The Psalter
04/February/2008 Filed in: Jottings
"Psalterium meum, gaudium meum (My psalter is my joy)". These words of St Augustine embossed on the cover of a psalter have always seemed to me to sum up a major element of monastic life which has to be experienced to be understood. Much of the Divine Office consists in praying, day in, day out, the psalms of David. At Hendred we say the whole book of psalms in the course of the week, as Benedict prescribed, although we order them a little differently from the schema laid down in the Rule. There is something important about this weekly rhythmn. I was delighted recently to learn from a priest friend who has become a hermit that he too has found it helpful to adapt a weekly pattern. Soon we shall be in Lent; we shall stop saying "alleluia"; and the psalter will take on a more sombre note. It is indeed prayer for all seasons.