LITURGY LESSON: PSALM RESPONSE
(Given: April 25, 2010 4th Sunday Easter)
Prior to Easter we talked about the First Reading. Today we hear something about the Psalm Response.
Continuing the practice of the Jewish synagogue, early Christians traditionally sang a psalm after the first reading. That is now our Psalm Response. Those who remember the old Sunday Missals might remember that this is what used to be called The Gradual. It was usually just recited quietly by the priest.
The primary function of the psalm is to
serve as the people’s response to the reading just proclaimed. The scriptural message is to reverberate in
the assembly whose members together acknowledge and respond to the word of God
by using the word of God.
The selection of the responsorial psalms
found in the Lectionary was done with utmost
care. Certain general principles were followed. Thus a psalm is used for a response if the Scriptures for
the day quote a psalm, if a literary reference is made to the psalm in the
first reading, if the psalm more clearly illustrates what is proclaimed in the
reading.
Additionally, psalms having a connection with
a particular liturgical season are used during that season, for example the
penitential psalms during Lent.
The person leading the assembly in the
singing of the responsorial psalm is referred to as
the cantor. The psalm should
be sung at the ambo, since the psalm is part of the Word of God and the
ambo is the place from which that Word is proclaimed.
The responsorial psalm is the assembly’s
acclamation of the proclamation of God’s Word in our midst. That is how we worship: proclamation followed
by acclamation.
Source: Sunday Bulletin,