A Reflection for Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness. (Ps 33:3)
When I started college two years ago, my dad bought me a Victrola record player from Target for me to keep in my dorm room. I brought a few of my most treasured albums to school with me: Bella Donna by Stevie Nicks, The River by Bruce Springsteen, Folklore by Taylor Swift and about five or six others. Any time I had a free afternoon, I would venture into the city and try a new record store, slowly adding to my personal collection and treasuring each new find.
Like many other kids my age, I grew up streaming any album I wanted, whenever and wherever I felt like it—usually while doing something else, like running or studying or cleaning my room. As a result, I rarely gave the songs I listened to my full attention. But over the course of the last two years, my relationship with music has changed.
Now when I pick out a record and let it spin, I commit to the album and listen to it straight through—no pauses, no skips, no distractions. I try to really immerse myself in the artistry of the music. While I have never been particularly musically gifted, I have come to develop a much deeper appreciation for the spirituality of songwriting and its ability to reveal so much about a person—where they come from, who they love, what they want from their life.
I love the idea that every single person—whether we are Bruce Springsteen or a musically untalented college student—has a song within us worth singing to God with shouts of gladness.
One album I would turn on when I wanted to escape the dreariness of school was Cass Elliot’s Mama’s Big Ones, which features the popular song “Make Your Own Kind of Music.” I was reminded of this song today by the first verse of the Responsorial Psalm, which encourages the worship of God through music.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness. (Ps 33:3)
Every time I hear some iteration of the phrase “sing to him a new song,” it reminds me so much of Elliot’s chorus, which tells listeners to “sing your own special song.”
When I put an album on, I like to identify what makes it distinct from other musical works—what makes it “new” and “special” from those I have heard before. I love the idea that God does the same with the world on a larger scale, becoming immersed in our lives, connecting with us, knowing what makes each and every one of us unique and truly loving us for it. And I love the idea that every single person—whether we are Bruce Springsteen or a musically untalented college student—has a song within us worth singing to God with shouts of gladness (even if nobody else sings along.)
