Chant

September 15, 2026

It took me a long time to decide to write about chant as a spiritual practice.

Not just because chant seems like an antiquated practice, but also because there's often a belief that chant requires a capacity to sing. As someone who has sung in choirs over the years, I wasn't sure that others with less singing experience would be open to this form of prayer.

But then something called me back.

I was inspired by the recent sing-alongs happening in the country to the south of me. Those mostly church-based musical gatherings that popped up as a form of resistance. Singing was also happening at protests and online--helping people to live more hopefully in this time of chaos and uncertainty.

When I began researching chant, it became clear that anyone can chant, no matter their musical abilities. All it takes is a willingness to be present to a word or short phrase in a simple musical context.

I'm not saying that all chant is simple. In fact, a lot of it is complex musically. But it doesn't have to be. It can be as simple as repeating one word on one musical note, over and over.

Perhaps you don't believe me. And that's okay. Perhaps at some point you were shamed by someone who decided that you weren't musical.

Even if that's the case, it's my hope that you'll at least consider chant as a spiritual practice, since it has a remarkable ability to connect us to the Divine. To centre and ground us. And this seems very important as we live the reality of "shock and awe" politics.

Chant is found all around the world and in all the sacred traditions. It has taken various forms depending on when, where, and who is chanting.

The Christian tradition of chant probably originated with the Early Desert Mothers and Fathers (2nd to 6th centuries C.E.), who recited the psalms during the day as one way that they could pray without ceasing. The first description of this was in the 5th century Rule of Saint Benedict.

I don't know about you, but I always visualize Christian chant happening in an ornately decorated monastery with robed monks gathering to sing the Psalms seven times each day.

Monks and cloistered nuns continue to gather like my visualized description above, yet there have been new understandings of chant that have opened up this beautiful prayer form to us "ordinary" folks.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen composed chant and other sacred music which is still sung by people today. In the years 1178-1179, church leaders prevented Hildegard and her followers from singing in their liturgies.

The church hierarchy forced Hildegard to defend music's importance in people's spiritual lives.

While this Medieval Saint's written defence is complex and too much for this blog, the crux of her argument was that sung liturgy carries the power to awaken and shape the human soul and its emotions, [1]. In other words, sacred singing has an ability to connect us with the Divine, awakening us to what God wants for us.

Hildegard's reflection on music in her letter to church leaders also indicated that music, in particular singing, was an embodied practice, connecting our bodies with our souls. She saw the spiritual value of our experiences of the flesh, senses, and affections, [2].

Author, Episcopal priest, and spiritual master Cynthia Bourgeault supports Hildegard's findings. Bourgeault describes four main elements of chant that can assist us in deepening our relationship with the Holy, [3]. While her focus is on chanting the Psalms of the Bible, her proposed elements of chant, and their benefits, can also be found and experienced in other forms of song and chant.

Bourgeault's first element of chant is breath. Chanting offers us the opportunity to practice conscious breathing, which is itself a spiritual practice, [4].

The second element of chant is tone, or vibration. Connecting a sound to the breath creates a vibration that can nourish and heal our spiritual bodies, [5].

The third element is intentionality—as we focus on the meaning of the chant's words, they can seep into our souls. Chant invites us to accept sacred words into our entire being.

Bourgeault's final element of chanting is community. Chanting, while a valuable spiritual practice on our own, when done communally, can assist us in getting along with others.

As someone once said, if you can't hear the person next to you, you're singing too loud.

In preparing to write this blog I've been reflecting on my own experience of chant. In the past I've chanted at church, in small groups, and even on my own at home.

Recently I've been singing along with Taizé chants on YouTube, [6]. I've even convinced my pianist husband to play Taizé chants, so that I can sing along.

It has been a nourishing, grounding, and centering practice for both of us, [7].

And I've found, like Bourgeault says, that even with just the two of us, this communal chanting practice has definitely challenged our musical relationship.

It is my hope that you too, dear blog reader, will open yourself to the possibility of chanting in some way.

Here are some online chant videos for you to listen or sing along to:

• Hildegard von Bingen, Virtus Sapientiae—O Power of Wisdom, Neumes and Tunes: https://youtu.be/zScfIqQkjUk?si=8sMAXtuOg6-jyFBx

• Taizé chant by Jacques Berthier, Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit), Chet Valley Hymns and Songs: https://youtu.be/l8yOAxWyfvA?si=6c1SHh97mG_FOns1

• Whichever Way You Turn by John Philip Newell, sung by Fran McKendree and Friends, Salva Terra Chants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3btooRmw_38

• Be Still and Know Chant: Three Minute Meditation, with Cynthia Bourgeault, Center for Action and Contemplation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCdK7PT1HFc

1. Stefan Morent, Bartholomew's Word: An Introduction to Medieval Scholasticism, Hildegard of Bingen: Introduction, The Medieval Thought Project, https://bartholomew.stanford.edu/onmusichildegard/introtext.html, 2013.

2. Miranda Lynn Clemens (Sister Maria Parousia), That They Might Sing the Song of the Lamb: The Spiritual Value of Singing the Liturgy for Hildegard of Bingen, A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, https://www.academia.edu/34718996/That_They_Might_Sing_the_Song_of_the_Lamb_The_Spiritual_Value_of_Singing_the_Liturgy_for_Hildegard_of_Bingen, 2014.

3. Cynthia Bourgeault provides an in-depth explanation of these elements, a "how to," and other important information on chanting if you'd like to dig deeper into this spiritual practice in her book: Cynthia Bourgeault, Chanting the Psalms, New Seeds Books, Boston, MA, 2006, 32-35.

4. Ibid.

5. Cynthia Bourgeault, Introduction to Sacred Chanting, Part 1, Wisdom Way of Knowing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWIHW8vWP3Y, 2014.

6. Taizé is a form of chant based on Biblical Scripture passages that was developed in the 1940s by a small group of French Protestant monastics. From Bourgeault, Chanting the Psalms, 169.

7. Michael Meade says that chant can be grounding, centering, and protecting. From: Two Paths for Healing when the World is a Storm, Michael Meade: Living Myth, https://substack.com/home/post/p-184687069, January 16, 2026.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Maureen Fowler, a beloved spiritual mentor.