A Meditation of Psalm 19 and Psalm 137

Hat Tip to man with black hat

By the rivers of Babylon Where we sat down There we wept When he remembered Zion	By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Psalm 137:1
Then the wicked Carried us away in captivity Required from us a song Now how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land	For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land? Psalm 137:3-4
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in thy sight here tonight	Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Edited to add:

Liturgically Psalm 19:14 (which is 19:15 in the NAB) is used:

- Monday 1st Week of Lent Responsorial Psalm

- Saturday 1st Week in Ordinary Time Year I Responsorial Psalm

- 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C Responsorial Psalm

- Monday 7th Week in Ordinary Time Year II Responsorial Psalm

Liturgically, Psalm 137:1 is used:

- 4th Sunday of Lent Year B Responsorial Psalm

- Friday 12th Week in Ordinary Time Year II Responsorial Psalm

- Wednesday 26th Week in Ordinary Time Year I Responsorial Psalm

- Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael (September 29th) Communion Antiphon

- Mass for Various Needs and Occasions: In Thanksgiving Communion Antiphon (1st Option)

and 137:3-4 is used:

- 4th Sunday of Lent Year B Responsorial Psalm

- Friday 12th Week in Ordinary Time Year II Responsorial Psalm

- Wednesday 26th Week in Ordinary Time Year I Responsorial Psalm

Most Holy Trinity

“We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance…This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.”

Athanasian Creed

I Believe

Plaque outside of Holy Family Catholic Church in Columbus, Ohio:

“I believe in the Holy Spirit…”

- Apostles’ Creed

Veni Sancte Spiritus

Veni Sancte Spiritus is the Sequence to be sung or read at every Mass on Pentecost Sunday in the Roman Rite. In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite the Sequences of Corpus Christi and the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows are optional (and therefore rarely heard). But, those of Easter and Pentecost are always mandatory.

The Sequence, which is optional except on Easter Sunday and on Pentecost Day, is sung before the Alleluia.
General Instruction of the Roman Missal 64

Veni Sancte Spiritus is typically attributed to either Pope Innocent III or to Archbishop Stephen Langton, the man who divided the Bible into chapters.

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from Thy celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!

Come Father of the poor!
Come source of all our store!
Come within our bosoms shine!

Thou, of comforters the best;
Thou, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat,
Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine
Shine within these hearts of Thine.
And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, man has naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour Thy dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them Thy salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia.

Pentecost

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

Acts 2:1-11 NAB

My Spirit Rejoices

This looks very interesting. I plan on being there tomorrow.

My Spirit Rejoices

A Spring bouquet of musical offerings by

Saint Saens, Biebl, Rachmaninoff, Zielenski, Phillips,

Bach, Mozart, Guerrero and Kelly

Sunday, May 31st at 3:00p.m.

St. Francis of Assisi Choir

Admission and parking are free. Donations received for charity.

St. Francis of Assisi, 386 Buttles Ave. in Victorian Village

A Proper Understanding of the Gift of Tongues From the Liturgy of the Church

An exposition of Ecclesiastes by St Gregory of Agrigentum:

The disciples spoke in the language of every nation. At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit: whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue. We must realise, dear brothers, that this is the same Holy Spirit by whom love is poured out in our hearts. It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world. And as individual men who received the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people.

Therefore if somebody should say to one of us, “You have received the Holy Spirit, why do you not speak in tongues?” his reply should be, “I do indeed speak in the tongues of all men, because I belong to the body of Christ, that is, the Church, and she speaks all languages. What else did the presence of the Holy Spirit indicate at Pentecost, except that God’s Church was to speak in the language of every people?”

This way the way in which the Lord’s promise was fulfilled: No one puts new wine into old wineskins. New wine is put into fresh skins, and so both are preserved. So when the disciples were heard speaking in all kinds of languages, some people were not far wrong in saying: They have been drinking too much new wine. The truth is that the disciples had now become fresh wineskins, renewed and made holy by grace. The new wine of the Holy Spirit filled them, so that their fervour brimmed over and they spoke in manifold tongues. By this spectacular miracle they became a sign of the Catholic Church, which embraces the language of every nation.

Keep this feast, then, as members of the one body of Christ. It will be no empty festival for you if you really become what you are celebrating. For you are the members of that Church which the Lord acknowledges as his own, being himself acknowledged by her, that same Church which he fills with the Holy Spirit as she spreads throughout the world. He is like a bridegroom who never loses sight of his own bride; no one could ever deceive him by substituting some other woman.

To you men of all nations, then who make up the Church of Christ, you the members of Christ, you, the body of Christ, you, the bride of Christ – to all of you the Apostle addresses these words: Bear with one another in love; do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Notice that when Paul urges us to bear with one another, he bases his argument on love, and when he speaks of our hope of unity, he emphasises the bond of peace. This Church is the house of God. It is his delight to dwell here. Take care, then, that he never has the sorrow of seeing it undermined by schism and collapsing in ruins.

Saturday of the 7th week of Eastertide, Office of Readings

A Prayer for True Ecumenism on the Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury

O God, Who by the preaching and miracles of blessed Augustine, Thy Confessor and Bishop, didst vouchsafe to shed upon the English people the light of the true faith: grant that, through his intercession, the hearts of the straying may return to the unity of Thy truth, and that we may do Thy will with one accord. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Collect, Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite

A Memorial Day Prayer

Eternal God,
Creator of years, of centuries,
Lord of whatever is beyond time,
Maker of all species and master of all history –
How shall we speak to you
from our smallness and inconsequence?
Except that you have called us to worship you
in spirit and in truth;
You have dignified us with loves and loyalties;
You have lifted us up with your lovingkindnesses.
Therefore we are bold to come before you without groveling
[though we sometimes feel that low]
and without fear
[though we are often anxious].
We sing with spirit and pray with courage
because you have dignified us;
You have redeemed us from the aimlessness
of things’ going meaninglessly well.
God, lift the hearts of those
for whom this holiday is not just diversion,
but painful memory and continued deprivation.
Bless those whose dear ones have died
needlessly, wastefully [as it seems]
in accident or misadventure.
We remember with compassion those who have died
serving their countries
in the futility of combat.
There is none of us but must come to bereavement and separation,
when all the answers we are offered
fail the question death asks of each of us.
We believe that you will provide for us
as others have been provided with the fulfillment of
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

by Rev. Dick Kozelka (ret)

Pentecost Novena

Regardless of whether you live in a diocese that celebrates the Ascension of the Lord today, 40 days after Easter just like the original Ascension, or if you live in a diocese that will be transferring the Ascension to this coming Sunday so that you will not be forced to undergo the terrible burden of attending Mass on a day that is not Sunday, the Pentecost Novena begins tomorrow.

Mary and the Apostles spent the 9 days from the Ascension to Pentecost in prayer. And this is the origin of Novenas.

Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts