by Faith Central & Steve Welsh
“Jesus … said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant. … the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“… [It was] reported July 19 … [that a Virginia man] alleg[es in a police report that] … [now-Cardinal Theodore] McCarrick began sexually abusing him in 1969, when the priest was 39[, a friend of the family,] and the man, “James,” … was 11 …. [A month earlier,] the Archdiocese of New York announced … an investigation into a different allegation that McCarrick had sexually abused a teenager [finding] the claim ‘credible and substantiated.’ The Vatican … prohibited McCarrick, 88, from public ministry. … [M]edia reports have detailed additional allegations … that McCarrick sexually abused, assaulted, or coerced seminarians and young priests … as a bishop. The Diocese of Metuchen and Archdiocese of Newark disclosed … reports that McCarrick engaged in sexual misconduct with adults, and reached legal and financial settlements in two cases. The cardinal is prohibited from contact with minors in the Archdiocese of Washington …”
Catholic TV Mass for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 22, 2018, from the Archdiocese of Toronto. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image adapted from image at Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons Pjposullivan,
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loretto_Abbey_chapel_interior,_Toronto.JPG, with additional conditions stated at that link and in the alt-tag here]
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” – Melody: St. Columba (ancient Irish melody), lyrics by H.W. Baker (1868)
“The King of Love my Shepherd is,
Whose Goodness fails me never.
I nothing lack if I am His,
and He is mine forever. …”
Catholic TV Mass for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 22, 2018, from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. [can take a moment to load] [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image is file photo]
“… People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People … hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived … before them. When He disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.”
Catholic TV Mass for Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 22, 2018, from Catholic TV in the Archdiocese of Boston. [Click here for Mass Readings]
Catholic TV Mass for Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 22, 2018, from Catholic TV in the Archdiocese of Boston. [Click here for Mass Readings]
Catholic TV Mass for Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, July 21, 2018, (for morning and mid-day) from Loretto Abbey in the Archdiocese of Toronto. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image adapted from image at Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons Pjposullivan,
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loretto_Abbey_chapel_interior,_Toronto.JPG, with additional conditions stated at that link and in the alt-tag here]
[The Divine Office begins the Liturgical Day with “A Call to Praise God” in the form of the Invitatory Psalm, usually Psalm 95, in stanzas, or strophes, separated by an antiphon. For the Common of Pastors, used on Feasts or Memorials of Saints such as Saint Lawrence of Brindisi on July 21, the antiphon is “Come, Let Us Worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.”]
[Prior to the Psalm is an introductory phrase taken from Psalm 51 and a quote from the Letter to the Hebrews]
Lord, open my lips.
— And my mouth will proclaim Your Praise.
Encourage each other daily, while it is still today (Hebrews 3:13)
Come, let us worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.
Come, let us sing to the Lord
and shout with joy to the Rock Who Saves us.
Let us approach Him with Praise and Thanksgiving
and sing joyful songs to the Lord.
Come, let us worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.
The Lord is God, the Mighty God,
the Great King over all the gods,
He holds in His Hands the depths of the earth
and the highest mountains as well.
He made the sea; it belongs to Him,
the dry land, too, for it was formed by His Hands.
Come, let us worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.
Come then, let us bow down and worship,
bending the knee before the Lord, our Maker.
For He is our God, and we are His People,
the Flock He Shepherds.
Come, let us worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.
Today, listen to the Voice of the Lord:
Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did
in the wilderness,
when at Meribah and Massah
they challenged me and provoked me,
Although they had seen all of my works.
Come, let us worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.
Forty years I endured that generation.
I said, “They are a People whose hearts go astray
and they do not know My Ways.”
So I swore in my anger,
“The shall not enter into my rest.”
Come, let us worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.
Amen.
Come, let us worship Christ, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.
[The Divine Office also indicates that Psalm 100, Psalm 67 or Psalm 24 may be used, providing translations for those psalms as well. And it indicates that the psalm may be omitted when the Invitatory precedes Morning Prayer. An added note provides that, in individual recitation, the antiphon may be said once, at the beginning, rather than with each strophe.]
[As can be seen, the psalm presents a a wide-ranging encounter with God’s Greatness and our Relationship to Him. We are exhorted to approach God, to sing and shout with joy, praise and thanksgiving. God is Almighty and our Creator, indeed holding creation in His Hands.
We are to worship and follow Him in His Greatness. Yet He also is a Person Whose Voice we are to listen to and follow, Who Shepherds us as His Flock. At times, there are those who stubbornly failed to follow him, challenging Him and provoking His Wrath. In particular, with the reference to Meribah and Massah, the psalm recalls the Israelites grumbling and challenging God at points during their exodus in the desert.]