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TO LITURGY AT ST. CECILIA'S
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LITURGY
AND PRAYER AT ST. CECILIA 'S
The
common prayer life of believing Christians is at the heart of any
parish community, and at St. Cecilia's this is no exception, as
we believe the liturgy is at the center of our mission as a parish.
As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, the liturgy is the primary
source of strength as we celebrate our faith and seek to follow
him more faithfully. The quality of our liturgies has always been
a hallmark of who we are. We welcome all parishioners and visitors
to respond to the invitation to give thanks to our God through the
many expressions of liturgy and prayer here at St. Cecilia's.
Our
coming together on the weekends to celebrate Mass is the starting
point and climax of our weekly life as a parish community. The Eucharist
is the ongoing heartbeat of our life at St. Cecilia's. We also provide
many other opportunities for prayer and worship throughout the various
seasons of the liturgical year. These include sacramental celebrations,
the Church's Holy Days, and other important celebrations and prayer
experiences such as All Souls Evening Prayer, Thanksgiving, the
Feast of St. Cecilia, Advent Evening Prayer, Lenten celebrations
of the Way of the Cross, Taize' prayer and many other opportunities
for prayer.
We
believe that our small, intimate, and beautiful worship space provides
a wonderful sense of community and connection, and every time we
gather, we strive to be a hospitable and inclusive community. We
have a strong involvement of parishioners of all ages, and we are
especially proud of the many young people who serve as acolytes,
lectors and in our music ministry. Our worship space is totally
accessible to those who are physically challenged; we also have
a system in place for those who are hearing impaired; and coffee
and doughnuts after both Masses on Sunday provide a weekly time
of ongoing connection for each other.
Our
pastor, Fr. Mike Byron, provides us with strong prayerful leadership,
and we are very blest by his preaching that truly touches our lives
and experience as parishioners. His homilies are usually posted
here on the website, offering an opportunity to share and deepen
the challenge of God's Word beyond our weekend celebrations. Our
weekend Masses are also the occasion for important sacramental moments
such as Baptism, Anointing of the Sick, RCIA and Confirmation rituals,
blessings and other important threshold moments for members of our
community.
In
keeping with St. Cecilia being the patron saint of music, we are
particularly known for being a singing community - we raise the
roof here at St. Cecilia's! Under the leadership of our music director,
Jeanne Dold, and our singing pastor, Fr. Mike, we see music as an
important and powerful way to pray. We are a community with a diversity
of musical tastes - we sing and pray with everything from chant
and traditional hymns to the most contemporary styles of music being
composed for the church today. We are excited about our new Yamaha
piano, and our parish hymnal, Gather Comprehensive: Second Edition
, provides us with a rich resource of songs, hymns, psalms
and acclamations that help us to sing, celebrate and express our
faith. Our choir is a very dedicated group of singers and believers
who help fill the church with a beautiful sound, and we have many
who generously serve as cantors and instrumentalists as well.
St.
Cecilia's is also dedicated to outreach and the sharing of our space
for occasional liturgical music concerts and ongoing workshops and
events on liturgy and music, serving as a site for annual workshops
co-sponsored with GIA Publications and The Emmaus Center for Music,
Prayer and Ministry. These workshops have brought together many
parish liturgists and music directors throughout the Archdiocese,
and those from other Christian faith traditions.
Most
importantly, we honor the call of Second Vatican Council that the
gathered community be formed, supported and empowered in their "full,
active and conscious participation" in the liturgy. This value is
primary above all others in regard to our liturgical life here at
St. Cecilia's.
Liturgy
is truly the engine that keeps us going as a parish community -
we invite you to join us in our praise of God each weekend. Saturday
evening Mass is at 5:00 p.m., and our Sunday schedule celebrates
the Eucharist at 8:15 and 10:00 a.m. Know that ALL of you are always
welcome. Come and pray with us!
