Psalm 40: 2, 4, 7-8, 8-9
Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Called to Renewed Mission
The liturgical calendar’s turned green again, this week – Christmas is over, the Holy Family assembled, the kings visited, and Jesus is grown-up, baptized, and beginning his long-awaited mission. “The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us,” reads the Gospel acclamation today, “To those who accepted him, he gave power to become children of God.” This is our mission for these next five weeks of “Ordinary Time” until Lent: to not only be moved by the mysteries of the Incarnation, but to be called by them – by Jesus, himself – into mission, into action, into growth – the green of a new-sprouted seedling.
“He put a new song in my mouth,” says our psalm today. The intimate love of Christmas should have moved something within us - has it yet become song? Praise? Gratitude? Generosity? Am I rising to it and to these new (liturgical) year’s resolutions?
—Fr. Garrett Gundlach, SJ, is a Jesuit priest based at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem and serving diverse local communities.
Prayer
Loving God,
we’ve begun again
with your “Yes”, with Mary’s,
and every mystery following behind:
your birth
your family
your visits
your baptism and now your mission –
it’s our turn, now, to say “Yes”
as we await you on the shores of Capernaum,
awaiting your word and awaiting what all of this
will mean, again, anew, for us, for me…
Call me and help me to hear it.
Amen.
—Fr. Garrett Gundlach, SJ
Pray with the Pope
Pray with the monthly prayer intentions of the pope.