The Canticle of Zechariah

Summer is officially in full swing! Swimming pools are brimming with children, airplanes are filled with seasonal travelers, and almost every afternoon in Atlanta, a thunderstorm kicks up its heels.

In the midst of Summer Ordinary Time the Church celebrates the Nativity of John the Baptist on June 24, which falls on Sunday this year. We observe the nativity of John the Baptist near the summer solstice, which heralds the beginning of shorter days and longer nights. On the other hand, we celebrate the birth of Jesus around the winter solstice, the beginning of shorter nights and longer days. Thus John’s words which announce the coming of Christ, “He must increase; I must decrease,” are echoed in the cosmos.

To mark today’s solemnity we will sing the Benedictus, also known as the “Canticle of Zechariah,” found in the Gospel of Luke (1:68-79). Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, sang this canticle following the birth of his son. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were well past the age of childbearing when the angel Gabriel announced that his wife would bear a son. When Zechariah doubted the news, he was rendered mute, but when his son was born, Zechariah’s eyes were opened, his heart was changed and his tongue was freed to utter these words: 

 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant, even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old: salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, and to grant us that, rescued from the hand of enemies, without fear we might worship him in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”  Luke 1:68-79

Zechariah’s prophesy foretold the good news of Christ’s birth to a world that was in chaos and in danger of losing hope. His words offered the certain hope that God keeps God’s promises.

Those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours know these words as an integral part of Morning Prayer. Morning after morning the Church, like Zechariah, declares the faithfulness of God.

When our faith waivers, may these words reassure us of God’s presence and may our tongues be freed to utter a song of profound praise.

Ordinary Time

As we were dismantling the Easter décor in the church, a friend walked by and expressed her disappointment in removing the festive adornments of the Easter environment. “I hate Ordinary Time,” she said. She was referring to the weeks in the liturgical year that fall in between more solemn seasons such as Lent and Easter. There are two periods of Ordinary Time during our liturgical year. Summer and fall Ordinary Time take place after the Easter season and before Advent. Winter Ordinary Time falls after the Christmas season and before Lent.

The word ordinary in this context doesn’t mean common, mundane, or humdrum. Ordinary comes from the Latin word ordinal as in ordinal numbers. Ordinary Time is simply the way the Church counts the weeks in between the other liturgical seasons.

If we keep our eyes and ears open, we might notice that there is nothing ordinary about what we do at Mass—even during Ordinary Time! Consider the way ordinary objects are used in the liturgy: books are lifted high, furniture is kissed, bread and wine are blessed. Ordinary activities take on new meaning, walking becomes processing, reading becomes proclaiming, singing becomes praising. We who live ordinary lives are treated with extraordinary reverence. We are blessed, incensed, sprinkled with holy water, lathered with sacred oil, and fed with the body and blood of Christ. We too take on a new meaning as a human assembly becomes a divine body.    

Our very gathering at the beginning of Mass teaches us that God first loved us enough to call us God’s own people. Our Penitential Act tells us that God waits with open arms to embrace us with mercy. In the liturgy of the Word we hear how God’s faithfulness accompanied humankind throughout salvation history. In the liturgy of the Eucharist we celebrate God’s love in gifting us with his Son, Jesus. Our sending forth declares that God trusts us ordinary human beings with the extraordinary work of being God’s hands and feet in the world.

The simplicity of the season of Ordinary Time bids us pause to see, to hear, and to experience the extraordinary goodness of God.

St. Vincent de Paul

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. On this day we are reminded of our baptismal call to be the presence of Christ in the world. One of the ways we at St. Thomas Aquinas do that is through the Ministry of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

The Society is named for the French priest Vincent de Paul who spent his life serving the poor. Members of the ministry are called Vincentians.

Many of us know of St. Vincent de Paul through calls to fill our food pantry or to give to the collection which is held on the first Sunday of every month. Beyond that few of us know what this ministry is all about, so I recently spoke with Mike McLoughlin, a member of the ministry (Vincentian), and the spiritual adviser for our conference.

Tell me about the ministry of St. Vincent de Paul.

Mike: The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in 1833 and operates in 132 countries. We operate on a parish by parish basis, serving those in need around the parish. Persons who are in need get our contact information and we have intake workers who will determine: number one, do they live in our area? And number two, do they qualify for assistance?  Once that person can be considered for assistance, their contact information is given to a caseworker. Ideally that caseworker would visit that person at their home or their apartment. We strive to be a face to face ministry.

What prompted you to get involved in the ministry?

Mike: A lot of folks are surprised to learn that the primary purpose of the ministry and of being a Vincentian is to grow yourself spiritually. A lot of folks say, “It’s to help those in need,” and yes it is, so that certainly appealed to me. I write checks to all different sorts of Catholic agencies. There is someone in Nicaragua that we are helping but I’ve never met any of them. In this ministry I get to see the people that I’m helping. I get to talk to them and they get to talk to me. That was and still is appealing.

What kind of assistance is offered by St. Vincent de Paul?

Mike: We are here to provide temporary assistance to get people over a hump.

Oftentimes, the assistance is financial where someone is looking for rent or help with a utility bill or an unexpected car repair, or perhaps there is a medical bill that they’re dealing with. We have our food pantry and we give out dry goods to folks who need a food supplement. We also offer assistance at Thanksgiving and at Christmastime through “The Giving Tree.”. I’ve even helped people move furniture. We will consider every type of ask that comes our way. Sometimes we don’t have the resources, but we can direct people to others who do.

