Tag: Psalms
Psalm 51(50): God’s Spirit Purifies
Psalm 51 in which the Psalmist, repentant after his serious sin, implores God’s mercy and asks the Lord: “Do not deprive me of your holy spirit” (v. 13). The Psalm is the Miserere, a very well-known psalm which is often repeated in the liturgy, as well as in the devotion and penitential practices of Christian… Read More ›
Psalm 110(109) God himself enthrones the king of glory
Today I would like to end my catechesis on the prayer of the Book of Psalms by meditating on one of the most famous of the “royal Psalms”, a Psalm that Jesus himself cited and that the New Testament authors referred to extensively and interpreted as referring to the Messiah, to Christ. It is Psalm… Read More ›
Psalm 51(50): Against you alone have I sinned
1. We have just heard the Miserere, one of the most famous prayers of the Psalter, the most intense and commonly used penitential psalm, the hymn of sin and pardon, a profound meditation on guilt and grace. The Liturgy of the Hours makes us pray it at Lauds every Friday. For centuries the prayer has risen to heaven… Read More ›
Gregorian chant will make your life better
Rome, Italy, Jun 3, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Benedictine Monks of Norcia spend their lives in prayer and labor – “ora et labora” – chanting the psalms and producing crafts to support themselves. This week, they also released an album meant to share their prayer with the world – music, they say,… Read More ›
Enter the Meaning of the Psalms
. . . There is no aspect of the interior life, no kind of religious experience, no spiritual need of the human person that is not depicted and lived out in the Psalms. But we cannot lay hands on these riches unless we are willing to work for them. … We cannot by mere human… Read More ›
Why the Psalms
(The Church) recommends the Psalms to her priests, her monks, her nuns, and her lay people, in order that they may have “the mind of Christ”, in order that they may develop an interior life which is really the life of the Mother, the Church. It is by singing the psalms, by meditating on them,… Read More ›
Introduction to the Psalter
. . .The Psalter appears as a “formulary” of prayers, a collection of 150 Psalms which the Biblical Tradition offers the people of believers so that they become their and our prayer, our way of speaking and of relating to God. This Book expresses the entire human experience with its multiple facets and the whole range… Read More ›
Psalm 49(48): 14-21: God will ransom me!
1. As it gradually develops, the Liturgy of Vespers presents to us the sapiential Psalm 49[48], whose second part has just been proclaimed (cf. vv. 14-21). This section of the Psalm, like the previous part (cf. vv. 1-13) on which we have already reflected, also condemns the illusion to which idolizing riches gives rise. This… Read More ›
Psalm 118(117): The Stone Rejected has become the Cornerstone
1. When a Christian, in unison with the voice of prayer in Israel, sings Psalm 117{118}, that we just heard, he feels within him a special thrill. In fact, he finds in this liturgical hymn two phrases that echo with a new meaning in the NT. The first is verse 22, “The stone rejected by… Read More ›
Psalm 48(47): O God we ponder your love within your temple
1. The Psalm just proclaimed is a canticle in honour of Zion, “the city of the great King” (Ps 47 [48],3), at the time, the seat of the temple of the Lord and the place of his presence in the midst of humanity. Christian faith now applies it to “Jerusalem above” which is “our mother”… Read More ›