Morning and Evening Prayer: Meditations & Catechesis on the Psalms & Canticles

MORNING & EVENING PRAYER

Meditations and Catechesis on the PSALMS & CANTICLES

Pope St John Paul II & Pope Benedict XVI

INTRODUCTION

THE LITURGY OF LAUDS

by Pope St John Paul II

The Psalter is the ideal source of Christian prayer

1. In the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte I expressed the hope that the Church would become more and more distinguished in the “art of prayer”, learning it ever anew from the lips of the Divine Master (cf. n. 32). This effort must be expressed above all in the liturgy, the source and summit of ecclesial life. Consequently, it is important to devote greater pastoral care to promoting the Liturgy of the Hours as a prayer of the whole People of God (cf. ibid., n. 34). If, in fact, priests and religious have a precise mandate to celebrate it, it is also warmly recommended to lay people. This was the aim of my venerable Predecessor Paul VI, a little over 30 years ago, with the Constitution Laudis canticum in which he determined the current form of this prayer, hoping that the Psalms and Canticles, the essential structure of the Liturgy of the Hours, would be understood “with new appreciation by the People of God” (AAS 63 [1971], 532).

It is an encouraging fact that many lay people in parishes and ecclesial associations have learned to appreciate it. Nevertheless, it remains a prayer that presupposes an appropriate catechetical and biblical formation, if it is to be fully savoured.

To this end, we begin today a series of catecheses on the Psalms and Canticles found in the morning prayer of Lauds. In this way I would like to encourage and help everyone to pray with the same words that Jesus used, words that for thousands of years have been part of the prayer of Israel and the Church.

2. We could use various approaches to understanding the Psalms. The first would consist in presenting their literary structure, their authors, their formation, the contexts in which they were composed. It would also be fruitful to read them in a way that emphasizes their poetic character, which sometimes reaches the highest levels of lyrical insight and symbolic expression. It would be no less interesting to go over the Psalms and consider the various sentiments of the human heart expressed in them: joy, gratitude, thanksgiving, love, tenderness, enthusiasm, but

also intense suffering, complaint, pleas for help and for justice, which sometimes lead to anger and imprecation. In the Psalms, the human being fully discovers himself. Our reading will aim above all at bringing out the religious meaning of the Psalms, showing how they can be used in the prayer of Christ’s disciples, although they were written many centuries ago for Hebrew believers. In this task we will turn for help to the results of exegesis, but together we will learn from Tradition and will listen above all to the Fathers of the Church.

3. The latter, in fact, were able with deep spiritual penetration to discern and identify the great “key” to understanding the Psalms as Christ himself, in the fullness of his mystery. The Fathers were firmly convinced that the Psalms speak of Christ. The risen Jesus, in fact, applied the Psalms to himself when he said to the disciples: “Everything written about me in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Lk 24,44). The Fathers add that in the Psalms Christ is spoken to or it is even Christ who speaks. In saying this, they were thinking not only of the individual person of Christ, but of the Christus totus, the total Christ, composed of Christ the Head and his members.

Christians were thus able to read the Book of Psalms in the light of the whole mystery of Christ. This same perspective also brings out the ecclesial dimension, which is particularly highlighted when the Psalms are sung chorally. We can understand, then, how the Psalms came to be adopted from the earliest centuries as the prayer of the People of God. If in some historical periods there was a tendency to prefer other prayers, it is to the monks’ great credit that they held the Psalter’s torch aloft in the Church. One of them, St Romuald, founder of Camaldoli, at the dawn of the second Christian millennium, even maintained, as his biographer Bruno of Querfurt says, that the Psalms are the only way to experience truly deep prayer: “Una via in Psalmis” (Passio sanctorum Benedicti et Johannis ac sociorum eorundem: MPH VI, 1893, 427).

4. With this assertion, which seems excessive at first sight, he actually remained anchored to the best tradition of the first Christian centuries, when the Psalter became the book of Church prayer par excellence. This was the winning choice in view of the heretical tendencies that continuously threatened the unity of faith and communion. Interesting in this regard is a marvellous letter that St Athanasius wrote to Marcellinus in the first half

of the fourth century while the Arian heresy was vehemently attacking belief in the divinity of Christ. To counter the heretics who seduced people with hymns and prayers that gratified their religious sentiments, the great Father of the Church dedicated all his energies to teaching the Psalter handed down by Scripture (cf. PG 27, 12ff.). This is how, in addition to the Our Father, the Lord’s prayer by antonomasia, the practice of praying the Psalms soon became universal among the baptized.