What surprises you the most about being a Vincentian?

Mike: We live in a pretty affluent area and people don’t realize that we live among poverty. Now it might not be a poverty that you see in other parts of town or other parts of the world, but there are people that are struggling. We have homeless people in Alpharetta and in Roswell, and people just don’t recognize that.

What are the greatest needs?

Mike: We can’t operate without funds and the parish has been very generous. The second biggest need is volunteers. We are desperate for caseworkers. Sometimes people shy away from that because they just don’t know what to expect. You just need to have a desire to grow your faith and to serve those in need. When we talk to people in need, we make it clear to them that it’s not Mike helping them out. It’s our parishioners who are prayerfully considering their donations. It’s the Holy Spirit who has brought this to them. 

More than 2,500 hundred people in North Fulton were assisted last year through the generosity of the parish and the work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The Vincentians will recommit themselves to another year of service during the 10:30 Mass this weekend.

For more information about the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, contact Mike McLoughlin, mmcloug@yahoo.com.

Weddings

By now the pomp and pageantry from the royal wedding have died down and Prince Harry and his bride (the Duke and Duchess of Sussex) are on their way to happily ever after. The media surrounding the monarchs made note of the fact that Meghan Markle’s father would not be present to walk her down the aisle. Instead the bride walked to her beloved accompanied by children and, in the last half of the journey, by her future father-in-law.

A father walking his daughter down the aisle has been a tradition in weddings of all faiths. It may stem from a superstition that claims it is bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the procession, but the tradition actually harkens back to a time when marriages were arranged as business deals. The father would give his daughter away in exchange for money and other goods. Today we trust that the couple comes freely and begins their relationship as equal partners. This is one reason this ritual, and the line, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” is nowhere to be found in the Catholic Rite of Marriage.

The Order for Celebrating Matrimony in the Catholic Church was revised in 1991 by Rome and, after a lengthy translation process, was made available to Catholic churches in the United States in 2016. This most recent edition offers two options for the opening procession. In one form, the guidelines simply state that the priest goes to the place prepared for the couple or to his chair. The couple takes their places, but there are no directives as to how the get there. In this case, many options for the procession are allowed: the father and/or the mother (or anyone else) could walk down the aisle with the bride, she could walk by herself, or she could walk alongside the groom.

In the other option, the priest and the servers go to the door to greet the bride and groom, their parents and the witnesses. The priest expresses the joy and hospitality of the church community and helps the wedding party to transition from the stress of the preparations for the day to focus on the spiritual occasion at hand.

Following the greeting, a single procession moves toward the altar. The procession may include elements seen at a procession at Sunday Mass such as incense, a cross, and the deacon carrying the Book of the Gospels. In the original Latin edition of 1991, this form of the procession includes the parents of the couple. Nowhere does it say that only the father is included in the procession. The priest and ministers lead the procession with the bride and the groom walking together at the end.

Having the bride and groom walk together expresses the Catholic belief that the marriage is about a man and a woman starting a life together. It also communicates the Church’s teaching that the bride and bridegroom are the primary ministers of the sacrament. In fact, it is their mutual consent, their “I do” that is the central part of the marriage rite. Any extras, such as the lighting of the unity candle or a devotional presentation to an icon or statue of the Mother of God, are just that—extras. It’s the mutual promise to be faithful to the end that counts. No other ritual could top that—not even a carriage ride to Windsor Castle!

Sunday

What are your childhood memories of Sunday? Was it a day that began with worship? Was it a time set aside to spend with family and friends? Were there special meals or other family rituals?

Sunday for my family meant going to Mass first thing in the morning. Since my hometown was largely populated by Italians, Sunday was the day we ate pasta. I can still smell the aroma of homemade tomato sauce which filled our house on Sundays. In the afternoon, we would sit out on the front porch or we would “go for a ride” to visit relatives or visit the graves of our loved ones at the cemetery. Then we would stop at McDonalds or go for an ice cream. It was a special day, sacred in fact, because we did things on Sunday we didn’t normally do during the rest of the week.

Whatever your childhood memories of Sunday, chances are that your current experience is different. Times have changed. These days, most people use Sundays to catch up on all the work that didn’t get done the rest of the week. Sundays have become filled with scheduled school and sports activities, leaving little time to observe the special nature of Sunday, as directed in the book of Deuteronomy:

“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you may labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then, whether by you, or your son or daughter.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-13)

The word for Sabbath in Hebrew is Shabbat, which is a name for God. The Sabbath is a day to praise God for God’s goodness and to make the day holy as God did in creating the Sabbath.

“When God created the seventh day, he blessed it, and he rested from all the work he had done.” (Genesis 2:3)

Scholars of the Talmud say the reason the Sabbath was created was not because God needed rest but in order to make rest holy, to demand rest of us so that by regularly resting in God, we could ourselves become new people. We are encouraged to keep the day by setting aside weekly routines, and giving ourselves permission to relax, be still, and partake in only those things which refresh our spirits. Our work, after all, will never be complete. But Sunday is not meant to serve merely our own renewal. Sunday frees us to fulfill the Lord’s command to “love one another” in ways we normally pass up during a busy week. Our very celebration of the Sunday Eucharist calls us to this service. As Pope Saint John Paul II exhorts:

“The Sunday eucharist commits the faithful even more to all the works of charity, of mercy, of apostolic outreach.” Dies Domini 69