Author: The Anchorite

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Follow Me

100_0302“The lonely and lost are just waiting to hear; Any moment their purpose will be perfectly clear.” – Mary-Chapin Carpenter, The Calling

A happy St. Andrew’s Day to all of you of Scottish descent!

In today’s Gospel reading, we are presented with the call of the first disciples according to St. Matthew. In this account, Jesus simply appears, calls out to Andrew and Peter, then James and John, and they immediately leave everything and follow Him. Immediately, we ask? What was it that drew these fishermen so quickly, so readily to Jesus? Continue reading “Follow Me”

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Supersize Me!

(or) How Not To Play God!

winter-scenes-035In yesterday’s post, I picked up on the theme of “searing judgment” found in the reading from Isaiah at yesterday’s Mass. The first readings in today’s Office of Readings (part of the daily Liturgy of the Hours, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it), from Isaiah, places yesterday’s Mass reading in context and includes that reading. Before we get to the promise of “searing judgment”, we see a promise that our God will come to “overawe the earth”. He will lower the arrogant and the proud, humble the mountains and the cedars of Lebanon, and be the only mountain on that day. Then he will grant vindication to His people.

But how does God “overawe the earth” and “lower the arrogant”?  Continue reading “Supersize Me!”

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A Little Glitch!

A note for those of you who signed up for email notifications of new posts: for some reason, the emails aren’t going out when I publish a new post, as I did yesterday. I haven’t been able to pinpoint the problem on my end just yet. I have left a message with the folks who designed the email widget. Let’s hope that it gets fixed soon!

Update: The email DID go out for this post!!!  Yay!  Check out the last post, which you may have missed!

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The Songs of Zion

Psalms in Liturgy and Life

gardenandsunNestled somewhere after the first reading in every Liturgy of the Word is a humble liturgical feature known to most as the Responsorial Psalm. Even though the Psalms are Scripture, homilists rarely preach on them. Depending on certain factors – the quality of the church’s sound system, the church’s acoustics, the ability of the cantor – it may be hard to make out the words of the Responsorial Psalm as they are sung. It becomes all too easy to treat the Responsorial Psalm as a pleasant musical interlude between the first and second readings.

The Psalms present other challenges to us. If you open a Bible and start reading them, you will find a very wide range of emotions and desires expressed by them. You will even find expressions of anger and vengeance that seem rude at best and scandalous at worst to the contemporary reader. Expressions that you’ll never find in a contemporary hymn, and that you’d likely never use in your personal prayers.  Continue reading “The Songs of Zion”