Worship Leaders Don't Always Make For Vibrant Congregants

A few minutes into Christmas midnight Mass at St. Aloysius and I realized what a wimpy congregational singer I can be. I'm sure that the people seated two rows ahead of me could not hear me sing. I guess my only excuse, as lame as it may be, is that the assembly as a whole was rather timid. I'm not going to go into the whole "Why Catholics Can't Sing" litany that Thomas Day laid out so well in his book by that name. But surely one of the reasons I don't always sing full throttle is the fear that I will stick out. And fear is a great Spirit-quencher and joy-robber.

"Set my spirit free that I might worship Thee!"

Praise Him On Purpose

Our wills are a precious gift from Father. They are employed best when, under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we are intentional about worship -- when we praise Him on purpose. It is not unusual to find myself halfway through the second song in a praise medley and realize that I'm just singing and playing. "Oh yeah ... I need to address my voice, these words, and this music to the Lord."

When I prompt the congregation to "sing this to God" it's because I've just remembered why we are there. I wonder if any of the faithful worshippers ask, "Well, who does he think we're singing to?" Praising intentionally by focussing all of our attention on the Lord is one the things that differentiates congregational worship from feel-good group singing (i.e., "Hail To The Bus Driver")

Passionate Worship as Evidence of Our Love For God

This week a friend told me that she could tell that I love the Lord by the way I conduct myself in corporate worship. Hearing an affirmation about personal piety is tricky business. I simply responded, "Well, I *do* love Him." But now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'd say that the assembly of worshippers is the easiest place in the world to express (and thus display) love for God. Where it gets a little testier is outside of those walls, out here where I'm rubbing flesh with the jackals and hyenas of this life.

Jesus commands us to love our neighbor in the same breath that we are commanded to love God. St. John goes as far as to say that "If any one says 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." (I Jn 4:20)

Yes, I love the Lord. And I don't want to temper my expression of that love when I gather to worship with the family of God simply because I fall ... over and over again. But I have this hope: that as I gaze at Him and proclaim His goodness, I am being transformed into His image ... that His holinness is gradually displacing my selfishness in the life-long process we call conversion.

Jesus As Our Model for Spirit & Truth Worship

Today's Gospel reading is astounding. (Lk 10:21)

"Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, 'I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike."

God the Son rejoices in God the Spirit while giving praise to God the Father. Here is a mindblowing picture of the Persons of the Holy Trinity enjoying one another and loving one another. When we enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, this is where we land: in God who is love and who loves Himself and us.

Jesus goes on to say, "No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." Jesus so wants to reveal the Father to us. When we come as children to Jesus, He reveals the face of God to us. He is the image of the invisible God.

"He who has seen me has seen the Father."