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psalms

Spirituality

10
PSALMS




The Psalms constitutes a notable part of the Divine Office. Composed by divine inspiration, the psalms are collected in the Holy Scriptures. It results that since the beginnings of the Church they have served marvelously to foster the piety of the faithful. In fact, Christians through the psalms offered continually a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of their lips to pay homage to his name (see Heb 13, 15; Hos 14,3). From them originated that "VOICE of the Church that plays unceasingly in front of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Quite the MONKS word this voice, in a specific way. In fact the psalms, above all, according to St. Athanasius, they teach to the MEN CONSECRATED TO DIVINE WORSHIP "in which way to praise God, and with what words give Him properly homage." Eminently Augustine tells on this subject:
"To be properly praised by man, God praised himself; and because He condescended to praise himself, that's why man has found the way to praise Him."

In the psalms, we found an amazing effectiveness to arouse in the minds of all the desire of virtues. Though, in fact, all the Scriptures, old and new, it is divinely inspired and useful to education (see 2 Tim 3, 16), the book of the psalms, according to St. Athanasius, is the paradisiacal garden in which the fruits could be gathered of all the other inspired texts.

St.Athanasius adds: "In truth, to me that I raise hymns, the psalms seem to be like mirrors in which one contemplates himself and his internal state and from that feels animate to recite them."

St. Augustine in the Confessions exclaims:
" How much I have cried hearing the hymns and the songs in your honor, warmly touched from the voices of your Church, that she sang softly! Those voices vibrated in my ears and the truth descended in my heart and everything changed into feeling of love and got me so much joy to make me melt into tears."

The psalms light up the love for Christ because they are like a picture that presents a well-delineated image of the Savior. Therefore justly Augustine
" felt in all the psalms the voice that exulted or groaned, that rejoiced in hope or that sighed for the destination." -





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updated 10 February 2024
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