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Transfiguration (A) – Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6, 2023)

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 13, 2023)

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15, 2023)

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 20, 2023)

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 27, 2023)

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 3, 2023)

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 10, 2023)

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 17, 2023)

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 24, 2023)

August 6 / Transfiguration of the Lord

IN SCRIPTURE’S SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE, MOUNTAINS AREN’T just places. They are experiences that put us closer to God. Think of Moses going up Mount Sinai to receive the commandments, Elijah awaiting God’s presence atop Mount Horeb, or Jesus at the Mount of Olives the night before his crucifixion. Mountains are “thin places” where heaven and earth meet, and for a brief moment we see God clearly, or as much as human eyes and hearts can behold, and understand more keenly what we are to do.

However, we need not climb a mountain or retreat into mysticism to witness God’s wondrous and terrifying resplendence. Just ask any parent gazing upon their newborn’s face, or spouses

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savoring one another’s presence as they read in silence at the end of the day. In mundane moments like these come epiphanies of something sacred, fragile, and yet vast and enduring. Suddenly we comprehend the weight and breadth, height and depth of love so full it levels us, face down, in awe and dread that we should bear witness to such holiness in our humdrum life. In that moment, we receive from the Source of All Love a clarity that puts everything into place: “This is my beloved . . . listen.”

Transfiguration promises that within our ordinary lives is the life-changing presence of God, if only we listen for it. —DM

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

God, Give Us Eyes to See Your Reign (kingsfold)

Text: David Bjorlin / Arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams

God Who Dwells in Light and Darkness (beach spring)

Text: Chris Shelton

We Have Seen the God of Glory (divinum mysterium)

Text: David Gambrell / Arr. Richard Proulx

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D-U00650

D-897344

When Jesus Prayed Upon the Mountain’s Height (engelberg)

Text: Ruth Duck

When Jesus’ Friends Beheld Him (finlandia)

Text: Adam M. L. Tice

D-940244

D-987242

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

August 13 /Ninteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

IT’S NATURAL TO JUMP TO THE conclusion that Peter’s mistake was losing his focus on Jesus. However, Peter was sunk even before his feet got wet.

To test the apparition walking on the water, Peter doesn’t say, “If it’s you, Lord, come save us,” but demands that he himself be enabled to conquer the storm alone. Perhaps, then, Jesus’s question is not “Peter, why did you doubt you could do the impossible?” but rather, “Why did you leave your companions behind if you trusted that I would save you all?”

Over the last several years, it has become clear that not everyone is, in fact, “in the same boat” when it comes to weathering

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life’s storms. Each of us carries a unique set of advantages, disadvantages, skills, and luck that cause some to drown, others to float merrily along, and still a small few to walk on water. Our folly, however, is not whether we trust Jesus enough to survive these storms but in believing that, whatever boat we’re in, we’re meant to survive them alone.

It takes just a drop of faith to say, “Lord, save me!” But when we’re tempted to abandon ship to save ourselves, we need the flood of baptismal grace that bonds our common fates together in Christ so that together we might cry out in faith, “And grant us your salvation.”

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Flowering Broom Tree (erica lynn)

Text: Jacque B. Jones / Music: Benjamin Brody

O Loving Maker of the Earth (dove of peace)

Text: Ruth Duck / Arr. Randall Sensmeier

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Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

August 15 /Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

MANY PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES DEPICT A seated Mary and, on her lap, the child Jesus, no longer an infant at her breast but a man-child figure “enthroned” upon her knee or standing nobly before her womb. Sometimes Mary’s hands are lifted in praise, a reflection of her son’s raised arm in blessing. The image is often known by one of Mary’s titles, “Seat of Wisdom.”

It’s a common enough illustration. That is why one artist’s unique version of it stops me every time. In his 1961 bronze sculpture “Madonna of the Gospels,” Benedictine priest Hugh Witzmann replaces the human figure of Christ with a book of the Gospels enthroned upon the folds of Mary’s garment. On

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the book’s cover are emblazoned the symbols of the four evangelists. In Witzmann’s work, we have a visual reminder that Mary conceived the Word of God in her heart before doing so in her womb.

