The soundtrack to the movie, “The Mission”- about a group of Jesuit missionaries in eighteenth century South America who live and die alongside the indigenous Guarani people, when they are slaughtered and their land forcibly taken by Portuguese colonialists- almost always makes me cry. Its refrains seem to embody a life lived passionately for God, one that is caught up in the rhythms of heaven on earth even as it dies to the things of this world that are passing away, be they greed or the brutal acquisition of power or senseless war.

Here Ennio Moriccone, who composed the soundtrack, conducts, and it comes this Sunday morning with the prayer that wherever you are and whatever you do, you’ll find your God-given purpose and then do it well, with excellence, for the glory of God and for the sake of your neighbor.