Ordinary 17 - 26A
by Rory Cooney
Copyright © 1993
In the extraordinary movie The Crying Game, Fergus (played in a brilliantly understated fashion by Stephen Rea) is a devoted soldier in the Irish Republican Army. Terror and cruelty are the tools with which he and his companions are building the future of their country. Fergus's prisoner is a British soldier named Jody. In the course of his brief captivity, Jody makes a number of appeals to Fergus's heart for his life, but none is quite so powerful as a little story he tells about a scorpion and a frog. It's difficult to say anything about this movie without saying too much, but this appeal to Fergus's humanity, in the form of a parable, changes Fergus's life in unexpected ways, both in ways which he consciously chooses and in the procession of events which are consequently unleashed on him.
Parables invite new ways of behavior. They open up our imaginations which are locked into patterns and habits of acting that control us in ways of which we are frequently unaware. Once we are drawn into the world they present, we see new possibilities, old ways are exposed in their inadequacy. Mostly, they are an invitation to act. If the parables in the gospel are not evidence enough of the incredible power of story, one need only think of the effect such stories as Uncle Tom's Cabin and To Kill a Mockingbird have had upon American history.
Having listened over the last several weeks to some of the parables of the kingdom, we, with the disciples, are encouraged now to take action. But not before the storyteller has demonstrated his at-one-ness with his story, demonstrating in actions that he himself has completely in tune with the truths he teaches. In his recounting of the multiplication of the loaves, the walking on the lake, and the encounter with the Canaanite woman, the author of the first gospel shows us that Jesus is the first citizen of the dominion of God, that he indeed lives in that new world already, and that the world is here among us. It is a world of bounty for all people, and one to which Jesus is present in the midst of circling storms.
The church today, like the Church in Matthew's time, is struggling with the task of incarnating the gospel in the world in which it finds itself. We find ourselves in storms and wondering where the One is who can save us. We find ourselves arguing with women of stubborn love who will not be refused God's blessing because they are not the right nationality (read "gender.") We find ourselves wondering how many times we have to forgive the pedophile pastors, the bishop who votes for celibate priesthood and himself has a life of sexual encounters, the spouse who betrays or forgets, the child who has turned away. America says "punish." The world says, "Turn away. Write off unprofitable relationships." The gospel says, "Forgive an impossible number of times."
For liturgy and music, the task is clear. Tell the story without adulteration. Act on the story in the eucharistic liturgy with clarity and transparent faithfulness. Women, children, and men act together, in harmony, in many varying but interdependent ways. It is always the story of this people that makes the Eucharist. The God of the Exodus is in our story, our life. It should be clear from the way we celebrate Eucharist, from the demeanor of the presider to the way ministers are chosen to the environment for worship is prepared, that the people assembled are an incarnation of God's presence as we are as well as in ways yet to be discovered. The repetition of the eucharistic action in faithfulness, Sunday after Sunday, should be both reflecting and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145 "The hand of the Lord feeds us, he answers all our needs."
People who really believe in the reign of God, who have actually begun to live there, always make a difference. One thinks of big names; of Dorothy Day, of Thomas Merton, of Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, and smaller ones, like the late Sister Sybil Bourgeois, O.P., who worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor and cast-aside in the diocese of Phoenix until her untimely death in March. These are real heroes, or, in our Catholic mythology, saints; people who knew (know) in their bones the nearness of God's reign. When such people encounter need, things change. Hungry people get fed. Rival groups start talking. The dying are prized, ministered to. Frightened and battered people become a force for freedom. Today's liturgy is about these two things: that people like Jesus make things happen, and that what happens around them for the sake of the world is the overflowing bounty of the dominion of the Holy.
Believe in what you are doing. Believe in the ministry of the table to which you have been called. But believe as strongly in the things of which that table is a symbol: God's bounty, Christ's presence, the value and equality before God of all people. The Eucharist, genuinely celebrated and sung, brings these truths home in us. Let's not keep telling hungry and thirsty people to grin and bear it, to await their reward in another lifetime. In Jesus's words, "Give them something to eat yourselves." There's a meal worth singing about.
