SONG OF THE WEEK from MRS. JONESPraise and Worship is a weekly class for Pre-School through 5th grade. This class is unique to O'Hara as it is in addition to their religion class. The focus of Praise and Worship is to grow in our personal relationship with God. We do this in a variety of ways, such as Bible stories, learning scripture, learning about our church, and most popular, through music. Our students love finding the deeper meaning in Christian music, hand motions, and prayer time.
I often get requests from parents asking for the song title we have been singing in Praise and Worship, so each week I will be posting our "Song of the Week" in the bulletin. This will include a short blog and the music video so you can build your playlist, gain a deeper understanding of what is happening in Praise and Worship, and most of all, hopefully grow in your own relationship with God through the gift of music. September 23, 2018 "Set a Fire" by Will Reagan & United Pursuit Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes Each year, we pick a Gospel theme song that enhances our gospel theme passage. This year's song is called Set a Fire. This song is what I like to call a worship song. The lyrics are repetitive and have a powerful meaning. A 5th grade student said their favorite line in the song was "I want more, I want more, won't you pour it out." When asked what that meant to them they said, "I want more of God's love, His grace, and peace." One of our 3rd graders said the line that spoke to her was "set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain." She said "I just love God so much that I can't contain it and I want to share it." WOW! Our students are so awesome! Listen to the song and see how God speaks to you! September 30, 2018
"The Lion and the Lamb" by Big Daddy Weave Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes Oh, how our students love this new song! Jesus has many names given to Him that describe Him in different ways. This song describes Jesus as the Lion of Judah, and the Lamb of God. Revelation 5:5-13 talks about Jesus as the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. Both images portray Jesus doing very different things: the Lion comes in power to fight for us, and the Lamb of God, who was innocently slain for the sin of the world, to open the gates of heaven. Our favorite line in the song is "Who can stop the Lord Almighty?" Each time after we sing the line, "Who can stop the Lord Almighty?" we raise our fist and proclaim "NO ONE!!" To hear our students shouting that with conviction is breath taking. They understand that no one can stop God. That His love is constantly being poured out to us through His power and His gentleness. Our God is both a Lion and a Lamb. October 7, 2018
"Reckless Love" by Bethel Worship Arts Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes Reckless Love by Bethel Worship Arts is my new favorite worship song! I heard it for the first time at a conference that I led high school students to this past summer. The song has not only touched my life, but made an incredible impact on my high school students this summer, as well as on O'Hara students during Praise and Worship last week. The words to this song speak right to the heart. The song speaks of how God's love is never-ending and overwhelming. It tells us that God's love can't be earned by how we live our lives, and that we don't deserve God's love, but He freely gives us His love, despite the choices we make. God has a reckless love for His children and He is coming after us. He desires us to choose Him and make Him #1 in our lives. I love the line in the song that says, "He leaves the 99." I think it speaks to me because our God is willing to leave 99 others to come after the 1 who needs Him most. Our God is always pursuing us. The question is, are we pursuing Him? October 14, 2018
"Counting Every Blessing" by Rend Collective Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes The featured song of the week in Praise and Worship is "Counting Every Blessing," by Rend Collective. This song has a great soulful beat, with powerful words. This song is a wonderful reminder to count our blessings daily. How many days do we just go through our day and not realize the many ways that God has been working in our lives? It is fairly easy to be grateful when things are going well in life...but are we seeing the blessings during the hard times? One line in the song says "I am counting every blessing, letting go and trusting when I can not see." This is a challenging statement of faith, to let go and trust in God. As humans we want to control things, but God wants us to rely completely on Him and understand that He will never lead us astray. In Praise and Worship, the students have been challenged to "count their blessings" every day and then turn to God with a prayer of thanksgiving. When we start looking for, and realizing all the ways that God shows up for us every single day, our lives will never be the same. Then the words in the song "Oh- Oh-Oh -Oh, you are good to me," will be ever present in our lives. October 21, 2018
