Sing a New Song to the Lord."

It struck me again today: How many times does the psalmist ask us to "Sing a new song to the Lord?" (Ps 33:3) Does the lord get weary of hearing us singing the same psalms over and over again? Do our old songs weary Him?

Every once in a while I dust off one of the old anthems simply because the melody is so familiar and the words are filled with hope. "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name;" "Amazing Grace;" Even "Precious Lord, Take My hand" come to mind. I hear the fifty or so us morning Mass people belting out phrases like "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see."  When the community sings the old, familiar tunes, my head and heart clear so that I can pray.

However,  there are times when our old songs, like lullabies, can seduce us into a state that focuses on our own comfort.

The psalmist tells us to sing new songs.  I take that to mean we should sing new songs with fresh words and stirring melodies.  The parish community needs to wake up to an occasional new  morning song.  Our hymnals contain more material than we could ever use. Some of it, not too good; but other hymns are there like coins we've never spent. What are we hoarding them for? Let's sing them!

I snuck in "Precious Lord" (above) when you weren't looking. It's a powerful gospel hymn by Dr. Dorsey.  That song has its place when we need to sing of facing up to our own destinies. "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling"(again by Dorsey) is also in our parish hymnal.  We never sing it. Is it too embarrassing to sing of an intimacy with Jesus that has Him calling  our souls to heaven?"

"Sing a new song" means, also, that our composers need to keep working at producing contemporary
music with lyrics that are memorable and singable.  We need newly created songs for communion meditation, for example.

However, when I come across the verse in Psalm 33  asking me to sing a new song to the Lord, I sometimes pray as I lift my head from my breviary, "Lord, you know I can sing. Teach me a new song. Instruct me in the melody and teach me the words."

 

Pope Francis: A Breath of Fresh Air for the Church.

Ever since Pope Francis gave an interview recently to a journalist for a Jesuit magazine, the secular newsprint has spewed out hundreds of comments, most of them rejoicing that the Catholic Church now has a leader who will bring the Church into line with the social movements of the day.  It's time the Church changed some of its teachings. 

The questions are predictable and so is their reasoning:

Holy Father...

--Why shouldn't women be priests?

--Abortion is a fact of contemporary life. The Church needs to recognize that at times abortion is a correct, morally good choice. Don't you agree, Holy Father?

-- Birth control can be achieved these days through preventive medications or the morning after pill. Catholics should regulate their conceptions just as they do with other important components of their lives. Surely you can see the need for the Church to get with the times?

-- Homosexuality is not a mental illness. Why not simply recognize homosexual practices as an alternate life style?
Holy Father, these days homosexuality is not an issue. Nobody cares. It's time the Church stopped condemning gays.

--All religions whether Christian or not are pretty much the same when it comes to core teachings, i.e., Love one another;
Teach others to love; Don't sin: Life will continue in some way after death, etc. Why can't the Catholic Church admit this and strive for unity of all religions?

Pope Francis has not ducked any of these important questions, nor has he suggested changes in Church teaching.  What he has insisted upon is a change in attitude for the entire Church, especially bishops and priests. Pope Francis wants his Church to go out and seek those who do not measure up to our high principles. He wants us to take people where they are at and love them, not judge them.

That is an entirely different matter than changing the moral stance of the Church in regard to these issues.

Pope Francis recently spoke to the clergy of Rome and told them to get out of their sacristies and go find the sheep who
live on the periphery of the Church. He reminds us to show them that the Church loves them where they are at in their spiritual and moral lives.

Several times recently, Pope Francis has reminded us that we priests may get dirty working on the fringes of society. It's O.K. for shepherds to smell a bit like the sheep, if we are to be authentic shepherds.






Stay tuned for further developments from this remarkable, smiling Pope.

Pope Francis, Syria and peace.

Remember when Pope Francis asked us to pray for peace in Syria? His request was in response to President Obama's intent to punish President Assad of Syria by a series of selective bombings. The proposed missile strikes would, it was thought, hamper Assad from ever again using chemical weapon again.
 
Two Sundays ago, Pope Francis asked that Catholics throughout the word pray for peace in Syria and thereby avoid an inevitable escalation of war in that country where over a hundred thousand people have died in the past few years.  Pope Francis selected this last Saturday as a day of intense prayer and fasting for peace in Syria..

What can I say?  It worked! I believe we have received an answer to our prayers for peace. The plan which the U.S. and Russia have worked out and that Syria has agreed to will turn over all chemical weapons for destruction. I guess it's up to the U.S. and Russia to figure out a way to neutralize the nerve gases which already have killed over a thousand Syrians.

