Words and music of the liturgy

Read the Catechism in a Year

Catechism in a Year: Day 163

Part Two: How We Celebrate the Christian Mysteries
- Section One: God Acts in Our Regard by Means of Sacred Signs
-- Chapter Two: How We Celebrate the Mysteries of Christ
Question 182: Why do the sacred signs of the liturgy need words, too?

Celebrating the Liturgy means encountering God; allowing him to act, listening to him, responding to him. Such dialogues are always expressed in gestures and words.

Jesus spoke to men through signs and words. So it is in the Church, also, when the priests offers the gifts and says, “This is my Body … this is my Blood … .” Only these interpreting words of Jesus cause the signs to become sacraments: signs that bring about what they signify.

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Question 183: Why is there music at liturgies, and what kind of music must it be to be suitable for liturgy?

Where words are not enough to praise God, music comes to our aid.

When we turn to God, there is always something ineffable and unsaid left over. Then music can help out. In rejoicing, language becomes song—that is why the angels sing. Music in a worship service should make prayer more beautiful and more fervent, move more deeply the hearts of all in attendance and bring them closer to God, and prepare for God a feast of melody.
Dig Deeper: Corresponding CCC section (1151-1158) and other references here.
Recommended Reading in preparation for Easter: Jesus of Nazareth - Holy Week by Pope Benedict XVI