Top Catholic Songs – share, learn, promote

Wine Press No greater Love or deeper anguish there ever was or will be Than on the cross on Golgotha And in the olive garden of Gethsemane There all the world’s sin guilt and utter sorrow Was laid on you for you to bear There you were crushed By all the weight of our human despair Like in a wine press your body sweat blood and all because of your love for us No one could know the depths you suffered Except Him who knew you perfectly God your Father No one could give the sacrifice you offered all holy and pure And by your cross stood your Holy Mother A sword of sorrow pierced her heart And in your sacrifice she took part And in utter anguish you cried out My God my God why have you forsaken me You prayed Psalm twenty-two Then in pure Faith into your Father’s hands you

I wrote this song in the 1990s about an athetoid cerebral palsy student who came into my class at the age of 14. He had no control of his limbs save some control of his head and was unable to speak. 
He needed total care. He seemed to have normal intelligence. This was confirmed when we got him a computer with a program that enabled him to select words and sentences using his head to control a switch. He had a wonderful family who were devout Catholics.

I had some wonderful conversations with him about his condition in relation to his faith in the good Lord and about heaven where the  Lord will give us a new glorified body like his own. Between the loving care he received from his mom, dad, and brother and the gift of Faith, he was grateful to be alive and prayed for us all. I was truly blessed to know him and his family.

The Church leads us to follow Christ in his suffering, death, and Resurrection, in a focused way, during the liturgical days it calls the Triduum.  Following Christ helps us through our own small or sometimes heavy experiences of various kinds of suffering and “death(s)” that we can offer up in union with Christ for the salvation of others. The Church has experienced this in her history as in the case of the protestant reformation in England, when the church underwent great persecution, martyrdom, and seeming death. We will all experience a final suffering and physical death and by God’s grace our resurrection. The Church teaches us that there will be a final suffering, death, and, resurrection of the Church at the end time. How or when it happens is not specified.

Psalm 91 speaks of the right to the ultimate and unlimited trust in God if you follow God’s will.  In spite of all the terrible things that can happen to you, some of which the psalm addresses, you know that God is your final and unfailing refuge. Even when no human being can or will help you, You can trust in God who is almighty, and love itself. This does not mean we can tempt God to protect or help us if we are acting outside of his will, as Satan tempted Jesus(in his human nature) when atop the parapet 
of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus rebuked him by quoting Deut. 6: 16. - “Thow shall not tempt the Lord your God".  We can easily fall into this temptation.  

LYRICS:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High *

Lord you gave and give us everything 2 our life, your word and new psalms to sing 3 you showed us and show  us now 4 in your saints how in joy to live
1 Dear Father you created us 2 in your gracious divine Love 3 in your image and likeness 4 to know and love you as your children
Dear God Father and Son 2 You send us your Holy Spirit 3 to give us 
A new birth 2 in your divine life of love
Dear God HolySpirit  2 you confirm us as we mature 2 and endow us with your gifts and fruits  4 to purify and make us Holy 
1 In our weakness you intercede for us 2 when we don’t know what to pray for. 3 You inspire the good, true, and beautiful 4 You move us to sing  5 And pine for heaven

Our Lord wept as he looked at Jerusalem just before Holy Week: 
 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
LYRICS:

LYRICS:
1 We come before you Our Mother and Queen 2 Full of grace help us
Now 3in this time of rising distress
We your children cry out to you 2 who shares uniquely in your Son’s divinity 3 He chose you to be his human mother 4 and closest friend and collaborator
1 You shared intimately in his work of redemption 2 you shared in In his joys and sorrows, 3 his passion and death and now in his glory
1God who is trinitarian love 2 made you our most loving mother
3 Like your son meek and humble of heart 4 He raised you both as King and Queen
1 Like your son king of martyrs 2 you su ered and o ered yourself up completely 3 for our salvation 4 as queen of martyrs
1 as virgin, mother, and wife, 2 you did God’s will perfectly