5. By praying the Psalms as a community, the Christian mind remembered and understood that it is impossible to turn to the Father who dwells in heaven without an authentic communion of life with one’s brothers and sisters who live on earth. Moreover, by being vitally immersed in the Hebrew tradition of prayer, Christians learned to pray by recounting the magnalia Dei, that is, the great marvels worked by God both in the creation of the world and humanity, and in the history of Israel and the Church. This form of prayer drawn from Scripture does not exclude certain freer expressions, which will continue not only to characterize personal prayer, but also to enrich liturgical prayer itself, for example, with hymns and troparia. But the Book of Psalms remains the ideal source of Christian prayer and will continue to inspire the Church in the new millennium.

The spirit prays through us in the Psalms

1. Before beginning the commentary on the individual Psalms and Songs of Praise, let us complete today the introductory reflection which we began in the last catechesis. We will do so by starting with one aspect that is prized by our spiritual tradition: in singing the Psalms, the Christian feels a sort of harmony between the Spirit present in the Scriptures and the Spirit who dwells within him through the grace of Baptism. More than praying in his own words, he echoes those “sighs too deep for words” mentioned by St Paul (cf. Rom 8,26), with which the Lord’s Spirit urges believers to join in Jesus’ characteristic invocation: “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8,15; Gal 4,6).

The ancient monks were so sure of this truth that they did not bother to sing the Psalms in their mother tongue. It was enough for them to know that they were in a way “organs” of the Holy Spirit.

They were convinced that their faith would enable the verses of the Psalms to release a special “energy” of the Holy Spirit. The same conviction

Introduct I on was expressed in their typical use of the Psalms known as “ejaculatory prayer” - from the Latin word “iaculum”, that is “a dart”- to indicate concise phrases from the Psalms which they could “let fly” almost like flaming arrows, for example, against temptations. John Cassian, a writer who lived between the fourth and fifth centuries, recalls that monks discovered the extraordinary efficacy of the short incipit of Psalm 69: “God, come to my assistance; Lord, make haste to help me,” which from that time on became as it were the gate of entry to the Liturgy of the Hours (cf. Conlationes, 10, 10: CPL 512, 298ff).

2. In addition to the presence of the Holy Spirit, another important dimension is that of the priestly action which Christ carries out in this prayer, associating with himself the Church, his Bride. In this regard, referring to the Liturgy of the Hours, the Second Vatican Council teaches: “Jesus Christ, High Priest of the New and Eternal Covenant attaches to himself the entire community of mankind and has them join him in singing his divine song of praise. For he continues his priestly work through his Church. The Church, by celebrating the Eucharist and by other means, especially the celebration of the Divine Office, is ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the entire world” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 83).

So then the Liturgy of the Hours has the character of a public prayer in which the Church is specifically involved. It is enlightening to rediscover how she gradually came to shape her specific commitment of prayer to coincide with the various phases of day. To do so we must go back to the apostolic community in the days when there was still a close connection between Christian prayer and the so-called “legal prayers”, that is, those prescribed by Mosaic Law - which were prayed at specific hours of the day in the temple of Jerusalem. From the book of Acts, we know that the Apostles were in the habit of “attending the temple together” (Acts 2,46), and “going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour” (3,1). Moreover, we also know that the “legal prayers par excellence” were those of the morning and the evening.

3. Jesus’s disciples gradually identified certain Psalms as particularly appropriate for specific moments of the day, week or year, finding in them a deep sense of the Christian mystery. An authoritative witness of this process is St Cyprian, who writes in the first half of the third century:

“We must also pray at the beginning of the day that the Resurrection of the Lord may be celebrated by morning prayer. The Holy Spirit once set this forth, when he said in the Psalms: ‘O my king and my God. For to you will I pray: O Lord, in the morning you shall hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before you, and will see you’ (Ps 5,3-4).... For since Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, as the sun and the day of the world recede, when we pray and petition that the light come upon us again, we pray for the coming of Christ to provide us with the grace of eternal light” (De oratione dominica, 35: PL 39: 655).

4. The Christian tradition is not limited to perpetuating Jewish practice but made certain innovations which end by giving a different character to the entire prayer experience lived by Jesus’s disciples. In fact, in addition to reciting the Our Father in the morning and evening, the Christians freely chose the Psalms with which to celebrate their daily prayer. Down through history, this process suggested the use of specific Psalms for certain particularly significant moments of faith. Among these, pride of place was held by the prayer of vigils, which were a preparation for the Lord’s Day, Sunday, on which the Resurrection was celebrated.

Later, a typically Christian characteristic was the addition at the end of each Psalm and Canticle of the Trinitarian doxology, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit”. Thus every Psalm and Canticle is illumined by God’s fullness.

5. Christian prayer is born, nourished and develops around the event of faith par excellence: Christ’s paschal mystery. Thus Easter, the Lord’s passing from death to life, is commemorated in the morning, in the evening, at sunrise and at sunset. The symbol of Christ, “Light of the world”, can be seen in the lamp light during the prayer of Vespers, which is consequently also called “lucernarium”. The hours of the day, in turn, recall the events of the Lord’s Passion, and the third hour, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as well. Lastly, prayer during the night has an eschatological character, recalling the watching recommended by Jesus in expectation of his second coming (cf. Mk 13,35-37).

Giving their prayer this rhythm, Christians responded to the Lord’s command “to pray always” (cf. Lk 18,1; 21,36; 1 Thes 5,17; Eph 6,18), but without forgetting that their whole life must, in a certain way, become a prayer. In this regard, Origen writes: “One who prays ceaselessly is one

Introduct I on who combines prayer with work and work with prayer” (On Prayer, XII, 2: PG 11, 452C). The whole panorama constitutes the natural habitat of the recitation of the Psalms. If heard and lived in this way, the Trinitarian doxology that crowns every Psalm becomes for the believer in Christ a continual immersion in the waters of the Spirit and in communion with the People of God, in the ocean of life and of peace in which that people was immersed through Baptism, that is, in the mystery of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

THE LITURGY OF VESPERS

by Pope Benedict XVI

The origins of the liturgy of Vespers and the symbolism of light

1. Since “every day of our pilgrimage on earth is a gift ever new” of God’s love (Preface for Sundays in Ordinary Time, VI), the Church has always felt the need to devote the days and hours of human life to divine praise. Thus, for Christians, sunrise and sunset, - characteristically religious moments for every people and formerly made sacred in the biblical tradition of offering a burnt sacrifice in the morning and evening (cf. Ex 29:38-39) and of burning incense (cf. Ex 30:6-8), - have been two special times of prayer since the earliest centuries.

Sunrise and sunset are not anonymous moments in the day. They have unmistakable features: the joyful beauty of dawn and the triumphant splendour of sunset follow the cosmic rhythms that deeply involve human life. Furthermore, the mystery of salvation that is actuated in history has moments linked to various phases of time. So it is that together with the celebration of Lauds at daybreak, the celebration of Vespers at nightfall gradually became a regular practice in the Church. Both these Liturgical Hours have an evocative charge of their own that recalls the two essential aspects of the paschal mystery: “In the evening the Lord is on the Cross, in the morning he rises to new life... In the evening I relate the sufferings he bore in dying; in the morning I proclaim the life that dawns from him anew” (St Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, XXVI, Rome, 1971, p. 109).

Precisely because they are associated with the memory of the death and Resurrection of Christ, the two Hours, Lauds and Vespers, constitute, “by the venerable tradition of the universal Church... the two hinges on which the daily office turns” (Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 89a).

2. In antiquity, the lighting of the oil lamp after sunset brought a note of joy and communion to the home. In lighting the lamp at dusk, the Christian community also prayed with gratitude in their hearts for the gift of spiritual light. This was the so-called “lucernarium” - that is, the ritual lighting of the lamp whose flame is the symbol of Christ, “the Sun that never sets”.

Indeed, Christians also know that at nightfall God brightens the darkness of night with the radiance of his presence and the light of his teachings. In this regard, we should remember the very ancient lamp-lighting hymn, Fôs Hilarón, that is part of the Armenian and Ethiopian Byzantine liturgies: “Joyful light of the Holy Glory of the Father, immortal, heavenly, holy, blessed, O Jesus Christ! Now that we have reached the sunset and gazed upon the light of the evening, let us sing praises to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, God. It is right to praise you always and at all times with harmonious voices, O Son of God, you who give life to us: thus, the universe proclaims your glory”. The West also composed many hymns celebrating Christ the Light.