What
follows are some of the more intentional ways to be involved in
liturgy here at St. Cecilia's:
LITURGY
COMMITTEE
Together
with staff members Fr. Mike Byron, Jeanne Dold, and Marge Virnig,
we have a very active liturgy committee, which oversees the overall
worship life of the parish. This committee meets once a month throughout
the year to determine and evaluate the overall liturgical policies
and direction of the parish; to do the major planning and preparation
for the liturgical seasons and other special liturgical celebrations;
to help the pastor and music director plan and vision for the future;
and to provide ongoing formation for our various liturgical ministers
and the parish community at large. The monthly meeting times, meeting
minutes, and important liturgical calendar items are published regularly
here on the website. Linda Beckman presently serves as chairperson
for this committee. If you have any questions about the committee's
work, or are interested in joining, contact the parish office.
Click here
to access the Liturgy Committee Minutes for
LITURGICAL
MINISTRIES
There
are many opportunities for parishioners to become involved in the
various liturgical ministries here at St. Cecilia's. Members of
our parish staff and others in the parish provide initial training
and ongoing support and formation for all who are involved. For
more detailed information regarding these liturgical ministries,
contact Marge Virnig at the parish office (651-644-4502, ext. 24)
or at: marge@stceciliaspm.org
.
Below
are some of the ways in which one can become more involved in the
liturgical life here at St. Cecilia's.
The
Ministry of Lector
Lectors
share their gifts to proclaim the Word of God, not only at our weekend
masses, but also at the many sacramental and other celebrations
that take place during the year. Women, men, young and old - all
are welcome to be a part of this important ministry, where we encounter
the stories and wisdom of our faith.
The
Ministry of Eucharistic Minister
Eucharistic
Ministers not only assist Fr. Mike in the communal sharing of the
bread and wine at Mass, but they are to be a living sign of how
all of us are called to be the "Body of Christ" every day of our
lives. In addition to sharing in this important table ministry at
Mass, many also choose to help bring the Eucharist to those in our
community who are sick or homebound.
The
Ministry of Sacristan
Sacristans
have a vital role in helping the details of the liturgy go smoothly.
They assist in many ways: coordinating the various liturgical processions
and collections; and they help to set up and clean up before and
after the liturgical celebration itself.
The
Ministry of Hospitality
It
is very important that all parishioners and guests feel welcome
when we gather to worship, and our ministers of hospitality are
at the front line in helping to create a friendly and hospitable
atmosphere. They help create a sense of welcome; they also coordinate
and make sure all receive the bulletin, coordinate the collection,
and assist those seeking a place to be part of our community.
The
Ministry of Acolyte (Server)
This
ministry is open to youth and adults, male and female alike, to
help with the various ministries throughout the liturgy: in the
processions of the cross and candles; assisting with the Sacramentary
(the book of prayers at Mass), and many other responsibilities during
the celebration of the Mass.
The
Ministry of Music
We
are very proud of our parish music ministry, and there are many
opportunities to share one's musical gifts here at St. Cecilia's:
as a member of our wonderful choir; as a cantor to help lead the
assembly in song and in the proclamation of the responsorial psalm;
or as an instrumentalist to help add solemnity to our musical prayer.
The choir rehearses once a week (except for the summer months),
and rehearsals for cantors and instrumentalists are scheduled with
our music director, Jeanne Dold. We also have a youth choir for
children of all ages, who sing at special liturgical occasions throughout
the year. For more information about our parish music ministry,
contact Jeanne at the parish office (651--644-4502, ext. 28) or
e-mail her at: jeanne@stceciliaspm.org
.
Choir
Rehearsal Schedule 2011-2012
The
Ministry of Environment
This
is a subcommittee under the direction of the liturgy committee,
and their charge is to help create a visual environment for our
community to pray. Through their creative work they help provide
an atmosphere that reflects and gives unity and attention to the
celebration of the various liturgical seasons and to our prayer
together.
Fr.
Mike's Homilies
Fr.