For the moment, the threat of a new conflict which would have drawn in Russia on the side of Syria, has been avoided. A sense of relief has come over the world.

The rebels in Syria, though are not pleased because  the agreement will not bring an enduring peace to Syria. The civil war in Syria continues.

The work of peace is unending. It is the work of the Church to promote peace in our world, the peace that Jesus commended when he said: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God." (Mt 5,9)

However, for the moment a world crisis has been avoided by the grace of God. It's time now to offer Him thanks for hearing the prayers of a sinful world.

We Christians know, however, that a peace that lasts will come only when we work toward justice for the poor throughout the world. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice..." (Mt.5, 6)
 

John Chrysostom: Golden Throat Rides Again.

St. John Chrysostom lived in Antioch in the fourth century and later became patriarch of Constantinople. His last name tells us something of how influential he was during the years when Christian theologies began to mature.
His people named him "Golden Throat." "John Golden-Throat" sounds impressive, interesting.

John was eloquent.  He spoke from the heart, but he didn't merely emote. He spoke Christian truths, too. If you read his sermons you experience the depth of his teachings and it becomes clear that John wasn't only speaking abstractly about Our Lord.  He spoke from his own experience. That experience was of the presence of Jesus in his community of Christians.

The words of Jesus Himself come to mind:"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst." (MT 18, 20)

St. Paul refers to Christ's presence in the community as a secret. To those outside of  the Christian community, to unbelievers and to those who simply don't understand Catholics, they see us praying, hear us singing, and watch us share bread and wine together.  That's it, nothing more.

They don't know the secret we share.

Listen to Paul as he delivers his teaching about Christ's presence to the Colossians: [My task is] "to deliver His message in full; to announce the secret hidden for long ages and through many generations, but now disclosed to God's people....The secret is this: Christ in you, the hope of a glory to come." (Colossians 1,26-27)

Great preachers like John Chrysostom shake us up with the power of their Faith.  John Chrysostom's words still live and they are golden.

For we who believe, Jesus Christ lives among us and informs our entire lives. That's why when we hear preaching and teaching in our church, we believe it to be Jesus Himself speaking to us:
"Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke [to us] on the way and opened the scriptures for us? (Luke 24, 32)


 

Pope Francis and the Call for peace in Syria.

Last Sunday, Pope Francis asked us to pray this Saturday, Sept 7, for peace in Syria and the entire Mid-east. Most Catholics hadn't heard about this day of prayer because no Sunday announcement of it was possible.

At the Eucharist, Mathew's beatitudes sounded especially moving this morning: "Blessed are the peacemakers" and, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness".

There were more people in church today, too, than on any ordinary Saturday. I think they were as much affected by that reading as I was.

We are asking for a miracle. Is it possible that the world's leaders could set down at the table in a communion of hearts, if not of minds?  Can we ask insurgents and an oppressive government to come to some kind of an agreement for the sake of the poor, for the sake of peace?

The answer is, of course, to follow the commandment of love. I think the Koran issues the same command.But, we sinners are notoriously disobedient to God's commands.

This time maybe with half the worlds hearts beating for peace, the other half will hear the call to peace in their hearts, too.
 

Syria and Prayers for Peace

Our country is about to attack Syria in retaliation for the Assad government's use of a deadly gas to subdue its people.

Our Holy Father asks that on Sept 7, Catholics throughout the world pray and fast for peace in Syria.
Pope Francis continues to urge dialogue between the Assad regime and the rebels. 

The United Nations through its secretary urges that the U.S. refrain from striking Syria with selective missal launches. He insists nothing will be accomplished by acts of war against Syria.

John Kerry, our U.S. Secretary of State is determined to get Congress to pass a resolution proposed by the Obama administration to send missals into Syria to strike at crucial military installations in order to weaken Syria's ability to gas its own  people.

I thought Kerry was clear and at times eloquent this past Tuesday in his appeal to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as he answered in detail the concerns of that body.

I tend to agree with Kerry: Sometimes you have to act because not acting is complicity.  He urged the senators to get behind the Obama decision to weaken Assad's ability to use inhumane methods to control dissent. To do that we have to strike the Assad regime in a way that they understand.

I'm going to fast and pray this Saturday for peace in the Middle East. I can't see how we can teach the Assad government that violence is self-defeating by using violence as our teaching tool. I'm going to try to join the millions of Christians who still believe that grace can triumph over evil.