Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Canticles: Gregorian Chant and the Joy of the Gospel – Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P.
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
4.8 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
Fr. Innocent Smith’s lecture illuminates how Gregorian Chant, rooted in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, enriches Catholic liturgy by shaping Christian spirituality and expressing the deep joy of the Gospel through sung prayer.
This lecture was given on April 10th, 2025, at Clemson University.
For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.
About the Speakers:
Innocent Smith, O.P., is Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. After undergraduate studies in music and philosophy at Notre Dame, he entered the Order of Preachers in 2008 and was ordained priest in 2015. Fr. Innocent served in parish ministry for several years before completing a doctorate in liturgical studies at the University of Regensburg in 2021. After teaching for several years in Baltimore and Washington, DC, he joined the Department of Theology in 2025. His research focuses on the material and musical aspects of medieval liturgical books as well as the relationship between liturgy and theology. His monograph Bible Missals and the Medieval Dominican Liturgy explores medieval manuscripts of the Bible that also contain liturgical texts for the celebration of Mass.
Keywords: Biblical Canticles, Christian Liturgy, Ecclesiastical Music, Eucharistic Thanksgiving, Gregorian Chant, Liturgical Solemnity, Psalms Of David, Sacramental Joy, St. Augustine, Sung Prayer
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast. |
| 0:06.2 | Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square. |
| 0:12.7 | The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world. |
| 0:19.3 | To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at |
| 0:22.5 | to mystic institute.org. My talk today is called Psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, Gagorian chant, |
| 0:30.9 | and the joy of the gospel. I'd like to start with a short reading from the letter to the Colations. |
| 0:38.5 | Oh, excuse me, Colossians. |
| 0:40.6 | Let the Word of Christ dwell in you abundantly. |
| 0:44.9 | In all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, |
| 0:49.3 | in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, |
| 0:53.3 | singing in grace in your hearts to God. |
| 0:57.1 | All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, |
| 1:03.6 | giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. |
| 1:07.7 | In this letter, St. Paul sets up a triad, three different words that almost mean the same thing. |
| 1:15.8 | Psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles. |
| 1:19.8 | The Psalms, of course, are a reference to the book of Psalms from the Old Testament. |
| 1:23.9 | The 150 Psalms, mostly traditionally attributed to King David, which express the |
| 1:30.0 | whole range of human emotions. Some of the Psalms are about joy, some are about sorrow, |
| 1:35.6 | some are expressing contrition, others are expressing hope for God's mercy. And all throughout the |
| 1:42.8 | Old Testament and the New Testament as well, there are also |
| 1:46.0 | spiritual canticles. There are texts that express the beauty of praising God, as well as the desire |
| 1:54.2 | for his mercy. Hymns are another genre within the scriptures as well. |
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