Featured song of the week: "O Come to the Altar" by Elevation Worship Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes O Come to the Altar is an amazing worship song that expresses our Father's love to everyone! Over and over again during Praise and Worship class, the students said that the the line in the song that God spoke to them through, was "The Fathers arms are open wide, forgiveness is bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ." Many students said that it was amazing to think that God is waiting for us with open arms to ask for forgiveness, and it will be given. The other line that stood out was "Jesus is calling." We had wonderful discussions about what is Jesus calling us from, and what is Jesus calling us to? Our God loves us so much, and He desires each and every broken part of us. It is God that makes us whole. Jesus is constantly calling us. The question is...are we listening and will we run to Him? October 28, 2018
Featured song of the week: "I Just Need U" by TobyMac Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes TobyMac's song, "I Just Need U," is our Praise and Worship song of the week. TobyMac is a Christian artist who blends hip hop, rap, and techno music to speak the message of God. His music is fun to listen and dance to. Our students just love all of his music! "I Just Need U" challenges us to surrender all to God when we're up or when we're down. It reminds us to turn our eyes to our soul protector who will pull you closer to Him. When we allow God to be our guide, we will truly come to life. November 4, 2018
Featured song of the week: "Just Like You" by Matt Maher Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes The song this week is a oldie, but definitely a goodie! Matt Maher is the biggest Catholic artist to hit the Christian music scene. He has many great songs, but with last week being All Saints Day, I thought the song "Just Like You" was appropriate. "Just Like You" is about how we want to be holy just like God. We want to follow Jesus' lead and go where He is leading us. But how do we do that? If we want to lead holy lives, we must pray, stay close to the Sacraments, go to Mass, and read scripture. I know we all live busy lives, but I would challenge you to set aside 10 minutes a day to talk to God. Each week, add 1 minute, and before you know it, you'll be spending 30 minutes to an hour in prayer. I guarantee it will transform your life! The Saints in heaven are great examples to us here on earth. Get to know them by reading about their lives. There is a patron Saint for just about everything. When we learn about the lives they led, it will inspire you to live a holy life as well. Just like the song says "I want to be holy, just like you...I want to go where you lead me to...With reckless abandon to your truth...I want to fall deeper in love with you." If you want to be holy like Jesus and the Saints- get to know them! November 11, 2018
Featured song of the week: "Your Heart" by Chris Tomlin Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes With November upon us and it being the month where we remember the Saints in heaven as well as all who have died, the song "Your Heart" by Chris Tomlin is perfect. I love the line in the song that says "at the end of the day, I want to hear people say, my heart looks like your heart." Such a powerful statement! I believe that all the Saints in heaven would boldly proclaim that statement, because each one was striving, here on earth, to be like Jesus. Many of our Saints lived wayward lives, until they had a powerful encounter with Jesus, and from that point forward, they kept their eyes on Jesus. It didn't mean they were perfect, but that they kept getting up and trying again, striving to give their entire lives to Jesus. They just wanted their hearts to look like Jesus' heart. We are called to live the exact same way. Each and everyone of us should be striving to conform our hearts to our Lord's heart. You might ask, how can we do that? - Pray! Spend time getting to know Jesus through talking with Him. You can go to Adoration or spend some quite time alone in your favorite place to pray. - Read about Jesus in the bible, get to know what He taught and how He lived. - Go to Mass. We must spend time worshiping Him as a community of believers. - Get to know Jesus through the Saints. Find a Saint or two who you can have a special connection with. Many lived lives that are very similar to ours. They will inspire you to live a holy life through their example. May God bless each of us as we grow in relationship with Him! November 18, 2018
This week in Praise and Worship our song of the week is "I will follow" by Chris Tomlin. This has been an O'Hara favorite for years. I think our students identify with this song so much because it challenges us to follow God in all circumstances of life. The chorus of the song says this... "Where You go, I'll go. Where You stay, I'll stay. When You move, I'll move. I will follow You! Who You love, I'll love, who You serve, I'll serve. If this life I lose, I will follow You!" This is God's message to us of how we should be living. We are singing the words, "Who You love, God, I'll love too. Who You serve, God, I will serve too." It isn't always easy to love and serve everyone, but God doesn't ask us to only love and serve only those we know. God loves EVERYONE, and He calls us to love like He loves. This means getting our own self out of the way and following God completely! This could very well mean that the life we currently know will change forever, and I guarantee you won't regret it. Featured song of the week: "I will follow" by Chris Tomlin Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes November 26, 2018