Michael Byron
Homily
1/1/12
Twice
in the past 24 hours I have been asked by two different people,
out of the blue, about how to understand the same sentence of Holy
Scripture. One was a 16 year old boy in St. Paul and one was a middle
aged woman in Edina, neither of them St. Cecelia's parishioners.
The boy began by saying, “Are you familiar with Jesus' teaching
in Mark 9:32?” I had to say that I hadn't any idea as to the answer
to that question. He said, “It's the thing about the unforgivable
sin, this offense that the gospel describes as “blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit.” I'm worried that I might have done that, but I'm
not exactly sure what it means.” I was able to assure him that any
seriously striving Christian has probably had that same intuition
at some moment in his or her life. What exactly is that
singular, unpardonable offense that could lead a person to eternal
damnation? And how does one know whether one has done that? It's
a fair and honest question, but not one that I felt very competent
to answer directly. Instead it raised for me a more basic, and I
think better question, namely: Just what kind of God do we think
we're living with here? A God of deception and trickery? One who
takes pleasure in confusing and worrying us? One who deliberately
teases us—or taunts us—with vague threats of hell? One who doesn't
really want us to understand too well where the line in the sand
is? Really? That would be contrary to every encounter that the God
of the gospels had with his followers. Is there any sentence that
Jesus uttered more frequently than, “Do not be afraid”? Ours is
not a threat-based faith. Ours is not a religion in which, despite
our most sincere but imperfect attempts, people are condemned for
eternity without being entirely sure of what they did wrong.
Rather,
our long, long tradition has disclosed exactly the kind of God who
is ours—the one who a friend of mine likes to name “The God of Plan
B.” Which is to say, pretty much every time in history that God
has set up the rules for right living and explained the dire consequences
for our being unfaithful, and pretty much every time we've failed
to keep our part of the commitment (which is every time), God has
responded not by doing exactly what he warned us about in his justice,
but rather by creating an alternative way out for us—a Plan B—a
road to salvation that we did not really deserve. When we were created
in his image and told to obey God in the Garden of Eden, and then
we didn't, God did not carry out his stated intention to kill us.
When we agreed to abide by the precepts of the 10 commandments,
and then we failed, God did not destroy us. When the Great Flood
of Noah's time came to utterly wipe out the people that had so disappointed
God, He gave us a new start with the remnant of the Ark. When the
people of Israel lost their land, as promised, because of their
evil ways, God gave it back to them. Plan B. And when we Christians
had forfeited any right on expectation we may ever have had to live
with God, because of our disobedience, selfishness and sin, God
did not obliterate us or despise us. Instead he created Plan B:
Christmas.
Christmas
is not the invention of a God who is looking for ways to hurt us
or punish us without our being aware of it. God is whoever the opposite
of that is. That makes God mysterious to us, because human
beings aren't that unfailingly generous and forgiving—not even the
very best of us. But while God may be mysterious, if there's anything
that he has shown us time after time after struggling time, it's
that he doesn't want to be alien to us, and that he is far more
willing to reconcile than to punish. Hence, Plan B: Christmas; our
way out of desperation.
Our
gospel today is yet another testimony of God being faithful to a
promise, even when we weren't. It all came about in Bethlehem just
as the angel had foretold, because the only promise that God doesn't
keep is the one about doom and strict justice. Certainly we ought
not to presume upon God's mercy; and sin is certainly
something to be named, confronted, and resisted with honesty and
courage. But in the end, if we are ever looking at a serious prospect
of eternal damnation, it won't be because of God's desiring that—let
alone engineering that. That's not the manner of Plan
B.
So
what is that unforgivable sin? I'm not sure, except that I'll know
it when I've committed it, because I know the God with whom I am
dealing here, and I pray that we all do. The God of blessing, of
goodness, and not of course, of spite. The God who never stops urging
us to be more generous and virtuous than we are now, but who is
not looking for opportunity to scold us when we don't do it well
enough. Christmas is the most blatant way that God knew how to tell
us how much we mean to him, how much he wants to be known to us
and with us, and even one of us…and how endless is Plan
B.
