The 5th Sunday of Easter • April 28th
Hello! Here are the chant recordings as well as the Order of Mass for this coming Sunday.
Now that we have passed the halfway point for Easter, sometimes it is easy to get lost in the joy of the season. We may be forgetting the joy of the Easter Vigil, of that great movement from darkness to light that we experienced in the readings of the old testament, that darkness that, though experienced, pointed to the coming light, born in Bethlehem to die on the Tree, the Light of Light, Christ our Lord.
We sing this week “Cantate Domino canticum novum”, “sing to the Lord a new song”! We sing this in the Introit, in the processional hymn, in the offertory motet that we will offer. Why do we continue to sing a new song so many weeks after Easter, when the joy of Easter feels like it may have gone, when we feel tired and drug down by life?
We sing a new song to remind ourselves that the joy of the Lord cannot die. Life, Satan, the flesh, and the powers of this world will attack us and try to bring us down. This Sunday, we will hear of Christ being the vine, and we being the branches; to go and bear fruit that will remain. How can we go and bear this fruit unless we first return to him to gives us life? We return to the Eucharist, to our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This is why we sing a new song unto the Lord. This is why we must remember that Easter joy even when joy feels as if it is the last emotion we wish to entertain. We sing a new song, in joy, in sorrow, in lament, in rejoicing, because that Easter Joy, the joy of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist cannot be flushed out, cannot be torn away from us. Cantate Dominum canticum novum, laus eius in ecclesia sanctorum! Sing a new song to the Lord, His praise in the church of the saints!
"Our Savior is really present beneath the veils of the Sacrament, but He denies us the view of His body so as to have us abide in His love, in His adorable personality. If He were to show Himself, or even a single ray of His glory, one trait of His adorable countenance, we would forget Him and abide in that manifestation of Himself. But as He has told us His body is not our end; it is but a step to help us reach first His soul and then His divinity through His soul. We have His love to guide us thither.
The strength of our love will bring complete certitude to our faith. The senses having been reduced to silence, our soul will enter into communion with Jesus Christ; and since Jesus is happiness, repose and joy, the more intimately we commune with Him, the happier we shall be."
- St. Peter Julian Eymard, The Real Presence.
I have included another recording for fun: Monteverdi’s Cantate Domino (don’t worry, we won’t sing this piece THIS Sunday!)