The divine gift of Mary’s assumption, body and soul, into heaven is a gift meant for all who believe in the Word Made Flesh, for Mary is the “beginning and image of [the] Church’s coming to perfection” (Eucharistic prayer preface). On this Solemnity, when we see in full the promise given to all God’s children, let us imitate Mary who believed so fully “that what she believed came about in her” (Augustine, Sermon 215, 4). —DM

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

By God Kept Pure (mundo corde)

Text and Music: Alan J. Hommerding

Mary, First Among Believers

(pleading savior, dohmach trionoide)

Text: Delores Dufner, OSB / Arr. Richard Proulx

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Serdeczna Matko / Most Loving Mother (serdeczna matko)

Polish Traditional / Arr. Richard Proulx / Adapt: Kelly Dobbs-Mickus / English paraphrase: Victoria A. Zibell

D-803739

D-U01113

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

August 20 /Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

ALTHOUGH THE UNNAMED CANAANITE WOMAN SAYS little, it is enough to expand Jesus’s perspective.

Matthew’s Gospel was originally written for a Jewish Christian community that was becoming more Gentile in its makeup. (Today’s second reading reflects the demographic tension.)

The Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon had welcomed Jesus’s preaching, while many among Jesus’s own had rejected it. That resentment is the backdrop for the disciples’ annoyance and Jesus’s derogatory language.

From this context, the woman pleads, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” appealing to Jesus’s lineage and signaling that she, too, as a Canaanite, is related to him. Matthew’s community would have recalled the Gospel’s opening genealogy of Jesus in

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which three Canaanite women are named: Rahab, a prostitute who risks her life to help the Israelites; Tamar, treated as cursed, but who creatively ensures the continuation of Judah’s line; and Ruth, a childless widow who defies the patriarchal system to become the great grandmother of King David.

No wonder this woman would not be deterred by silence nor slur. With deference and courage, she reminds Jesus that it is from outsiders like her—women of great faith and determination—that Jesus inherits some of his own bold spirit.

To Jew or Gentile, woman or man, God’s gifts and call are irrevocable. With faith, we see that we are more alike than different. —DM

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Holy Boldness, Move Our Spirits (ode to joy)

Text: Amanda Udis-Kessler

The Mountain of God (to the brink)

Text: Adam M. L. Tice / Music: Sally Ann Morris

When Jesus Sets the Table (ellacombe, place setting) ...................................................

Text: Amanda Udis-Kessler / Music: Sally Ann Morris

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

August 27 /Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

ROCIO WAS A SEEKER AT THE Catholic center where I was a college student. Her life before the Catholic center had been pretty bleak, without much joy or purpose. At some point, she encountered a small group of us from the center who seemed to have what she was looking for. At least we were kind to her and genuinely interested in her, which was more than she could say about the crowd she usually hung out with.

Rocio was a total newbie to Christianity and religion in general. So she had a ton of basic questions, and we loved trying to outshine one another with the depth of our Catholic knowledge as

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we quoted popes, saints, and the Catechism like we were playing Catholic Trivial Pursuit—until she asked us the question that stopped us all: “But why does Jesus matter to you?”

It was her version of Jesus’s question, “But who do you say that I am?” It’s not that we didn’t know the answer but that in our fervor to share facts about Jesus, we neglected to speak of our faith in Jesus and our love for Jesus. Facts cannot lead a person to the cross; only faith and love can.

“Who is Jesus Christ for me . . . ? An answer that we should give every day” (Pope Francis, Angelus, August 23, 2020). —DM

September 3 /Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

TODAY’S GOSPEL PASSAGE IS PART TWO of last week’s and is the turning point for Matthew’s entire Gospel. From here on, the way leads directly to Jerusalem and the cross.

Everything Peter got right last week is everything he gets wrong this week. In one moment, Jesus praises him; the next, he pulls him back down several notches, charging him with human folly and even diabolical treachery.

It’s a harsh but necessary dressing-down. Jesus “must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly.” There’s no getting around it. And not even Peter, the favorite disciple in Matthew’s Gospel, gets a pass. But thankfully for his sake and ours, Jesus is merciful.

