Psalm 98 The traditional Latin name for this Sunday of the church year is “Cantate.” It means “Sing,” and is taken from Psalm 98, which for many centuries has been associated with this Sunday. We chanted a portion of this Psalm a few minutes ago. But it would be beneficial for us to consider the…
Psalm 71:5-9 A reading from the 71st Psalm, beginning at the 5th verse. “For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You. I have become as a wonder to many,…
Psalm 51:1-4 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You…
Psalm 39:4-5, 7-8 People have always been interested in knowing when the end of the world will come, and when judgment day will be upon us. During the Middle Ages, the approaching end of the first Christian millennium, around the year 1000 A.D., aroused a high level of apocalyptic expectation. In the sixteenth century, the…
Psalm 118:26 Today we are entering the season of Advent. The word “advent” comes from the Latin language, and means “coming.” It refers to the coming of Christ. On the first Palm Sunday, which we heard about in today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, one of the exclamations that the crowds called out to Jesus as…
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Tomorrow is our country’s national Day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863, during the American Civil War, but the roots of this observance go back much further in American history. What is often referred to as the…
Psalm 92: 1-5 “Qui cantat, bis orat.” This Latin proverb translates roughly to “The one who sings, prays twice.” It was quoted by St. Augustine, by Martin Luther, and by a host of other Christian leaders and thinkers through the centuries: to emphasize the importance of singing, and of music in general, in the Christian…