by Faith Central & Steve Welsh
Catholic televised Mass Readings and Homily for the Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, from EWTN in Alabama. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image is file photo]
[The Divine Office, or Liturgy of the Hours, begins the Liturgical Day with “A Call to Praise God” in the form of the Invitatory Psalm, usually Psalm 95, in stanzas, or strophes, interspersed with an antiphon. For the Common of Pastors, such as on the Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier on Dec. 3, 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.
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.”
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, and 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.]
“… The centurion said in reply, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. … Jesus … said … ‘Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.'”
[The Divine Office, or Liturgy of the Hours, begins the Liturgical Day with “A Call to Praise God” in the form of the Invitatory Psalm, usually Psalm 95, in stanzas, or strophes, interspersed with an antiphon. From the First Sunday of Advent until December 16, the standard antiphon is “Come, Let Us Worship the Lord, the King Who Is to Come.”]
[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 the Lord, the King Who Is to Come.
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 the Lord, the King Who Is to Come.
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 the Lord, the King Who Is to Come.
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 the Lord, the King Who Is to Come.
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 the Lord, the King Who Is to Come.
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.”
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 the Lord, the King Who Is to Come.
[The Divine Office also indicates that Psalm 100, Psalm 67 or Psalm 24 may be used, and 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.]
“For those of you who will be lighting an Advent ‘wreath’ this weekend, especially with tapers… remember to start with the purple candle ‘opposite’ the pink one in order for the progression to the pink one for the third week to look accurate. This also makes the candles burn down in successive order, which makes the visual impact of the wreath (which is the point of it) better match the progression of weeks in Advent, and therefore aid in better contemplation of the sense of time advancing. Hope that makes sense! …”
“Every Advent, the Liturgy of the Word gives our sense of time a reorientation. There’s a deliberate tension in the next four weeks’ readings—between promise and fulfillment, expectation and deliverance, between looking forward and looking back. …”
[featured image is file photo]
“As we look toward Christmas and ponder the Incarnation, we ought to remember that so profound was truth of the incarnation that the early Church fell to her knees at these words: ‘and He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, from the virgin Mary, and became man.’ This act of falling to one’s knees at these words is still practiced in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite; in the ordinary form, we are asked to bow. These gestures acknowledge the profound mystery of the truth of the Incarnation. How does the infinite enter the finite? How does He, whom the very heavens cannot contain, enter the womb of Mary. How can He, who holds all creation together in Himself, be held in Mary’s arms? …”
[featured image is file photo from another time and location]