Drawing inspiration from the symbolism of light, the prayer of Vespers developed as an evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the gift of physical and spiritual light, and for the other gifts of the Creation and the Redemption. St Cyprian writes: “The sun has set and, with the dying day, once again we need to pray. Indeed, since Christ is the true Sun, let us pray while the sun sets and the day fades in this world, imploring that the light shine on us anew; and let us call for the coming of Christ who will bring us the grace of eternal light” (De Oratione Dominica, 35: PL 4, 560).

3. The evening is a favourable time for reviewing our day before God in prayer. It is the time “to give thanks for what has been given to us or for what we have been able to do with rectitude” (St Basil, Regulae Fusius Tractatae, Resp. 37, 3: PG 3, 1015). It is also the time to ask forgiveness for all the evil we have done, imploring divine mercy to obtain that Christ return with his radiance to our hearts.

Yet the arrival of evening also suggests the “mysterium noctis”. Twilight is perceived as a time of frequent temptations, of particular weakness and of succumbing to the onslaught of the Evil One. Night, with its hazards, becomes the symbol par excellence of all the wickedness from which Christ came to set us free. On the other hand, at every nightfall, prayer allows us to share in the Easter mystery in which “night is clear as day” (Exsultet).

So it is that prayer makes hope flourish, the hope of passing from our ephemeral day into the dies perennis, from uncertain lamplight to the lux perpetua, from our watchful expectation of dawn, to the encounter with the King of eternal glory.

4. For the ancients even more than for us, the succession of night and day regulated life, generating thought on the great problems of life. Modern progress has partly changed the relationship between human life and cosmic time, but its rapid pace has not completely removed the people of today from the rhythms of the solar cycle.

Consequently, the two fulcra of daily prayer have kept their full value, for they are tied to unchanging phenomena and vivid symbols. The morning and evening are always appropriate times to devote to prayer, both in the company of others and in private. Linked to the important moments of our life and work, the Hours of Lauds and Vespers thus prove an effective orientation for our daily journey, guiding it to Christ, “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12).

Vespers, prayer of sunset: Structure of evening prayer in the Roman rite

5. We know from numerous testimonies that from the fourth century onwards Lauds and Vespers had become an established institution in all the great Eastern and Western Churches. This is borne out by St Ambrose: “Just as every day, in going to church or devoting ourselves to prayer at home, we start from God and end in him, so the entire day of our life here below and the course of every single day always starts from him and ends in him” (De Abraham, II, 5, 22).

Just as Lauds is prayed at daybreak, so Vespers is prayed close to sunset, at the hour when, in the temple of Jerusalem, the burnt offering was made with incense. At that hour, after his death on the Cross, Jesus was lying in the tomb, having offered himself to the Father for the salvation of the world.

The various Churches, following their respective traditions, organized the Divine Office in accordance with their own rites. Here, let us consider the Roman rite.

6. The invocation Deus in adiutorium in the first verse of Psalm 69 opens the prayer that St Benedict prescribes for every Hour. The verse recalls that the grace to praise God as befits him can come only from God. The “Glory

be to the Father” follows, because the glorification of the Trinity expresses the essential approach of Christian prayer. Finally, except in Lent, the Alleluia is added. This Hebrew word means “Praise the Lord” and, for Christians, it has become a joyful manifestation of faith in the protection that God reserves for his people.

The singing of the Hymn is vibrant with the reasons for the Church’s praise in prayer, evoking with poetic inspiration the mysteries wrought for the salvation of man at the hour of Vespers and, in particular, the sacrificial work of Christ on the Cross.

7. The Psalmody of Vespers consists of two Psalms suitable for this hour and of a Canticle from the New Testament. The typology of the Psalms for Vespers displays various nuances. There are Psalms that deal with the ritual lighting of the lamp in which “evening”, the “lamp” or “light” are explicitly mentioned; Psalms that express trust in God, the stable refuge in the precariousness of human life; Psalms of thanksgiving and praise; Psalms from which flow the eschatological meaning suggested by the end of the day; and others with a sapiential character or penitential tone. We also find Psalms of the Hallel, with a reference to the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. In the Latin Church, elements have been handed down that facilitate the understanding of the Psalms and their Christian interpretation, such as the themes, the psalm prayers and especially the antiphons (cf. Principles and Norms for the Liturgy of the Hours, nn. 110-120). The brief Reading at Vespers that is taken from the New Testament has an important place. Its purpose is to propose some sentences from the Bible forcefully and effectively, and impress them on our hearts so that they will be expressed in practice (cf. ibid., nn. 45, 156, 172). To make it easier to interiorize what has been heard, the Reading is followed by an appropriate silence and by a Responsorial whose function is to “respond” to the message of the Reading with the singing of some verses, fostering their warm acceptance by those taking part in the prayer.