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Gift of Finest Wheat |
Kreutz/Westendorf |
ICEL |
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Gather Us In |
Haugen |
GIA |
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Wisdom Has Built Herself a House |
Deiss |
WLP |
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Eat This Bread |
Taizé |
GIA |
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Hymn of Thanksgiving |
Daigle |
GIA |
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The Kingdom of God on the Way |
Conry |
New Dawn |
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As Grain Once Scattered |
Conry |
New Dawn |
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To Be Your Bread |
Haas |
GIA |
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Companions on the Journey |
Landry |
NALR |
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Come to Us |
Cooney |
NALR |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 85: "Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation."
Peter's cry to Jesus in the heart of the storm, "Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you across the water," articulates the prayer of the believer in trouble. In other words, it's all nice and easy for you to walk on water, Lord, but I'm the one whose boat is sinking. "Tell me to come to you across the water" is a cry for mercy; is a way of saying, "Kyrie, eleison." It's the same sentiment that is found in the response of our responsorial psalm today: "Let US see your kindness; grant us your salvation." In its original liturgical usage, this psalm may have been a communal prayer for spring rain and a good harvest. The Hebrews wanted God to show Self in a tangible way: let your mercy fall in the rain! What is important to remember is that they also believed that God's mercy was indeed already present there, and in the earth, and in the sowing.
The Eucharist is a celebration of presence. We should prepare it with the care that allows the experience of shared presence and presence promised in the storm to be shared among people, and to be experienced as the promise of a God who is as close as the earth, and whose voice bids us walk in the storm.
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Your Mercy Like Rain |
Cooney |
GIA |
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God Beyond All Names |
Farrell |
OCP |
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Penitential Litany |
Daigle |
GIA |
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God of All That Lives |
Conry |
Team/OCP |
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Though the Mountains May Fall |
Schutte |
New Dawn |
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I the Lord |
Kendzia |
NALR |
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Be Not Afraid |
Dufford |
New Dawn |
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You Are Near |
Schutte |
New Dawn |
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I Have Loved You |
Joncas |
New Dawn |
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Mystery |
Cooney |
NALR |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 45, "The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold."
In choosing music for today's feast, we can do one of two things. We can make up a service based on what we think the Assumption of Mary means, or we can read the scriptures for today and look at the sacramentary prayers and try to ascertain what the Church is praying about today. I vote for the latter method. We discover that heart of today's feast is no surprise: it is the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, the triumph of God on behalf of humanity over sin and oppression (Revelation and Luke) and death (1 Corinthians).
Mary is an icon of that victory, both as a woman of history and as a figure of the church. She is a disciple, prophet, and apostle as well. She is, in today's gospel, like a finger pointing to the loveliness of the moon, and while today we greatly reverence her for what God has made of her, we would be off the mark to mistake the finger for the moon. She is the first to proclaim that "GOD has done great things for me." That is, all will follow Christ in resurrection and glory who, like she has done, give to God their "fiat mihi" and surrender to what follows. She makes this promise relying on God's unfailing love, fully aware of the awesome destructive power of betrayal, tyranny, and death.
To be sure, it is rare that one of the Marian feasts falls on a Sunday, replacing the ordinary cyclic readings, and so today is an opportunity for important liturgical catechesis. Please: no sky-blue vestments, or "On This Day, O Beautiful Mother" for a communion processional. My advice is to limit Marian-themed songs to the preparation rite (taking care not to overwhelm that humble rite especially by length) and the final hymn, if there is to be one. I further think that one would have to go a long way to find a more christologically suitable Marian text than the Cistercian chant, "Mary the Dawn," which can be found in the People's Mass Book (WLP) or in the Pius X Hymnal. Its balanced form invites reflection on the relationship of Mary and Christ as a symbol of the relationship between the Church and God, which is to say, it leads us to reflect upon the mystery into which grace is making us.
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Be Joyful Mary |
traditional |
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Hail, Holy Queen |
traditional |
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Glory and Praise to Our God |
Schutte |
New Dawn |
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We Praise You |
Dameans |
GIA |
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I Am the Bread of Life |
Toolan |
GIA |
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You Are Mine |
Haas |
GIA |
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Praised Be the Flower |
Deiss |
NALR |
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How Lovely Is Your Dwelling |
Joncas |
New Dawn |
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Mary's Song |
Joncas |
New Dawn |
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Canticle of the Turning |
Cooney |
GIA |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 138: "Lord, your love is eternal. Do not forsake the work of your hands."