LYRICS
1 Behold we’re in a fullness of time -2 of testing and being refined 3 Of dark deception leaving many blind
4 To God’s love more real than sunshine
1 evil seems to deepen globally 2 and portrayed triumphantly 3 and sows self-righteous judgments
4 discord, fear, and animosity
1 some turn to love of money 2 some to a religious ideology 3 some blind in their sophistry 4 some hope in utopia earthly
1 for some all hope is in politics 2 or playing the stock market 3National debts rise exponentially 4 The global south crumbles Economic and politically
1 more see you O Lord as mythology 2 more are subdued in the dictatorship of relativity 3 all these lies and fear are engendered by 4 the evil one behind the scene

As part of my series on Catholic hymns, I have chosen a hymn that was written by a Redemptorist Priest. He was a missionary in England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, and was affectionately known by his fellow companions as the grand old chief.

He compiled the first Australian Catholic Hymn Book which served the Catholic Church for many years. 

Please take a few moments to read about this wonderful hymn asking for God’s mercy and compassion. Please visit my website Mother of Mercy Catholic Hymns and click on HYMN OF THE MONTH.

https://www.motherofmercycatholichymns.com/god-of-mercy-and-compassion/

LYRICS:
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord God, how great you are
clothed in majesty and glory.
wrapped in light as in a robe!
How many are your works, O Lord! † In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
There is the sea, vast and wide, †
with its moving swarms past counting, living things great and small.
The ships are moving there *
and the monsters you made to play with.
All of these look to you
to give them their food in due season. You give it, they gather it up:
you open your hand, they have their fill.

LYRICS
You O Lord know us personally - More than anyone could possibly You intercede for us to our Father- as your dear sisters & brothers
You’ve done and do everything- that you could to give us your love You give yourself to us intimately -as our dear spouse and closest friend
You gave up your life for us - no greater love that you could give And by your death, we now can live - fully in freedom as children of God
through your Church, you feed us - with your word and eucharisticly You strengthen and admonish us - to live like you as light for all to see
You tell us many have left you - as I once did in my youth But through your friends brought me back to you

In his book, Jesus of Nazareth (Holy Week -Ignatius press -2011- pp 288-292), Pope Benedict discusses the prayer ( Marana tha) for the definitive coming of the Lord Jesus, in the conclusion of the Book of Revelation. “It is the prayer of one who loves, one who is surrounded in the besieged city and can only wait for the arrival of the beloved who has the power to end the siege and bring salvation. Christian prayer for the Lord’s return always includes the experience of his presence. He is with us now, and especially close in the eucharistic presence. Yet conversely, the Christian experience of the Lord’s presence does include a certain tension toward the future when his presence will be definitely fulfilled.” He quotes St.

In this information age we can become overwhelmed and confused. There is so much knowledge available about so many things and that can be helpful. The one thing however that matters is growing in the knowledge of the Lord in Scripture and our intimacy with him. ST. John told us in the Book of Revelation that even the elect could be deceived. 
LYRICS;
We call on you each morning n00n and night For help in this spiritual fight
For without you, we’ll fail to perceived
As lies what our enemy conceives
In these times of stark deception
Most media spew twisted perceptions  For those who know you not - are easily
deceived by lies inspired by our enemy

LYRICS
 Some sing for Joy- some are deep in despair- some lost in a maze in a Lukewarm daze and time runs out
So much suffering years of tears creation groans -come Lord Come Always you're near - to forgive and to heal - all we need to is ask and be Sealed by your Spirit - Lord have mercy Lord have mercy Lord have mercy Lord have mercy
You know us most keenly - our moves and our motives -you know us most clearly -you know us most dearly - calling on you- Sacred Heart Abyss of Love overflowing -quench our thirst
Tour close to the broken - in body or spirit - you’re close to the humble The proud fall and stumble - and we sing - son of God son of Mary
Lord and Lamb - Heart of fire