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When he tells Peter, “Get behind me, Satan,” it sounds like what Jesus said to his tempter in the desert, “Get away, Satan!” (Mt 4:10). The Greek translation is similar between the two, but an added command to Peter reminds him of his place—that is, behind Jesus, that he might follow.

No matter how right a disciple might be or how much charisma, wisdom, or influence they have, if they are not behind Jesus, putting him before themselves, they are an obstacle in the path—not to be cast aside but rather, put back into place. It is a kindness that all of us will need at some point along the way to the cross. —DM

September 10 /Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

THERE COMES A TIME IN ALMOST every relationship when you have to decide if it’s worth fighting for, because if you’re fighting, at least you’re engaging. The end is certain when one party gives up on the other and disengages.

Matthew’s Gospel was written for a community in flux. They were mostly Jewish Christians exiled from their Jewish communities and now were trying to figure out how to be their own community with the growing number of Gentiles becoming disciples—something not all readily welcomed. This chapter is a kind of community handbook for how to approach disagreements in a way that kept community members engaged in the well-being of each person among them.

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In Christ, every member of this new community—this ekklesia or “church”—is worth the effort when there is a rift, as seen in the preceding parable of the one lost sheep. The long, systematic process in today’s Gospel passage is not merely for the resolution or absence of conflict but for the complete restoration and healing of the community . . . in God’s time. For even when all avenues toward reconciliation with our sister or brother are exhausted, we are called to treat them as Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors. That is, we keep caring for them, for nothing is lost with God, and God will never give up on any of us.

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

September 17 /Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SOME STRUGGLE WITH THE IGNATIAN “PRAYER for Generosity”: “Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous . . . to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, . . . to labor and not to seek reward, except that of knowing that I do your will.” We all want to be generous, but can we go too far? Can forgiving seventy-seven times, as Jesus instructs, devolve into unhealthy behavior?

We must be careful to not promote self-sacrifice and suffering that merely perpetuates injustice, persecution, or harmful behaviors. Mercy given in the name of Christ is always for the sake of doing God’s will, which is justice for the oppressed and

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wholeness and restoration for all. Grace cannot be grace without discipleship and the cross that transforms everything.

God desires something more than just forgiveness without regard. God calls for our change of heart that we may be generous with what we have been given on behalf of those who can never repay us. In every situation, we have the power to do something for those with less power. We can forgive and be patient with those striving to right their wrongs. We can challenge persecution and ask allies to intercede. And when we have reached our limit, we can turn to God, rich in compassion, that we may become ever more generous with others and ourselves.

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27:30–28:7

14:7–9

18:21–35

Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Free Us, God, From Past Mistakes (arfon) .........................D-1010114

Text: David Bjorlin / Arr. Hugh Davies

Sing Praises, Bless the Living God (st. anne)

Text: Ruth Duck

D-667527

We Look Upon Our Enemies (une jeune pucelle) .............D-877547

Text: Jacque B. Jones / Arr. Frederick Jackisch

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

1-800-442-1358

September 24 /Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

THE PARABLE OF THE WORKERS IN the vineyard and the generous landowner, found only in Matthew, is addressed first to Jesus’s disciples. In the scene right before it, Peter laments, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” And shortly after it, the mother of two other disciples wants to make sure Jesus gives her sons their rightful reward for being early adopters. The parable was also addressed to Matthew’s community, made up of Jewish Christians who weren’t all too happy that Gentiles were coming into the fold as well. Surely the landowner’s unconventional generosity is meant to say that all who serve the Gospel will be rewarded.

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But what can this parable say to us today, who are all latecomers compared to the original twelve and those early Christian communities? Certainly, we are comforted by Jesus’s assurance that the last will be first and the first will be last. But is that all? Are we 21st-century disciples good to go?

“You have made them equal to us” is the complaint of the laborers hired first. The grumbling here is not about timing but of equal treatment for those we do not consider equal to us. And oh, how we grumble still today. How grateful we are that there is still time to seek the Lord and forsake the wicked’s ways. —DM

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