I hope each of you had a blessed Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful time of year to be able to reflect on our lives and give God glory for all the ways He has blessed us. Last week in Praise and Worship, we focused on what we are thankful for, and how God is who we should give all glory to. The song of the week is called "Give Glory" by Jacob and Matthew Band. The chorus says "Give glory to our God, who is and always was. Singing Alleluia, give glory to our God." When we tell God how thankful we are, we are turning all of our focus to God and away from ourselves. We also talked about how we should be thankful to the people that God has put in our lives, and make sure that we are saying thank you to everyone who loves and helps us. We used the gospel reading from Luke 17:11-19, The Cleansing of the Ten Lepers, to show how important it is to say thank you. The gospel tells us that 10 lepers were healed from their disease, but only one came back to say thank you. Jesus tells the one that his faith has saved him. You see God delights in us when we are grateful and He blesses our praise and honor to Him. Take time this week to shower our great God with all the honor, glory, thanks, and praise that He deserves! Featured song of the week: "Give Glory" by Jacob and Matthew Band Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes December 2, 2018
Last Sunday was the Solemnity of Christ the King in our church. It marks the last Sunday in Ordinary time. This is such a special feast because it reminds us that Jesus is our King. He is our true and everlasting King. He is the only King we should be following. He should be the King of our homes, school, and our church. St. Pius XI said this, "When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony." This week's song is called "King of My Heart" by Kutless. It reminds us to let Jesus Christ our King rule over all and everything we do. One of our favorite lyrics to the song says, "You are good, good, Oh, Oh, you're never gonna let me down." We must put all our trust in our good and gracious God who will never let us down. May Christ the King bless each of us abundantly! Featured song of the week: "King of my heart" by Kutless Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes December 9, 2018
Happy Advent Everyone! We are a week in and I hope everyone is diving into this amazing season! Advent has been our main focus in praise and worship. We have been talking about 3 things that you can do to make Advent the focus of this busy time of year. 1. Decorate! Put up your nativity scenes and your Advent wreath. At Mass last week, Fr. Jeff encouraged the students to play with their nativity scenes. He said pick one of the characters and put yourself into the scene. What a beautiful way to learn about the birth of Jesus. Also, light your Advent candles each night when you sit down for dinner. Maybe have a topic for the day to discuss, maybe it is how you saw Jesus in your day or talk about what you are grateful for. 2. Pray more! Advent is a season where we should increase our prayer time. So we talked about if you spend 5 minutes in prayer normally, try to increase your prayer time to 6 or 7 minutes each day. You will be surprised at how much this will change your days. 3. Give something up for Advent! Advent is a mini-Lent, meaning it is a penitential season. We are challenged during this time to make changes in our life to prepare our hearts for His coming. So why not give something up for God so you can grow closer to Him? Our song this week is "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by Matt Maher. This song is the perfect Advent song. I have been challenged this past week to dive into the lyrics of this song. I don't know about you, but there are some songs that I just sing along to because I know the words, but don't really pay attention to what they are saying. This song is written for the Israelites who were exiled from the promise land. They were singing out to God asking Him to send the long awaited Messiah, the one who would come and save them from their oppression. Listen to the words of this song. "O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lowly exile here, until the Son of God appears. Rejoice, Rejoice Emmanuel, shall come to thee O Israel." I love this! Even though the Israelites were in captivity, they still held on to the promise of God. They were waiting in hopeful expectation! WOW! Advent is our waiting period. We are waiting for Christmas and to rejoice in the birth of our Savior, but even more, we are waiting for the time when Jesus will come again in all His glory! Let each of us wait with hope, faith and joy in our hearts! Featured song of the week: "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by Matt Maher Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes December 16, 2018
As we continue our journey through Advent, John the Baptist is a powerful story for us during this time. John is sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the way of the Lord. John taught a message of repentance and to get our hearts ready. He is called to awaken the hearts of God's people so that we are truly ready to receive Him. The song this week is "Awake O Sleeper" by Ike Ndolo. The chorus says "Awake O sleeper, arise from slumber Christ is calling our name." Christ is truly calling our name. He wants us to give our hearts, mind and soul to Him. The challenge is will we answer the call? Will we use the example of John the Baptist to go to confession and arise from our slumber? Christ is calling our names, do we hear His voice? Featured song of the week: "Awake O Sleeper" by Ike Ndolo Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes January 13, 2019
