Friday, May 13, 2011
Kevin J. Banet
Gospel: John 6:52-59 “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”
Commentary: Today’s entrance hymn at Mass at the parish I go to in the Chicago area was, “At the Lamb’s High Feast,” a festive tune about salvation through the blood of Christ. Fr. Jason, the celebrant, has lately been pushing us to sing all the verses. (I won’t complain.) It’s unusual to have hymns sung at daily Mass, and a real gift. One help in this parish is that our hymns are usually led by a man who is also one of the parish’s organists.
Walk on the spiritual path along with St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal into the Love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Are you a lay person interested in plunging more fully into a way of daily devotion? Or considering a vocation to the monastic Visitandine tradition? Go to Visitation Spirit website.
This brings to mind a Protestant church service I attended as a young man, when I was still searching for my spirituality. On that Sunday morning long ago, everyone was singing with such great gusto, and it felt good to join in. I noticed then that the singing had a distinctively male component. I looked around, and yes, there were many men in the church. This was an unfortunate contrast with my experience back home, growing up as a Catholic, when perhaps most of the church-goers were women.
I noticed at that time in that church long ago that the pastor was a man with a strong — well, let’s call it manly — personality. His booming voice and confident demeanor seemed to be reflected in the balanced male membership of that church group. I’m not a sociologist, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to claim a correlation here.
I’ve always felt that the spirit with which a congregation sings is a measure of their devotion to God. When you know of God’s love and all the good things He has done for us, isn’t that a reason to proclaim it with all your heart?