From Family Enculturation to Liturgical Co-Responsibility: A Developmental Communication Model of Children’s Musical Formation

Abstract

Children do not become liturgical participants merely through exposure to religious music or the acquisition of repertoire. Their formation develops across family, educational and ecclesial environments and requires progressively deeper relations among sound, symbol, action, faith and community. This theoretical study constructs a Developmental Model of Liturgical Musical Agency by synthesising the theology of participatio actuosa, relational communication, the communicative theory of the musical act, family religious transmission and selected research in music education. The model comprises five analytically distinct but overlapping stages: musical-religious enculturation, symbolic comprehension, communicative agency, ecclesial participation and reflective co-responsibility. Across this trajectory, family roles change from modelling and emotional mediation to explanation, autonomy support, dialogue and shared discernment. The model rejects rigid age bands and treats feedback, accessibility, regression and renewed learning as constitutive features of development. Formation should therefore be assessed not by attendance, repertoire size or public performance alone, but by a child’s growing capacity to relate musical action to liturgical meaning, respond freely within an assembly and assume responsibility appropriate to development and ability. The model offers criteria for connected family and parish practice while preserving the theological specificity of liturgy.