Happy New Year everyone! May God bless each of one of you during 2019! With the turn of the new year, many of us dive into resolutions of change. Maybe it's to eat healthier or exercise more, change a bad habit or start a new way of living. What if this year was different? What if this year's resolution was to give yourself totally to God, to surrender everything to the creator of the universe? Just think of the endless possibilities that could come your way. The resolution to eat better or exercise would be obtainable because God would be invited in to that change, and not just invited to be a part of the change, but be the focus of your change. You see, God wants to be our everything, He wants us to run to Him in good and bad times. God is waiting for each of us to turn to Him. SO...will 2019 be your time to surrender all to God? If surrendering to God is on your heart for this new year, the best way to do this is to pray and to listen. God wants to speak to us in every moment of our lives, but the key is listening to Him. We must quiet ourselves so we can hear Him. For me, I hear God best in a couple different ways: at Mass during the homily, going to Adoration, through holy friends, and through praise and worship music. However you hear God best, take the time to listen. The song this week is called 'I'm Listening' by Chris McClarney featuring Hollyn. A dear friend introduced me to this song and the words have spoken life to me. My favorite line in the song is "I don't want to miss one word You speak, quiet my heart I'm listening." I love this line because I truly don't want to miss anything that God is trying to tell me. God speaks life and love, and the only way I can speak life and love to others is by quieting myself to hear His voice. Let's make 2019 a year like no other by letting go of the old us and leaning into the greatness of God. Featured Song of the Week "I'm Listening" by Chris McClarney featuring Hollyn Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes January 20, 2019
Each Monday afternoon, I have been blessed to have 3 Marist students help me during 5th grade Praise and Worship. This past week, they asked if they could play the song "Just Be Held" by Casting Crowns. I really love this song, so of course I agreed! As the 5th graders studied the lyrics of this song, their responses to the meaning was quite profound. One line in the song says, "If your eyes are on the storm, you'll wonder if I love you still, but if your eyes are on the cross, you'll know I always have and I always will." Some of the students talked about how sometimes God feels far away and when they have a bad day or something happens, it is really hard to deal with it. Through this line in the song, we were able to talk about how He is actually very near to us and that He never leaves us alone. When we call on Him, and allow ourselves to just be held, we find a great peace. We also talked about what Jesus did on the cross for us. By His suffering and dying, Jesus fully understands our suffering. We talked about how important it is to call upon God and allow Him into our bad day or difficult times. God is so good to us! Take time today to thank Him for all the ways you see Him present in your life. Featured Song of the Week "Just Be Held" by Casting Crowns Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes January 27, 2019
This week's song is called "Beautiful Things" by Gungor. It is one of our favorites during Praise and Worship. The song speaks to us on how at times we might not feel like God could ever love us because of what we've done, but that God makes everyone and every circumstance beautiful. The chorus says "You make beautiful things out of us." We have to know and understand that God loves each of us more than anything, that we are His children and He is our creator. That no matter what we've done or become, God makes us new, when we call on Him and repent for our sins. I love the line in the song " You make me new, You are making me new." God makes all things for His glory, especially if we let Him. Will you let God transform your life? Featured Song of the Week "Beautiful Things" by Gungor Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes February 3, 2019
This weeks song is called O’Lord by Lauren Daigle. It is a song of hope and strength in our Lord. It speaks to standing firm in your faith and a total reliance on our good and gracious God who makes all things right. I hope you find hope and joy in the words of this song, I know I do! Featured Song of the Week "O'Lord?" by Lauren Daigle Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes February 17, 2019
This week's song of the week is a newer song by We Are Messengers called "Maybe It's OK." The song has a powerful message: We don't have to have everything figured out in life. It's ok to be broken, rejected, and persecuted because, it is in each experience that we learn to be loved by God. It is in our choosing God above the world that we find true peace, love, and joy. We don't have to have it all figured out, we just need to trust in the great love story of God. I hope you find inspiration in this song! Featured song of the week: "Maybe It's OK" by We Are Messengers Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes |
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