Listen to Sung Masses and Vespers

Last night I had the opportunity to attend sung Vespers for the first Sunday of Advent along with exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at my parish. It was a very beautiful and prayerful service. I wish that more parishes made this available for the faithful to take part in the beautiful prayer of the Church.

Going right along with that, The New Liturgical Movement made a post today about the Monks of the Monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy who have begun recording their sung Masses and Vespers and made them available to listen to for free on the internet. Here is a portion from NLM explaining:

"The NLM and the Benedictine Monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy (the birthplace of St. Benedict) are pleased to jointly announce today that, as we begin the liturgical year, so too has a new initiative begun which will make available recordings of festal and Sunday Vespers each and every Sunday as well as for important feast days of the liturgical year.

"The monks are, of course, already making available audio recordings of their daily Mass and this addition now makes Sung Vespers, in a Benedictine form of the Divine Office, available to a wider public, thus facilitating greater access to sung Sunday and Festal Vespers than has heretofore been available to the general Catholic public -- not, mind you, as it might be sung by a professional choir of course, but rather Vespers sung from within the intimacy of the monastic community and as part of the day-to-day exercise of the monastic horarium.

"It is certainly my own hope that, in addition to providing people with the opportunity to listen in each week, on feast days, or with whatever frequency they may choose, this might further inspire people to take up the praying of the Divine Office as part of their own personal spiritual practice, and also encourage priests and parishes to make sung Sunday Vespers available as part of their own parish liturgical life -- both of which were encouraged by the Second Vatican Council."

On the right side of this page, you will see a picture that links to the Monks' site with their recordings. I have listened to a bit of what they have up there and it is beautiful. It is in Latin which may pose a problem for those attempting to pray along, unless a Latin-English prayer book is available. If not, however, it is still nice to listen to while you are working on your computer or as background while you pray Vespers yourself in English. Regardless of how you intend to use these recordings, they are beautiful and I would encourage all to give them a listen!