All Catholic families struggle to pray more.
We get stuck wondering things like: should I pray at night? What should I pray? Which songs should we sing? Do I actually have to pray the rosary every day? (Spoiler alert: you don’t!)
When you’re unsure what to do, it’s hard to move forward and get praying!
The good news is, you can easily bring order to the chaos by planning your family’s daily Catholic music routine in advance. And that’s exactly what I’ll be helping you do.
In this post, I’ll define what a music routine for Catholic families even is and provide 3 ideas for prayer through song during the day with your family. I hope that this musical roadmap helps you kickstart your family’s daily musical prayer routine and focuses your hearts and minds on Our Lord.
What is the perfect approach for your daily musical prayer routine?
And what does that even mean?
A daily Catholic musical prayer routine involves incorporating sacred and devotional music into the family’s daily prayers.
This could include:
- singing chant from the Mass
- traditional hymns
- listening to religious songs
- participating in musical worship during daily devotions, such as the Liturgy of the Hours or praying the Rosary.
The goal of incorporating music into your prayer routine is to deepen your connection with Our Lord, Jesus, through the uplifting and transcendental power of music.
There are 3 types of musical prayers you can add to your family’s daily routines. (The best part is, incorporating music into prayer aids in memorization AND makes it more enjoyable!)
Musical Prayer #1– A Scoop of the Sacred
Catholic sacred music refers to the music specifically composed for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass usually in the form of Gregorian chant or polyphony (classical harmonic music with text relating back to the Mass).
Singing sacred music at home is a crucial component in your daily routine because familiarizing your family with the style and form of divine music increases comfort during the Mass and helps kids especially to participate more purposefully.
Many people who are new to singing Catholic music at home start out on the right track but then get stuck because they don’t know where to start. After all, there is THOUSANDS of years of beautiful music to choose from!
Oftentimes, parents who wish to instill a routine of singing Catholic music with their family daily get overwhelmed by choosing where to start and then abandon the project altogether.
But that overwhelm is not a required step!
The key to perfecting your daily Catholic music routine is to start simple.
I recommend you start with a piece of authentic Catholic sacred music. One of the best places to start is singing the seasonal Marian Antiphon after nightly prayer! This chant tradition reaches back centuries and has a natural rhythm that changes with the liturgical seasons.
From Advent through Christmas, your family sings Alma Redemptoris Mater.
In Ordinary Time through Lent, your family sings Ave Regina Caelorum.
From Easter through Pentecost, your family sings Regina Coeli.
And finally, from Pentecost through Christ the King your family sings Salve Regina.
For more details about the Marian antiphons, I have hymn histories and singalongs in the Sing With Grace sacred music membership!
For a list of timeless sacred hymns, check out this list I created!
19 Beautiful and Timeless Catholic Hymns
Once you’ve chosen a sacred music devotion to sing every day, you can turn to a more contemporary piece of music.
Musical Prayer #2–A Dash of Devotion
Devotional or religious Catholic music includes pieces that are not composed specifically to compliment the Scripture and Sacrifice of the Mass but are still religious in nature and turn your focus to the Lord.
If you’ve spent a couple weeks trying to establish a habit of praying through music but something still feels off – like you’re not quite connecting to Jesus in a more personal and emotional way — this is likely the missing piece.
For some folks, without adding a dash of devotional or praise & worship music to their listening and singing routines, they will get bored of singing the liturgical sacred chant and hop off the music bandwagon altogether. (Unless you’re a music nerd like me. I listen to Gregorian Chant for fun.)
So how do you choose quality devotional music to add to your daily music routine?
First, determine if you love to listen to really modern Catholic music (like Matt Maher) or semi-modern (like Seek Ye First). It doesn’t really matter which era you choose for this. What matters most is that the lyrics are edifying and aren’t heretical and the melodies aren’t overly sappy and repetitive.
In my opinion, it’s prudent to check on the faith of the composer of the songs you’d like to add to your daily listening or singing routine. Before adding a song to your playlist, make sure it wasn’t written by a nut job heretic.
You want the music connecting you to Jesus to be Christian through and through to the best of your knowledge.
Try something like “What a Beautiful Name It Is” or “Here I Am, Lord.” Ideally, the song talks more about the glory and mercy of God than about what YOU are going to do in relation to him.
Musical Prayer #3–A Splash of the Season
Once you’ve chosen a sacred song to sing and one or two devotional hymns, it’s time to round out your daily Catholic music routine with the music of the liturgical season!
Liturgical Living is having a *moment* right now. Countless books have been written sharing crafts and prayers and activities you can do to mindfully celebrate the liturgical seasons the Church gives to us.
But if you’re not interested in the DIY construction paper liturgical cupcake toppers, there’s a simpler way to meditate upon the liturgical seasons–listening to relevant Catholic music!
Of course, this requires you to know hymns or songs that coincide with saints’ feast days and solemnities. If you don’t want to endlessly Google new seasonal songs, I’ve created a program to bring you a new hymn or song every week: Sing With Grace!
Sing With Grace is a membership with weekly click-and-go audio lessons delivered directly to your device.
Learn in the car. Learn at the breakfast table. Learn on the way to your kids second soccer practice of the week that you may or may not regret signing him up for.
Sing With Grace helps Catholic families establish a daily Catholic music routine by bringing beautiful music and singalongs to your device without any fuss.
I also just released an Advent Lullabies Album on Spotify and iTunes!
Putting it All Together for Your Perfect Daily Catholic Music Routine
There you have it! The 3 components of your perfect daily Catholic music routine. A sacred song, a devotional song, and a seasonal song!
It may sound like a lot, but like most things in life, practice makes perfect. Just focus on singing each song once per day.
This will help you pray without ceasing and even help you start to memorizing these hymns!
Just pick a time of day to sing all three, or spread it out before breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Play your songs on Spotify and tune in to Sing With Grace for hymn histories and singalongs!
Commit to bringing Catholic music into your life every day, and witness the edification and peace brought into your house!
Grace
Howdy, I’m Grace! I'm a Catholic music educator and voice teacher in Fort Worth, TX. Every week I share a podcast teaching Catholic kids sacred music--want to learn more? Try Sing With Grace for free today!