8. The Gospel Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary is chanted (cf. Lk 1:46-55) with great honour and introduced by the sign of the Cross. Already attested by the Rule of St Benedict (chapters 12 and 17), the custom of singing the Benedictus at Lauds and the Magnificat at Vespers “is confirmed by the ageold and popular tradition of the Roman Church” (Principles and Norms for the Liturgy of the Hours, n. 50). In fact, these Canticles are exemplary for

their expression of the sense of praise and thanksgiving to God for his gift of Redemption.

In the community celebration of the Divine Office, the gesture of incensing the altar, the priest and the people while the Gospel Canticles are being sung, is reminiscent - in light of the Hebrew tradition of offering incense morning and evening on the altar of incense - of the sacrificial character of the “sacrifice of praise” expressed in the Liturgy of the Hours. Surrounding Christ in prayer, may we be able to live personally what is said in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (13:15; cf. Ps 49 [50]; 14:23; Hos 14:2).

9. After the Canticle, the Intercessions addressed to the Father or, sometimes, to Christ, express the supplicant voice of the Church which is mindful of God’s solicitude for humanity, the work of his hands. The character of the Intercessions at Evening Prayer is, in fact, a petition for divine help: for people of every class, for the Christian community and for civil society. Lastly comes the remembrance of deceased faithful.

The Liturgy of Vespers is crowned in Jesus’s prayer, the Our Father, which sums up all the praise and all the petitions of God’s children, reborn from water and the Spirit. At the end of the day, Christian tradition has connected the forgiveness implored from God in the Our Father and the brotherly reconciliation of men with one another: the sun must never go down on anyone’s anger (cf. Eph 4:26).

The prayer of Vespers concludes with a Prayer which, in harmony with the crucified Christ, expresses the entrustment of our lives into the hands of the Father, knowing that his blessing will never be lacking.

THE FIRST WEEK

WEEK 1: SUNDAY EVENING PRAYER I

Psalm 140

Prayer in time of danger vv. 1-9

Ihavecalled to you, Lord; hasten to help me! Hear my voice when I cry to you. Let my prayer arise before you like incense, the raising of my hands like an evening oblation.

Set, O Lord, a guard over my mouth; keep watch, O Lord, at the door of my lips! Do not turn my heart to things that are wrong, to evil deeds with men who are sinners.

Never allow me to share in their feasting. If a good man strikes or reproves me it is kindness; but let the oil of the wicked not anoint my head. Let my prayer be ever against their malice.

Their princes were thrown down by the side of the rock: then they understood that my words were kind. As a millstone is shattered to pieces on the ground, so their bones were strewn at the mouth of the grave.

To you, Lord God, my eyes are turned: in you I take refuge; spare my soul!

From the trap they have laid for me keep me safe: keep me from the snares of those who do evil.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

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 of those poetic prayers, which God has sealed with his inspiration. They are invocations which the Lord himself desires should be addressed to him, for he loves to listen to them, hearing in them the heartbeat of his beloved children.

Let us begin with Psalm 140 [141], which opens Sunday Vespers of the first of the four weeks when, following the Second Vatican Council, the evening prayer of the Church was adopted.

2. “Let my prayer come like incense before you; the lifting up of my hands, like the evening sacrifice”. Verse two of this Psalm can be considered as the distinctive sign of the entire hymn and as the apparent justification of the fact that it has been included in the Liturgy of Vespers. The idea expressed reflects the spirit of prophetic theology that intimately unites worship with life, prayer with existence.

The same prayer made with a pure and sincere heart becomes a sacrifice offered to God. The entire being of the person who prays becomes a sacrificial act, a prelude to what St Paul would suggest when he invited Christians to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God: this is the spiritual sacrifice acceptable to him (cf. Rom 12:1).

Hands raised in prayer are a bridge to communication with God, as is the smoke that rises as sweet odour from the victim during the sacrificial rite of the evening.

3. The Psalm continues in a tone of supplication, transmitted to us by a text which in the original Hebrew is unclear and presents certain interpretative difficulties (especially in vv. 4-7).

