Just a few days ago I received a wonderful gift. It is a CD with the best wishes from a polish composer Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz. I know his beautiful music for so many years.
It was sent to me for my 25th anniversary of my priesthood. I know that you really do not know who he is, but there is a chance that on youtube you will be able to find some of his music.
It was a long time ago, when my mom took me to one of the older buildings in my hometown. I was just 7 years old. In this building I met some people asking me many questions. But after all these questions they began to play some music. In this very moment I knew that this was going to be something very important in my life. This was a day when the doors of beauty were opened for me.
Playing violin, flute, piano, and singing in choirs became the source of a deep experience --of something deeper than myself. I still remember my professor of violin who told me that if I want to play great music I have to think about God. Since then I knew that the most beautiful things that we can do are always directed to him.
I call myself lucky. I have seen wonderful pieces of art, I have heard the most wonderful voices in the world, I have participated in the beautiful concerts sitting and listening to masterpieces of the music art. It was in seminary when I heard for the first time Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz. He composed the Ludźmierskie Vespers. I remember this evening. It was in a cathedral in Pelplin. All the lights were off and in the middle of this darkness came a wonderful soprano of Elżbieta Towarnicka: Mother of God from Ludźmiersk ...
Today I am looking at the liturgy of the Mass. Every so often the beautiful music is replaced by the pop sound of guitars, tambourins, drums. What happened to the beautiful music that elevated the Eucharist and helped to reach the heavens and angels? Where are those beautiful voices and classical instruments that enriched the souls of the faithful?
I am sharing with you today something that has a beauty that is over the social class, race or language.
We are called to live in beauty so do not replace it with something that comes and goes based on the fashion or market. Beauty is free from political correctness. It always shows us the beauty of God.