Fr.
Michael Byron
Homily
1/8/12
Four
years ago at our seminary we welcomed four young students from The
African nation of Ghana to study for the priesthood. They are all
now deacons in their final year of preparation, and they will be
ordained priests this December, God-willing. They have all proven
to be excellent young men, each with their own set of considerable
gifts and talents, and they have taught me a lot about their homeland.
For one thing, like many African countries, although they share
the same flag and government, I have learned that in Ghana there
is a variety of ancestral tribes to which the people are attached,
tribes that are quite distinctive in their histories and stories.
I mentioned that we welcomed them in 2008. Well, for the most part
we did. There was a certain moment of awkwardness, however, that
first year. When the annual pictorial student directory was published
that fall, the four Ghana students were all miss-identified. Their
names were confused with one another by the editor of the book.
So we had the inevitable confiscation of them and re-issuing of
corrected pictures. Although that was embarrassing, I'm sure, for
many of us, and surely hurtful to the students, I do understand
how it could have happened. After all, don't all the young men of
Ghana kind of look the same to us? I have to admit that at the time
I might have been able to answer yes. But now, after all these months
of getting to work and recreate with them, it is astonishing for
me to think that there could ever have been a time when we couldn't
have distinguished these men into very unique personalities, passions
and even skin tone and facial features. Their particularities are
glaringly obvious now, for which I know they are grateful, since
they are not all from the same tribe and they find it off-putting
when they are simply clumped into one generic group of dark-skinned
people from “over there.”
This
weekend at the Nativity scene that is set up in the seminary residence,
three wise men appeared from the East. Two of them are white skinned
people, and the third is black. If that's a true account of how
things were in Bethlehem that night, then the white ones would have
had to travel west from Ireland in order to get there, and the Black
man could have come from no nearer than the South Pacific Islands.
Oh,
but of course that's not the point behind the story of the Magi,
we say; it's not to be understood so literally. Maybe not, but everything
else around that manger scene is literally following the gospel
script—except perhaps for the white skin on just about everybody
there. Nobody in Israel was Western European in complexion, including
Jesus. I am not intending here to poke fun at whoever created those
figures around the manger, but my sarcasm is in service to at least
two very serious and not at all funny dimensions to this annual
observance of the Feast of the Epiphany. The first is to note that
the story of the arrival of the Magi that St. Matthew recalls for
us again at this Eucharist is his emphatic attempt to explain to
his hearers (us) that when the Savior of God came to Earth at Christmas
it was not solely for the purpose of rescuing people who look, feel,
behave, and believe in exactly the same way that we do, we and our
tribe. He came for everybody, with an offer of hope and salvation
that literally excluded nobody, nobody , and still doesn't.
So having white Magi show up “from the east” in our imaginations
is not merely something as simple and benign as making God a projection
of ourselves and our concerns. People have always done that, unwittingly
or not. It's something far more potentially sinful than that. It's
the attempt to resolve the problem of diversity, whether in culture,
race, religion, gender, or politics, by imagining that those “different”
people out there aren't really different at all. They're either
basically the same as we are or they're simply bad or wrong. That
is not the gospel, which proclaims that “those people” really may
well be quite different from us in their dispositions and allegiances
and customs and convictions and still not be categorically written
off as if God is not pleased to save them. Because none of them
would be here at all if God were not pleased that it be so. Anything
east of Bethlehem would have represented everything that Israel
was not: if not sworn enemies, then at least cold warriors with
the Chosen People. The Magi did not convert to Israelite faith when
they crossed the border, and nobody at the manger took umbrage at
that fact. (And let us remember that Matthew's gospel is written
to the Jews.) Instead, they were content simply to wonder at the
fact that they were all thrown together there on that holy night.
And
the second dimension of Epiphany bounces back to the story of the
seminarians from Ghana. It is to say that as we strive to be welcoming
of diversity in our church and world, it can never be boiled down
to a confrontation between “us and them” because there is no clump
of people that can be smashed into a collective known as “them.”