Scripture is full of cataclysmic questions. Being a record (written from our perspective) of the divine love affair with our race, the questions are a search for truth, for decision, for clarity of intention and purpose. "Who told you you were naked?" "Where is your brother?" "Who will I say sent me?" "What is truth?" "Where were you when I made the heavens?" The list is lengthy. But there is hardly a more important question for the Christian scripture than the one at the center of today's gospel: "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus's response to Peter's confession is also significant: it is God who empowers our response in truth. "No mere mortal" can be the giver of faith: that is a gift from God that precedes the believer's confession.
Faith thus given is empowered: "I give you the keys." We pray in the psalm that God remember us, remember what God started by implanting faith in us. Let us pray to bind and loose spirits appropriately, use the keys to open doors, not to lock people out. Singing the general intercessions today, and really making them prayers for wise use of the power of our faith, would be a good choice in the light of the scriptures.
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Christ of God |
Foley |
New Dawn |
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How Lovely Is Your Dwelling |
Joncas |
New Dawn |
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Here I Am, Lord |
Schutte |
New Dawn |
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Servant Song |
Cooney |
NALR |
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Anthem |
Conry |
New Dawn |
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We Have Builded |
Consiglio |
NALR |
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Send Us As Your Blessing |
Walker |
OCP |
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I Long for You |
Dameans |
GIA |
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You Alone |
Cooney |
NALR |
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City of God |
Schutte |
New Dawn |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 63: "My soul is longing for you, O Lord, my God."
"You seduced me, O God, and I let myself be seduced; you were too strong for me." "My soul is longing for you...On my bed I remember you, I think of you all through the night." The first reading and psalm today sound like the passionate language of human love, and they lead to us to what? "If any would become my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross, and follow me." This juxtaposition is reminiscent of the impetus the Church feels to kiss the cross on Good Friday, that is, we know within our hearts that God's embrace holds us through our suffering. At our best, we face the cross, we walk to Jerusalem with our face firmly set, because all of our experience has led us to the faith that God will be with us whatever happens.
The entrance procession is always led by the cross. Perhaps today we could make more of an event of that moment, and allow our gaze to be fixed on the cross at points during the procession down the aisle, and again before the cross takes its place in the sanctuary. A litanic processional, or a responsorial-style processional that might include some instrumental interludes, could heighten this moment and allow the gathering rite today to really open our hearts to the word we are about to hear be proclaimed.
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The Christ of God |
Foley |
New Dawn |
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Lift High the Cross |
traditional |
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Jesus the Lord |
O'Connor |
New Dawn |
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Jesus Died Upon the Cross |
Brown |
NALR |
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Now We Remain |
Haas |
GIA |
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I Will Not Die |
Conry |
Team/OCP |
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Blest Are They |
Haas |
GIA |
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Shelter Me, O God |
Hurd |
OCP |
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On Eagle's Wings |
Joncas |
New Dawn |
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Hold Me in Life |
Huijbers |
TEAM.OCP |
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Penitential Litany |
Daigle |
GIA |
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Jerusalem, My Destiny |
Cooney |
GIA |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95: "If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart."
Rarely is the scriptural proclamation as clear as it is today about our responsibility for one another. Even the second reading, which is sequential and only occasionally lends any thematic support to the first reading and gospel, is an appeal that we love one another. We're accustomed to being told that, but not with the directness of the gospel which tells us that we should care enough about each other's behavior to intervene when necessary to preserve unity or bring about reconciliation. In our privatized and litigious society, there should be strong preaching today by homily and song to reinforce the gospel message.
One of the Eucharistic prayers of reconciliation would be most appropriate today; its texts could be heightened by the use of (appropriate) additional acclamations. Singing the "Lord's Prayer," if there is a well-known version (the chant version, for instance) would be a good choice, or reciting it today if you are accustomed to singing it. Take extra care with the whole communion rite, as it most perfectly symbolizes the mutual care that the gospel calls for today.
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Ubi Caritas |
Taizé |
GIA |
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Beatitudes |
Dameans |
GIA |
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Peace Prayer |
Foley |
New Dawn |
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Many Are the Lightbeams |
Haugen |
GIA |
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Make Us One |
Kendzia |
NALR |
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May We Be One |
Daigle |
GIA |
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Faithful Family |
Cooney |
NALR |
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Companions on the Journey |
Landry |
NALR |
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Bless the Feast |
Hansen |
OCP |
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One Is |
Cooney |
GIA |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103, "The Lord is kind and merciful."
