Liturgy of the Hours 
Articles specific to the Liturgy of the Hours
Psalm 51(50): Take not your Holy Spirit from me
1. Every week the Liturgy of Lauds repeats Psalm 50[51], the famous Miserere. We have already reflected on sections of it on other occasions. Now also, we will reflect in a particular way on a section of this grandiose plea for forgiveness: verses 12-16. First of all, it is important to note that in the original Hebrew the word… Read More ›
Psalm 141(140): “Prayer in danger”
1. In previous catecheses, we gave an overall look at the structure and value of the Liturgy of Vespers, the great ecclesiastical prayer of the evening. We now journey into its interior. It will be like making a pilgrimage to that “holy land” made up of the Psalms and Canticles. One by one we will reflect on each… Read More ›
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 63(62): My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord
Psalm of mystical love, which celebrates total adherence to God based on an almost physical yearning and reaching its fullness in a close and everlasting embrace. Prayer becomes longing, thirst and hunger, because it involves the soul and the body. As St Teresa of Avila wrote: “Thirst, I think, means the desire for something very necessary… Read More ›
Psalm 62(61): In God alone be at rest!
1. The gentle words of Psalm 62[61] have just resounded; it is a hymn of trust that opens with what appears to be an antiphon, repeated halfway through the text. It is like a peaceful and strong ejaculatory prayer, an invocation that also becomes a programme of life: “In God alone is my soul at… 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 ›
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 ›
Find Your Place in the Psalter using this one Weird Trick!
Okay, so your three year old was playing with the ribbons in your breviary again, and now they’re all pulled out and you don’t remember what week in the Psalter you should be using. Or you got out of the habit of praying the hours for a couple weeks, and want to start up again,… 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 ›