(Sharing great songs that are inspiring, uplifting and/or are otherwise “worth a listen”). Explanation (of a kind) here.
I had another song cued up for this morning (I’ll save that for another Wednesday), when at Mass this morning, I head the first reading proclaimed.
I immediately thought, I know the song I should feature! I can actually be liturgically appropriate for today. So I rushed (unsuccessfully) to get home before 7 a.m. (when the other song was scheduled to post), to post this one instead.
The first reading, like all this week in the days leading up to the feast of Christ the King this Sunday, is from the Revelation to John. Here is part of it:
The four living creatures, each of them with six wings,
were covered with eyes inside and out.
Day and night they do not stop exclaiming:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty,
who was, and who is, and who is to come.”
Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks
to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
the twenty-four elders fall down
before the one who sits on the throne
and worship him, who lives forever and ever.
They throw down their crowns before the throne, exclaiming:
“Worthy are you, Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things;
because of your will they came to be and were created.”
And I thought of a song we are hearing on the radio a lot these days, “Revelation Song.” The video above, which features a bit of the song, shows the band describing how the song is powerful in moving people. I agree.
Our family tries to read the Mass readings in the morning, taking turns reading. Our kids sometimes bicker about who gets to do what, lest you imagine a holy scene at the breakfast table.
Every few weeks, a reading or responsorial Psalm will remind us of a song we hear on our local Christian radio station. I do like this, as it helps reinforce how steeped we are in Scripture as Catholics, and how worship music and some Christian music can aid our prayer life and knowledge of Scripture.
(A humorous aside: just yesterday, the kids read the Mass readings as I was driving my teenager to a friend’s house, and when she finished the Gospel about Jesus encountering Zaccheus, I immediately launched into, “Zaccheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.”)
This week, as we lead up to the Feast of Christ the King, the Church’s readings point towards the last things, the end of the world, to prepare us for the beginning of the liturgical year with the first Sunday of Advent. My theologian husband told me once that there’s an old church tradition/hope that the Lord will return in glory on the feast of Christ the King.
One of the band members says in the video about the song, “We felt passionate about the song. When I hear that song, whatever circumstance I am in, it takes me to that place. And where is that place? It’s in the presence of Jesus Christ.”
As Catholics, we have the knowledge that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. So when we visit Jesus, whether in a time of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament or just a quick prayer time at a Church, we are in a very special way in that Presence. Meditating on this song, too, can help dispose us to worship:
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.