A reflection for Monday of the thirty-third week in ordinary time

“Blessed is he who reads aloud
and blessed are those who listen to this prophetic message
and consider what is written in it, for the appointed time is near.”

“Praise Song for the Day” is a poem written by Elizabeth Alexander and delivered at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration in 2009. In my sophomore year of college, I first felt its elegant power—how lucid images touched a consciousness spiritual that I could not achieve alone.

We had never heard a hymn read aloud before, and as we turned our heads toward the video at the front of the classroom, Mrs. Alexander he addressed the vibrant crowd from her podium on the West Lawn of the US Capitol.

Every day we go about our business,
passing each other, catching each other
eyes or not, about to speak or about to speak

Everything about us is noise. Everything about us is
noise and brambles, thorn and noise, each
one of our ancestors on our languages.

These first two stanzas—scrambling, three-line “mini-arguments,” as my teacher described them—set the tone for a delivery that sent a pinch of Swiffer to the shelves in my heart.

Every line filled me with optimism. This was a praise song, a collection of words praising or glorifying a subject (traditionally a city, animal, plant, person, or god), and here Elizabeth Alexander was praising “the day.” Something as mundane and predictable as this.

But she also praised the moment. Barack Obama would be the first black man to hold the highest office in the United States. I chose it, and the churning in my chest spelled “hope.”

Written for a moment of national unity, “Praise Song for the Day” praised the everyday acts of love and labor that weave the fabric of community. The invitation was clear: to have resilience for hope and maintain an active awareness of where to capture that hope—not only through grand gestures or distant promises, but also in today’s ordinary moments.

This is also the instruction in today’s First Reading: Keep hope and listen when people speak aloud hopeful things. “Blessed is he that readeth aloud, and blessed are they that hear this prophetic message, and heed what is written therein, for the appointed time is at hand.”

This verse from Revelation reminds us of the power of speaking and hearing the Word of God. It is not enough to read or passively hear; the blessing comes in listening to the message, in letting it shape the way we live.