The general sense may, however, be identified and transformed into meditation and prayer. Above all else, the person praying calls upon the Lord that he not permit his lips (cf. v. 3) and the motions of his heart to be attracted and enticed by evil, thus inclining him to commit “wicked deeds” (cf. v. 4). In fact, a person’s words and actions express his or her moral choice. Evil exercises such an attraction that it easily provokes even the faithful to taste “the delights” that sinners can offer, sitting down at their table; that is, taking part in their perverse actions.

The Psalm even acquires the character of an examination of conscience, which is followed by the commitment always to choose the ways of God.

4. At this point, however, the person praying starts by bursting out with a passionate declaration that he will not associate with the evildoer; he will not be a guest of the sinner, nor let the fragrant oil that is reserved for privileged guests (cf. Ps 22 [23]:5) bear witness to his connivance with the evildoer (cf. Ps 140 [141]:5). To express his downright disassociation

from the wicked with greater vehemence, the Psalmist then declares an indignant condemnation in his regard, in vivid images of vehement judgment.

It is one of the typical imprecations of the Psalter (cf. Ps 57 [58] and 108 [109]), whose purpose is to affirm, in a realistic and even picturesque way, hostility towards evil, the choice of good and the certainty that God intervenes in history with his judgment of severe condemnation of injustice (cf. vv. 6-7).

5. The Psalm closes with a final invocation of trust (cf. vv. 8-9): it is a hymn of faith, thankfulness and joy in the certainty that the faithful one will not be engulfed by the hatred that the perverse reserve for him and will not fall into the trap they set for him, after having noted his firm choice to do what is right. In this way, the righteous person is able to surmount every deceit unscathed, as it is said in another Psalm: “We were rescued like a bird from the fowler’s snare; broken was the snare, and we were freed” (Ps 123 [124]:7).

Let us end our reading of Psalm 140 [141] by returning to the first image: that of evening prayer as a sacrifice pleasing to God. John Cassian, a great spiritual master and native of the East, who lived between the fourth and fifth centuries and spent the last part of his life in Southern Gaul, re-read these words in a Christological vein: “Indeed, in them, one perceives an allusion made to the evening sacrifice in a more spiritual way, brought to fulfilment by the Lord and Saviour during his Last Supper and consigned to the Apostles when he sanctioned the beginning of the Church’s holy mysteries. Or (might one perceive an allusion) to that same sacrifice that he offered of himself the following day in the evening, with the raising of his own hands: a sacrifice prolonged until the end of time for the salvation of the whole world” (cf. Le Istituzioni Cenobitiche, Abbey of Praglia, Padua 1989, p. 92).

Psalm 141

With all my voice I cry to the Lord

With all my voice I cry to the Lord, with all my voice I entreat the Lord. I pour out my trouble before him; I tell him all my distress

while my spirit faints within me. But you, O Lord, know my path.

On the way where I shall walk they have hidden a snare to entrap me. Look on my right and see: there is no one who takes my part. I have no means of escape, not one who cares for my soul.

I cry to you, O Lord. I have said: “You are my refuge, all I have left in the land of the living.”

Listen, then, to my cry for I am in the depths of distress.

Rescue me from those who pursue me for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of this prison and then I shall praise your name. Around me the just will assemble because of your goodness to me.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. On the evening of 3rd October 1226, St Francis of Assisi lay dying: his last prayer was, precisely, the recitation of Psalm 141 [142] that we have just heard. St Bonaventure recalls that Francis “burst out with the exclamation of the Psalm: ‘I cry with my voice to the Lord, with my voice I make supplication to the Lord’, and recited it to the very last verse: ‘The righteous will surround me; for you will deal bountifully with me’” (Legenda Maior, XIV, 5, in: Fonti Francescane, Padua, Assisi, 1980, p. 958). The Psalm is an intense petition, marked by a series of verbs of entreaty addressed to the Lord. “I cry... to the Lord”, “I make supplication to the Lord”, “I pour out my complaint before him”, “I tell my trouble” (vv. 1-2). The central part of the Psalm is dominated by trust in God who is not indifferent to the suffering of his faithful (cf. vv. 3-7). With this attitude St Francis approached his end.

2. God is called upon with the familiar form of “you”, as a person who provides security: “You are my refuge” (v. 5). “You know my path!”, that is, the journey of my life, a route marked by the choice of justice. However, on that path the wicked have set a hidden snare (cf. v. 3); this typical image taken from hunting scenes recurs in the Psalms of petition to indicate the dangers and threats to which the just are subjected.

