Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Brigid McCabeJuly 12, 2023
Record player sitting on shelfPhoto from Unsplash.

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.)

The latest from america

It is not an exaggeration to say that between 1940 and 1980, the author and critic Riley Hughes reviewed well over 1,000 books for different Catholic magazines.
James T. KeaneMay 13, 2025
Peruvians celebrate as they join the pope for the 'Regina Coeli' prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 11, 2025. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)
Father Robert Prevost first arrived in Peru in 1985 during a time of crisis, the aftermath of devastating El Niño rains that had left thousands of people homeless.
Kevin ClarkeMay 13, 2025
“I invited His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X.
Pope Leo XIV’s devotion to St. Augustine, his life and ministry as a member of the Augustinian order and his focus on the unity of the church are reflected in his episcopal motto and coat of arms.