*2.1. Word of God*

Louis Bouyer in his *Introduction to Spirituality* helpfully leads into our topic. He explains how Christian spirituality is not a ratiocinative set of logical judgments by which one figures out paradoxes like this any more than it "drowns in sentimental musing" [7]. Christian spirituality, he says, is the "awareness of a spiritual reality . . . that goes beyond the consciousness of the individual" ([7], p. 4), that realizes God is revealed in the person of Christ ([7], p. 6), and that starts with faith in the Word of God ([7], p. 7) in response to the "gratuitous, free, sovereign initiative of God" who seeks us even when we do not seek God ([7], p. 9).

#### *2.2. Musical Outcome*

Bouyer then explains the musical outcome. God as personal being par excellence addresses human beings ([7], p. 5) in the way one becomes a person, through speech ([7], p. 8). The divine Word of the Bible, definitively proclaimed and enfleshed in Christ, continues through the Spirit as the living Word of God in Christ's body the church into which the believer is incorporated ([7], pp. 8–13). This Word of God is proclaimed in the church in "a succession of living experiences" ([7], p. 33) through its reading and hearing. These call for "sacred song" in celebration, adoration and proclamation in the world to the glory of God ([7], p. 41). Every meditation of the Word and every contemplation of this Mystery "finds its goal in what is beyond expression."

The "jubilus"—that is, the musical vocalization of the "a" of the Alleluia—this, and this alone, can finally translate the ecstasy of the believing soul in the face of revealed truth, truth which is ultimately not an idea but a Person. . . . ([7], p. 43). Faith in this Word, which leads to its musical vocalization, is neither a cold judgment nor the expression of artificially elaborated sentiments. It is the exultation of our whole being, ravished in the contemplation of the Mystery discovered in the Word . . . which is essentially the gift of God [as the one] Who gives [and] is given ([7], p. 42).

#### *2.3. Common Themes*

Bouyer's is a "catholic" posture, but God as person (in the Christian vision a Trinity of three persons) who addresses human persons through the Word is a theme that accompanies virtually all Christian streams. In Philip Pfatteicher's words, "Spirituality is, first of all, always a response" [8]. Though there are minority reports, the musical outcome in celebration, adoration, and proclamation is also ubiquitous and helps to understand why the church has so consistently sung Psalms and Canticles, what stands behind Colossians 3:16 ("Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God."), why the service of the Word has generated such a hymnic feast, why the celebration of the Lord's Supper has exploded into the singing of the *Sanctus* ("Holy, holy, holy . . . blessed is the one who come in the name of the Lord"), and why the earliest singers in the church were lectors who sang the readings [9].