There
are undocumented immigrants among us who are criminals and gangsters.
There are also undocumented people who are filled with Catholic
faith and trying to hold their families together. So the generic
category of “illegals” in the blogosphere and TV is meaningless.
There are Republicans whom are racists. There are also Republicans
who abhor racism. There are Democrats whose views on abortion are
irreconcilable with anything Christian. There are also Democrats
who abhor abortion and who are in it for other passions. There are
poor people who are lazy and exploiting of the system. There are
also poor people who have tried everything they can to help themselves
and have been unable to. There are obscenely rich people who have
gotten that way as the result of sheer selfishness and greed. And
there are also the ones who had good fortune, and for whom it's
not all about the money. There are men from Ghana from the north,
and those from the south—two very different tribes, neither of which
name I could pronounce, but not just a collection of black faces.
In
short, to be someone who is “other” than we, is not to be simply
a vague menagerie of “them.” It is to be a somebody, with a story
and a name and a history to be honored, or at least investigated,
before being generically categorized. Epiphany is the nothing other
than the demand that we take diversity seriously—not merely as a
contemporary cultural slogan, but as part of the essence of Christian
faith. Because Epiphany reveals that God is always bigger than we
are—whoever is the “we” that we imagine ourselves to be. And from
the beginning, the God of Jesus Christ has been unsettling people
by his refusal to be encased in an Ethnic, or cultural, or even
religious straight jacket.
As
we honor this God in our worship today, let us pray to be better
conformed to the heart that is as large as his.
Fr.
Michael Byron
Homily
1/15/2012
Historically,
the relationship between religion and human bodies has been a very
curious and varied thing. That is all the more intensely true when
it comes to the reproductive aspects of the human body. Sometimes
one hears the complaint that the church is fixated on sexuality
in its moral teachings, and perhaps that's true. But if the alternative
is an attempt to deny the central importance of our bodies and how
we use them, that's not only equally harmful, it is contrary to
our Judeo-Christian faith. Throughout the millennia various religions
have tried to come to terms with the human body in different ways.
Some pagan fertility cults saw hedonistic sexuality as an act of
ritual worship. Others like the ancient Israelites saw the ritual
disfigurement of body parts as an act of holiness. Still others
including some who thought of themselves as Christians, saw the
human body as contemptible either to be ignored as much as possible
or to be painfully disciplined into submission to some spiritualized
project. All of these instincts are still around. But maybe the
strangest attempt to come to terms with bodies as religious people
is the contemporary one, the one which believes that bodies and
church have nothing to do with one another, because my body is mine
to do with as I please; in effect, I own it and it's nobody else's
concern how I use it.
That's
what some of the people who lived in Corinth in the first century
also believed, which is one of the reasons that St. Paul felt the
need to write a difficult and blunt letter to the church there in
order to set things straight. Surely one of the most counter-cultural
sentences that he puts out there, at least for us contemporary Americans,
is the one heard in today's second reading. Paul writes, “Your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God,
such that you are not your own.” You have been purchased at a high
price, and that's why Christians have no excuse for playing the
card that says it doesn't much matter. In saying this, Paul is not
referring primarily to some cosmic transformation of human nature
that happened on the cross 2000 years ago. No, it's a lot more immediate
and challenging than that. He means to say that how we conduct our
bodily business when we move about in daily human activity is a
direct expression of our religious belief and of our desire to worship
God by the way we live. “The body,” Paul says, “is not for immorality,
but for immortality; so glorify God by the manner in which you use
it.” And while morality includes all kinds of human behaviors
and not just sex, there aren't very many more central aspects to
being an embodied person than the aspect of reproduction. And we
need not be ashamed of that. God created us in this way, and even
more amazingly, when we lost our way because of sin God did not
merely extend forgiveness to us; he became one of us—in
a human body no different from ours. The scriptures are marveled
by the fact that, as it is written, “The Lord did not abhor the
virgin's womb,” and the only thing more scandalous to the ancient
disbelievers than the idea that the son of God could suffer and
die was the idea that he could endure the indignity of being born
in the flesh. But he was, and that should forever inform the way
that we imagine God to be regarding bodies, and the tremendous responsibility
and accountability that is ours for the manner in which we use them.
