Notes on the Music for Sunday, August 26, 2018

Dr. Leon Podles

One night in London, Thomas Olivers (1725-1729), a follower of John Wesley, was attracted to a service in a Jewish synagogue, where he heard a great singer, Myer Leoni, sing an ancient Hebrew text in solemn, plaintive mode. Olivers wrote a hymn to that tune: The God of Abraham Praise, which is a paraphrase of the ancient Hebrew Yigdal, or doxology. In the 12th century, Jewish scholar Moses Maimonides codified the 13 articles of the Jewish Creed. These articles of the Jewish faith were later shaped into the Yigdal around 1400 by Daniel ben Judah, a judge in Rome.

Jesus, the very thought of Thee is a translation by Edward Caswall (1814-1878) of the 12th century Latin hymn Iesu dulcis memoria, which appears in the Roman Breviary. The hymn is sometimes attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, and is certainly influenced by the intense personal relationship to Jesus that Bernard espoused.

Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, by William Chalmers Smith (1824-1908), is a proclamation of the transcendence of God: "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever" (1 Tim 17). No man has ever seen God, who dwells in inaccessible light that is darkness to mortal eyes. God lacks nothing ("nor wanting") and never changes ("nor wasting"), and is undying, unlike mortals, who in a striking image "blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree, then wither and perish." The original ending of the hymn completes the thought: "And so let Thy glory, almighty, impart, / Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart." "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known" (John 1:18). Only in Jesus through the proclamation of the Gospel can we know the Father.

This Week's Calendar

• Friday - April 19
  Eastertide Feria
  No Public Mass
  
• Saturday - April 20
  Eastertide Feria
  or
  BVM: Mass of Saint Mary 4
  No Public Mass
  
• Sunday - April 21
  Fourth Sunday of Easter
  8:45 am - Legion of Mary
  9:00 am - Morning Prayer
  9:30 am - Confession
  10:00 am - Sung Mass
  11:30 am - Brunch
  
• Monday - April 22
  Eastertide Feria
  No public Mass
  
• Tuesday - April 23
  St George, Martyr
  Memorial
  8:00 am - Morning Prayer
  8:30 am - Spoken Mass
  
• Wednesday - April 24
  Eastertide Feria
  or
  St Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr
  or
  St Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr
  12:10 pm - Spoken Mass
  
• Thursday - April 25
  St Mark, Evangelist
  Feast
  8:00 am - Morning Prayer
  8:30 am - Spoken Mass
  
• Friday - April 26
  Eastertide Feria
  No Public Mass
  

Location & Contact

Mount Calvary Catholic Church
816 N. Eutaw Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-4624

Phone: (410) 728-6140

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