Once again, a way of living in community is asserted in the scriptures, an alternative to litigation and even to a "bill of rights": it is the way of forgiveness. I think that too frequently we assume that our business-as-usual life in the Church and in society is an imperfect rendering of Gospel life. To say even that, however, is to be far too kind to ourselves. The gospel offers a totally different world view. We will arrive at the end of what we consider to be just and generous behavior, and then offer a list of restrictions beginning with "but if the other guy doesn't respond...." There is no limit to the call to forgive, to be reconciled, to bear with one another in the gospel vision. Today's scripture offers to us what has to be the root of our way of forgiveness: God has forgiven us first. Thanksgiving is at the heart of forgiveness. Eucharist is the heart of forgiveness.
What parts of the Eucharistic liturgy call God's forgiveness of us to our attention, thus calling us to the thanksgiving appropriate to disciples and called for in today's gospel? The penitential rite, today's responsorial psalm, the eucharistic prayers (most obviously the prayers of reconciliation), and the entire communion rite (the Lord's Prayer and its embolism, the kiss of peace, the breaking of the bread and the accompanying litany "Lamb of God," the communion procession and song, and the prayer after communion.) Pay special attention to these elements as you plan today's music.
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Joyfully Singing |
Dameans |
GIA |
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Healer of Our Every Ill |
Haugen |
GIA |
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Faithful Family |
Cooney |
NALR |
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Praise the Lord My Soul |
Foley |
New Dawn |
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We Have Been Told |
Haas |
GIA |
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Rich in Compassion |
Landry |
NALR |
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Peace Prayer |
Foley |
New Dawn |
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Our Blessing Cup |
Joncas |
New Dawn |
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Compassion Poured Out |
Peña |
GIA |
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Lover of Us All |
Schutte |
New Dawn |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145: "The Lord is near to all who call on him."
A new vision of justice is planted in us by the preaching of Jesus in the parables. In his own tradition, Jesus had become aware of God as a God of little ones, losers, and latecomers, faithful to promises in an utterly one-sided manner. Over and over in the Hebrew scriptures, the strong are rejected in favor of the weak, elder brothers in favor of younger ones, powerful men in favor of boys and women. Today's parable continues that tradition, continues the attempt of the Beyond to help us see, to really see, with the vision of God. The parable ends with the outrageous declaration that in God's world, the first shall be last and the last first. We need to take this kind of paradox more seriously in our churches: they are the Teacher's way of telling us that in the end, we really don't know much of anything about who God is, or what God does.
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Cry of the Poor |
Foley |
New Dawn |
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God Beyond All Names |
Farrell |
OCP |
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Gather Us In |
Haugen |
GIA |
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Lift Up Your Hearts |
O'Connor |
New Dawn |
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We Remember |
Haugen |
GIA |
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All the Ends of the Earth |
Dufford |
New Dawn |
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Song of Thanksgiving |
Ducote |
GIA |
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Blest Are They |
Haas |
GIA |
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Psalm 23 |
Conry |
Team/OCP |
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Canticle of the Turning |
Cooney |
GIA |
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God of Abraham |
Farrell |
OCP |
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25, "Remember your mercies, O Lord."
Today's scriptures follow the pattern of the last several weeks, inviting us to reimagine the dominion of God. When story after story in the gospel offers us a clear vision of God's unexpected grace, unrelenting mercy, and surprising choice of the sinner, it should amaze us that we hold on to so many prejudices and securities. These things are meant to challenge our faith, because we have come to believe in false gods, or rather, we have come to believe in an image or several images of God, rather than of the true God of the scriptures. That our faith should be thus is not surprising, but in the parables Jesus has left us a corrective that calls us away from our idols. Again, the readings are a call to conversion and repentance, urging us to pray and work that anger be turned to embracing, that walls become doorways, and that we stop mistaking the rickety structure of the church for the boundless world that is God's dominion.
See the music selections and ritual music suggestions for the last two weeks for more ideas.
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Amazing Grace |
trad. |
|
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We Are the Servants |
Ridge |
OCP |
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You Alone |
Cooney |
NALR |
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Penitential Litany |
Daigle |
GIA |
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Pescador de Hombres |
Gabaráin |
OCP |
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Gather Us In/Let Your Will Be Done |
Kendzia |
NALR |
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Change Our Hearts |
Cooney |
NALR |
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Faithful Family |
Cooney |
NALR |
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Remember Your Love |
Dameans |
GIA |
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