Reason is only capable of speaking; it is love that sings. Raise yourself up by your soul, by your heart, by your desires; lift yourself to the height of the ideal itself, which soars above the work of art, above the melody, and the text. Begin again, seek excellence, reach perfection, and when you have reached it, you will discover that there is still something higher that you hadn’t even imagined in your first idea of perfection. So lift yourself higher! The summit of art is reached the moment it is forgotten; it is the melody, saturated with prayer, with supplication, permeated with joy and exaltation.

Dom Mocquereau (1849-1930)
Benedictine

“For all those who know Dom Mocquereau only by his books, only by the reputation of his learning and his genius, it was truly surprising to get to know him in real life. Humble, kind, and as simple as a child, he had attained the wonderful simplicity that is the mark of both genius and holiness. He kept none of his riches for himself; when he accepted someone as a student, he would give them the best of what he had, the purest of the gold out of the treasures he had within. Having been privileged to witness him in action, who could ever forget this great man’s infinitely graceful and eloquent hand movements which he had invented to trace out the lines of the melodies, or his gentle, slightly trembling voice, which was nevertheless perfectly on pitch even to the end of his life, as he sang the chant with less vibrance on account of his old age, but with such gentleness on account of his holiness.”

Justine Ward (1879-1975)
American Teacher, studied at the Breary School in New York, founder of the Ward Method and the Dom Mocquereau Foundation. Pius X’s Motu Proprio persuaded her to devote her life to the apostolate of sacred music.