This
is all pretty abstract here, not very concrete, but to a great extent
it has to be. While it is true that our bodies do not belong to
us—just as any of God's gifts do not, strictly speaking, belong
to us, many of the decisions that we make in our lives and families
and relationships and churches are , in fact, intensely
personal and unique. But unlike the people of St. Paul's time we
21 st Century Western people tend to hear the word “personal” as
meaning “private” and “none of your business.” It's not that it
at all for a Christian. For us, “personal” must mean what it meant
in bible times, i.e. a full accepting of my very specific responsibility
to build up the church and the reign of God in the way that only
I can do. And that happens not only by thinking correct thoughts
and believing correct things. I do it just as much by using this
amazing biological machine of mine for the glory of God.
But
how can I know what exactly that means, what it looks like day-to-day?
I (and we) can't know that apart from abiding in an enduring relationship
with Jesus Christ, week in and week out, year in and year out. The
Lord's will for our personal decisions rarely comes in blinding
flashes of light or in ecstatic, emotional experiences. It comes
instead by a steady “being with” that can't be rushed or short-circuited.
That's what both Eli the priest, in today's first reading (Samuel)
and Jesus himself (John) knew very well. It took three times for
Samuel to report the night time summons of the Lord to his mentor
before the wise old man recognized what was happening. But once
he did understand, he knew how to respond, because he was familiar
with the way God works.
And
in gospel, when Jesus was asked by his disciples, “Where are you
staying,” the answer was not “over there” or “at Peter's house.”
As is so often the case in Sacred Scripture, the questions of discernment
of God's will don't lend themselves well to quick, slogany, categorical
answers, because the quest of discipleship is more about relationship
with the Lord than it is about factual information. And relationships
take time. “Come and see,” Jesus replied, “Hang around with me awhile.”
Throughout
this New Year of 2012 it is certain that there will be heated debates
both within our church and within our state concerning issues of
morality and specifically sexual morality—matters of how we use
our bodies, and why, and whose business it is to decide. We will
be wise to remember that the specifically Christian gift
that we can enjoy not only as individual decision-makers but as
members of the church, will be a gift that will not come from political
strategy or philosophical insight or individual liberties (important
as all those can be). It will come from a cultivated life with Jesus
Christ, which we can resolve to begin or renew immediately, so that
when we are confronted with specific moral conundrums it won't have
to be a matter of moving from crisis to crisis, because we'll recognize
the voice of the one who wishes to guide us—together—into all happiness.
We don't have to make up the rules as we go along, because we are
not our own. We—including our bodies—have been claimed and purchased
at great price, because we are loved just that much.
Fr.
Michael Byron
Homily
1/22/12
This
is a fairly well-known choral piece written in about the year 1580
by the great sacred music composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
titled, “ Alma Redemptoris Mater” or in English, “Loving
Mother of The Redeemer.” It is an absolutely gorgeous work of Renaissance
Polyphony. And this is the Gloria from the concert Mass in C
Major written in the 18 th Century by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
for a four-voice choir, two violins, three trumpets, timpiani, bass,
and organ. It's loud and brilliant and overflowing with a sense
of joy and majesty. And this is the well-known Deutche Mass
in F by Franz Schubert, about 1825. It's a very haunting,
dark, heavy piece that has well stood the test of time in sacred
music.