Facing this nightmare, the Psalmist, as it were, sounds the alarm so that God may see his situation and intervene: “I look to the right and watch” (v. 4). In the Eastern tradition, the person would have on his right his defender or favourable witness in a court or, in the case of war, his bodyguard. Hence, the believer feels lonely and abandoned: “there is no one who takes notice of me”; and he makes an anguished observation: “no refuge remains to me, no man cares for me” (v. 4).

3. A cry then immediately reveals the hope that dwells in the heart of the person of prayer. Henceforth, his only protection, his only affection, is to be found in God: “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living” (v. 5). The “portion” or “destiny” in biblical language is the gift of the promised land, a sign of God’s love for his people. The Lord now remains the last and only foundation to depend on, the only possibility of life, the supreme hope.

The Psalmist calls upon him insistently, because he has been “brought very low” (v. 6). He entreats the Lord to intervene to break the chains of his prison of solitude and hostility (cf. v. 7) and to bring him out of the abyss of trial.

4. As in other Psalms of petition, the final prospect is the thanksgiving that will be offered to God when he has answered the prayer: “Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name!” (ibid.). When he has been saved, the faithful one will thank the Lord in the midst of the liturgical assembly (cf. ibid.). The righteous will surround him and will see the salvation of their brother as a gift that is also offered to them.

This atmosphere must also pervade Christian celebrations. The suffering of the individual must echo in the hearts of all; likewise, the joy of each one must be vibrant in the whole of the praying community. “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity” (Ps 132 [133]:1), and the Lord Jesus said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20).

5. Christian tradition has applied Psalm 141 [142] to the persecuted and suffering Christ. In this perspective, the luminous goal of the Psalm’s plea is transfigured into a paschal sign on the basis of the glorious outcome of the life of Christ and of our destiny of resurrection with him. This is also what St Hilary of Poitiers, a famous fourth-century Doctor of the Church, says in his Treatise on the Psalms.

He comments on the Latin translation of the last verse of the Psalm, which speaks of a reward for the person of prayer and the expectation of being with the just: “Me expectant iusti, donec retribuas mihi”. St Hilary explains that “the Apostle teaches us what reward the Father gave to Christ: ‘God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Phil 2:9-11). This is the reward: to the body that has ascended is given the everlasting glory of the Father.

“Then the same Apostle teaches us what the expectation of the just consists in, saying: ‘Our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself’ (Phil 3:20-21). Indeed, the just await his coming so that he will reward them, that is, by changing them to be like his glorious body that is blessed for ever and ever. Amen” (PL 9, 833-837).

Canticle

Christ, the servant of God Phil 2:6-11

Thoughhe was in the form of God, Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. In addition to the Psalms, the Liturgy of Vespers includes certain Biblical Canticles. The Canticle just proclaimed is undoubtedly one of the most significant and theologically rich. It is a hymn placed in the second chapter of the Letter of St Paul to the Christians of Philippi, the Greek city that was the Apostle’s first stop of missionary proclamation in Europe. The Canticle is thought to be an expression of the original Christian Liturgy and it is a joy for our generation, after two millennia, to join in the prayer of the Apostolic Church.

The Canticle unfolds in a double vertical trajectory: a first movement is one of descent followed by ascension. Indeed, on one hand, there is the humiliating descent of the Son of God when, in the Incarnation, he becomes man out of love for humankind. He plummets into the kenosis, the “emptying” of his divine glory, pushed to the point of death on the Cross, the punishment of slaves who were least among men, thus making him a true brother of suffering humanity, sinful and rejected.

2. On the other hand, there is the triumphant ascension which takes place on Easter Day, when the Father reinstates Christ in the divine splendour and he is celebrated as Lord by the entire cosmos and by all men and women now redeemed. We are placed before a magnificent re-reading of Christ’s mystery, primarily the Paschal one. St Paul, along with proclaiming the Resurrection (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-5), defines Christ’s Paschal mystery as the “exaltation”, “raising up”, “glorification”.

Therefore, from the bright horizon of divine transcendence, the Son of God crossed the infinite distance between Creator and creature. He did not cling, as if to a prey, to his “equality with God”, which was due to him by nature and not from usurpation. He did not want to claim jealously this prerogative as a treasure, nor use it for his own interests. Rather, Christ “emptied”, “humbled” himself and appeared poor, weak, destined for the shameful death of crucifixion; it is precisely from this extreme humiliation that the great movement of ascension takes off, described in the second part of the Pauline hymn (cf. Phil 2, 9-11).

