched our boys enter into the full magic this season brings. This window into their lives warmed our hearts. Music was in the air!

At the kickoff of this season of music and wonder, the Church points us in another direction. She points us to a distant past, to a spiritual giant: Cecilia.

The striking pose of the Saint Cecilia statue on my desk holds a mystery only to a few. It displays the exact posture in which she was found after her heroic martyrdom. Her face veiled and throat slit. Her fingers reveal a silent profession of faith. By displaying two fingers on her right hand and one on her left, she is believed to have proclaimed the mystery of the one Christ who is both divine and human.

Cecilia is patroness of music. Witnesses watched in awe as she is sung the praises of God as she shed her blood for Christ.

Music is “necessary and integral,” a sentiment articulated by Pope Benedict XVI. Music is not a filler for worship. Music “is the liturgy itself” and opens us up to a proper expression of faith.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of Paul Claudel’s conversion experience after hearing the Magnificat at Vespers of Christmas in the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

This quote speaks of how music pervades the soul, pierces the soul to truth, and ultimately draws the soul to worship. Paul Claudel, the French poet, said,

At that moment, I understood the event that dominates my entire life. In an instant my heart was moved and I believed. I believed with such a strong force of adherence, with such an uplifting of my whole being, with such powerful conviction, in a certainty that left no room for any kind of doubt, that since then no reasoning, no circumstance of my turbulent life has been able to shake or touch my faith.

Does beautiful music not profoundly affect us as it did Paul Claudel who stood in the awesomeness of Notre Dame? Has music not calmed our spirit, allowing us to stand at the very threshold of eternity with God? In thanksgiving for this divine artistry, our praise is due to the chorus of angels, and no less to Saint Cecilia, who inspires and illuminates our own path.

I celebrate this feast day with all my musician friends and colleagues. Let us recommit ourselves to music and rediscover a deep love for God in our souls. May music form our hearts to love God deeply and to reverence him in ever person. May we sing a song of praise to God, who sang the universe into being and fills our lives with his presence.