Hymn of the week: ‘We Are Called’

I’m away from my parish (again) this weekend, while on vacation in Florida, and we attended Mass Saturday evening at St. Faustina Catholic Church outside Orlando—a cheerful but otherwise unremarkable place located (for now) in the corner of a strip mall, while they raise funds to build a proper parish church.

The parish has a lot of nice details that set it apart: the confessional (or reconciliation room) is identified as the “Grotto of Mercy,” and images of Divine Mercy are everywhere.

They also pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy before Mass. It’s a bustling, vibrant parish, led by an energetic priest, Father David C. Gillis (who, it seems, is being reassigned after several years.)

Anyway, for this particular Sunday, “We Are Called” by David Haas was the recessional—a fitting coda, in many ways, to this Sunday’s Gospel and Christ’s command to love one another.

Come! live in the light!
Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord!
We are called to be light for the kingdom,
to live in the freedom of the city of God!

Refrain: We are called to act with justice.
We are called to love tenderly.
We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.

Come! Open your heart!
Show your mercy to all those in fear!
We are called to be hope for the hopeless,
so all hatred and blindness will be no more!

You won’t find a better or more joyful rendition of this contemporary hymn than the one below, from the Notre Dame Folk Choir. It’s just great.