Worship Resources For Everyone

Are you ready for full and active participation in the Liturgy? Read on…

January 26th, The Third Sunday In Ordinary Time
A link to the readings from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012620.cfm

A Reflection

This Sunday we celebrate a new celebration from Pope Francis who declared in a Apostolic Letter that the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time will now be known as “Sunday of the Word of God.” Recalling the importance given by the Second Vatican Council to rediscover Sacred Scripture for the life of the Church, we are being invited to deepen our appreciation, love, and faithful witness to God and his Word. In the Gospel this Sunday, the era of John’s ministry has come to an end with his arrest. Jesus replaces John and is on the move from Nazareth, down to the lakeshore city of Capernaum. Jesus’ first public act is calling the first four of twelve disciples to follow him. They are successfully fishing and leave their family, livelihood, and comforts to become intimate companions with Jesus. Life with him and association with his ministry of healing and proclaiming the Good News will transform them from being fishers of fish and becoming fishers of people. Matthew’s Gospel continually reminds readers that in Jesus the Scriptures of Israel are being fulfilled. This was a way of reassuring the Jewish community that their new-found faith in Jesus brings their Jewish religious traditions to fulfillment while they are being challenged to leave some of these past traditions behind. The disciples and followers are called to leave behind certain ways to follow him. They are called away from lives of pettiness and division. They are called away from the narrow-mindedness and mean-spirited competition. They are called away from judgment and exclusion. It was much easier to leave the nets than to leave the chains of one’s prejudices. There must have been a mix of emotions with the resistance, uncomfortableness, and for some relief and excitement.

Our community of Corpus Christi understands the mixed emotions of transitions, we have been through a lot over that last 10 years or so. However, on our journey of faith it is sometimes necessary to grow in our understanding of God’s ways so that we can move on. Change is not easy and some may recall the many changes that happened in our Church 57 years ago with Vatican II. Many still resist and yet all of those changes have still not been applied to our current Church today. Like Jesus, Pope Francis is also trying to call the Church to leave behind old ways and find more ways to include all. We are called to meet people where they are and accompany them on the journey. The Church has wonderful diversity, a variety of expression, emphasis and culture. The Church needs to take seriously its role of finding Christ in every place and every community in the world and embracing the beauty of that diversity. Our entire life is meant to be a conversion. Upsetting as that may be, we are always being converted, shaped and formed into the likeness of Jesus. Over and over again Jesus comes to us saying, “Follow me.” Our lives are a series of turning points, some big and others small. With each turning point we see ourselves, others, and the world differently, we think differently, we focus on different concerns, we ask different questions, and we move in a different direction. What they all have in common, however, is Jesus’ invitation, his command, to follow him. Each turning point comes with the opportunity for and the promise of Christ to refashion our lives. All members of the Church have to use the energy and gifts given at baptism to do what Christ wants of the Church: to change the world as a beacon of faith, hope, and charity.

Music as Prayer (Bis orat qui bene cantat)

A greater entrance into the prayer of the Liturgy is achieved by being familiar with the music. In particular, the Psalm functions best as a meditation on the readings when we know it well and the mechanics of singing it do not consume too much of our focus. Similarly, with the individual parts of the Mass Settings (the sung acclamations)

Psalm – YouTube link:
Psalm 27: The Lord is My Light – David Haas,  #29

Mass Setting – YouTube link:
Mass of Joy and Peace – Tony Alonso

Preface Dialog – YouTube link:
Traditional Chant – ICEL

Our Father – Fr. Paveglio & Corpus Christi:
Traditional Chant – ICEL

The Worship Calendar:

Nearby: St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church  (clustered with Corpus Christi)

Practice Music for Christmas