Chapter I. On the Usefulness and Modes of Praising God

I. Praise is useful not only because through it we worship God with both soul and body, but also because through it we stir up ourselves and our neighbor to greater devotion.

"We use words," says St. Thomas, "in one way toward God, and in another way toward man. For toward man we use words in order to express to him the concept of our heart, which he cannot know except through our words; and therefore we use oral praise toward man so that it may become known either to him or to others that we have a good opinion of the one praised; so that through this we may both provoke the one praised to better things, and lead others, among whom he is praised, to a good opinion and reverence and imitation of him. But toward God we use words, not indeed so that we may manifest our concepts to him, who is the inspector of hearts, but so that we may lead ourselves and others hearing us to reverence for him. And therefore oral praise is necessary, not indeed on account of God, but on account of the one praising himself, whose affection is aroused toward God from his praise" (II-II, q. 91, a. 1).

II. Praise can be made both by speech and by song.

On the usefulness of song, St. Thomas says: "Vocal praise is necessary for this, that man's affection may be stirred toward God, and therefore whatever things can be useful for this are fittingly assumed into divine praises. But it is manifest that according to the diverse melodies of sounds, the souls of men are disposed in diverse ways, as is clear through the Philosopher in VIII Politics (chs. 5, 6, and 7), and through Boethius in the prologue of music (or book I, ch. 1); and therefore it was salutarily instituted that song be assumed into divine praises, so that the souls of the weak may be more stirred to devotion. Hence Augustine says in X Confessions (ch. 33): 'I am led to approve the custom of singing in the Church, so that through the pleasures of the ears the weaker soul may rise up into the affection of piety'" (II-II, q. 91, a. 2).

¹ Cf. Suarez, De virtute et statu religionis; Bouquillon, De virtute religionis; Dignant, De virtute religionis (Theologia Brugensis); Vermeersch, De virtute religionis et pietatis; Wirthmuller, Die Tugend der Religion.