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…