And
everything I just said is false. Here's what's true: This is a four-page
piece of white paper with a lot of lines and dots on it. It makes
no sound at all. It just sits there. And this is an eight-page orange
paper that does exactly the same thing. And this is a 23-page booklet
that only sounds like ruffling paper when I pick it up. These are
not works of fine musical art. They are the instruction manuals
for fine musical art, and until somebody actually weds them to an
instrument, the works really don't exist—literally. And it's impossible
to make music—any music—unless something moves, like breath through
a vocal chord, or fingers on a keyboard, or bows on strings, or
air through a reed, or pounding on a drum. Where nothing is in motion,
nothing happens, and nothing matters.
This
is the gospel according to Mark. But not really. It's a description
of the gospel of Mark. Like those other papers, it just sits
there, and it really doesn't matter what the words are until somebody
moves upon them. And in our Catholic tradition especially, it really
doesn't matter until everybody is moving, like an orchestra
or a full-voiced choir. It's lame when only some of us move.
In
today's first reading from the prophet Jonah, the first words from
the mouth of God to Jonah were, “Set out.” “Set out to the great
city of Nineveh—move, walk, proclaim, go. Don't just sit there.”
You may be aware that this story today is not the first time that
Jonah heard these words from God. He'd gotten exactly the same command
two chapters earlier, but he didn't want to accept the invitation.
So Jonah not only didn't go to Nineveh, he set out in the opposite
direction. He moved all right, but he hit a lot of wrong notes in
the process. We call that, “Sin,” when our movements don't correspond
to the instructions from God. Jonah's first response didn't work
out so well, which is how he ended up being thrown overboard into
the sea, swallowed by the whale, and spit out on the beach. Apparently
on this second occasion of being told to move, he felt a bit of
incentive to follow the command of the Lord. And by the way, to
“move” in this sense should not always be equated with being busy
with frenetic activity. In many places throughout these instruction
manuals there are orders to stop moving. Musicians call
them “rests.” But rests are not instructions to do nothing. Any
musical rest has a prescribed length of time before it ends, and
it's for the purpose of letting others take the lead for a time,
and for enhancing the greater effect of the music. Silence is often
a critical part of a good work, just as it can be in a life of faith.
Sometimes to move merely means to be paying attention to what's
going on. Not every believer is called to a life of active prophesy,
as Jonah was. But not a one of us is called to do nothing in response
to God's summons.
Our
gospel of Mark today is yet another reminder that to believe
is to move . To change. To stop doing exactly the
same things we're doing now and have become accustomed to doing.
That's what repentance is—it is a call to leave some unholy patterns
of relating and behaving behind so as to be free to do other things.
It's a summons to move , not just to understand, but to
live differently. Not just to read the score, but to make the music
come alive. As we spend the bulk of this coming liturgical year
immersed in the Sunday readings from the gospel of Mark, keep attentive
to how much of it is in constant motion; Jesus moving from place
to place, engaged in a relentless ministry of preaching and teaching
and healing—punctured by moments of what could be called active
resting—prayer—for the sake of carrying on again. In our gospel,
Jesus is walking along the seashore, where he finds two pair of
brothers who are fishermen; Simon and Andrew, James and John. “Follow
me,” he says, and they do—on the spot, forsaking father, family,
livelihood, property. Some scripture scholars caution that we ought
not take such a story too literally, and that maybe the wives and
children of these men might have wondered why their husbands were
late coming home for dinner that night. But these same scholars
warn us that it is equally harmful not to take such a story literally
enough. When Jesus passes with the demand that we move/change/grow/repent/embrace
a truly new way of living and leave some precious things behind
in the process, that isn't just an instruction manual or a bit of
good advice. It is an immediate demand on how we order our daily
patterns of acting, doing, resting, and loving. It is a summons
to move. The gospel is not just words on a page to be scanned. It
is a way of engaging our rhythm of life, and forever making it more
pure and clear and faithful—sometimes to rest, but never to stop.
I've
asked Jeanne Dold to play for us “Alma Redemptoris Mater,” so let
us hear what it really is.
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Church of St. Cecilia
2357 Bayless Place
St. Paul, MN 55114
Contact Us
Phone: 651.644.4502
Fax: 651.647.1445
Email: info@stceciliaspm.org |