Sacred Time in Sacred Music

The Liturgy of the Hours is a set of ritual prayers in the Catholic Church that contains seven sets of prayers for each day.  The prayers appropriately reflect the liturgical seasons, and so they are a great example of the Catholic understanding of Sacred Time; we live and pray the events of salvation in the time we now live.  One of my favorite hymns from the Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours is "Now Fades All Earthly Splendor."  In this hymn, the sun's descent is taken to be a poetic foreshadow of the end of creation ("The dying of the daylight fortells creation's end"), while the knowledge of its eventual rising the next day is a sign of the sure and certain hope of the Christian that Christ will return, and out of darkness will come a Great Light ("So will the new creation
Rise from the old reborn, to splendor in Christ's glory and everlasting morn").

By singing this hymn, we proclaim the truths of our faith, not only with our voices and minds, but also our very existence in time.  It would make no sense to sing this song in the morning; it is in the evening that we, through this song, enter into and experience future times in our own time.  The passage of the sun reminds us of the mortality of all of creation, and moves us to prayer reflecting on the end of our own lives.  We do not fear the descent of the Sun, because we know that the Son will rise again; it is then that "All darkness will be ended as faith gives place to sight of Father, Son, and Spirit, one God in Heaven's Light."

Now fades all earthly splendor,
The shades of night descend;
The dying of the daylight
Foretells creation's end.
Though noon gives place to sunset,
Yet dark gives place to light:
The promise of tomorrow
With dawn's new hope is bright.

The silver notes of morning
Will greet the rising sun,
As once the Easter glory
Shone round the Risen One.
So will the night of dying
Give peace to heaven's day,
And hope of heaven's vision
Will light our pilgrim way.

So will the new creation
Rise from the old reborn
To splendor in Christ's glory
And everlasting morn.
All darkness will be ended
As faith gives place to sight
Of Father, Son and Spirit,
One God, in heaven's light.