3. God now “exalts” his Son, conferring upon him a glorious “name” which, in Biblical language, indicates the person himself and his dignity. Now this “name” Kyrios or “Lord”, the sacred name of the Biblical God, is given to the Risen Christ. This places heaven, earth and hell, according to the division of the universe into three parts, in a state of adoration.

In this way, at the close of the hymn, Christ appears in glory as the Pantocrator, that is, the omnipotent Lord triumphantly enthroned in the apses of the Palaeochristian and Byzantine basilicas. He still bears the signs of the passion, of his true humanity, but now reveals the splendour of divinity. Near to us in suffering and death, Christ now draws us to himself in glory, blessing us and letting us share in his eternity.

4. Let us conclude our reflection on the Pauline hymn with the words of St Ambrose, who often uses the image of Christ who “emptied himself”, humiliating himself and, as it were, annihilating himself (exinanivit semetipsum) in the Incarnation and his oblation on the Cross. Particularly in his Comment on Psalm 118, the Bishop of Milan says:

“Christ, hung on the tree of the Cross... was pierced by the lance, whereby blood and water flowed out, sweeter than any ointment, from the victim acceptable to God, spreading throughout the world the perfume of sanctification.... Thus, Jesus, pierced, spread the perfume of the forgiveness of sins and of redemption. Indeed, in becoming man from the Word which he was, he was very limited and became poor, though he was rich, so as to make us rich through his poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). He was powerful, yet he showed himself as deprived, so much so that Herod scorned and derided him; he could have shaken the earth, yet he remained attached to that tree; he closed the heavens in a grip of darkness, setting the world on the cross, but he had been put on the Cross; he bowed his head, yet the Word sprung forth; he was annihilated, nevertheless he filled everything. God descended, man ascended; the Word became flesh so that flesh could revindicate for itself the throne of the Word at God’s right hand; he was completely wounded, and yet from him the ointment flowed. He seemed unknown, yet God recognized him” (III, 8, SAEMO IX, Milan-Rome 1987, pp. 131, 133).

MORNING PRAYER

Psalm 62

My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord vv. 2-9

OGod,you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.

For your love is better than life, my lips will speak your praise. So I will bless you all my life, in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul shall be filled as with a banquet, my mouth shall praise you with joy.

On my bed I remember you. On you I muse through the night for you have been my help; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice. My soul clings to you; your right hand holds me fast.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. Psalm 62 on which we are reflecting today is the 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 for us so necessary that if we have none of it we shall die.” (The Way of Perfection, chap. XIX). The liturgy presents to us the first two verses of the Psalm which are indeed focused on the symbols of thirst and hunger, while the third verse evokes a dark horizon, that of the divine judgment of evil, in contrast to the brightness and confident longing of the rest of the Psalm.

2. Let us begin our meditation with the first song, that of the thirst for God (cf. vv. 2-4). It is dawn, the sun is rising in the clear blue sky of the Holy Land, and the person praying begins his day by going to the temple to seek God’s light. He has an almost instinctive, one might say “physical” need for that encounter with the Lord. Just as the dried-out earth is dead until it is watered by the rain and the earth’s gaping cracks suggest the image of its parched and thirsty mouth, so the believer yearns for God, to be filled with him and thus to live in communion with him.

The Prophet Jeremiah had already proclaimed: the Lord is the “source of living waters”, and had reproached the people for building “broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (2,13). Jesus himself would exclaim aloud: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me; let him drink who believes in me” (Jn 7,37-38). At high noon on a quiet, sunny day, he promises the Samaritan woman: “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water that I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4,14).

3. The prayer of Psalm 62 is interwoven with the song of the wonderful Psalm 42: “as the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.... When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (vv. 2-3). Now in Old Testament language the Hebrew “soul” is indicated by the term nephesh, which in some texts means “throat” and whose meaning in many others is broadened to encompass the whole of the person. Taken in these dimensions, the word helps us to realize how essential and profound our need for God is; without him we lack breath and even life itself. For this reason the Psalmist comes to the point of putting physical existence itself on the second level, if union with God should be lacking: “for your steadfast love is better than life” (Ps 62,3). In Psalm 73 he will also repeat to the Lord: “There is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.... for me it is good to be near God” (Ps 73,25-28).

4. After the song about thirst, the Psalmist sings a song about hunger (cf. Ps 62,5-8). With the images of “the soul feasting as with marrow and fat” and of being filled, the person praying is probably referring to one of the sacrifices that were celebrated in the temple of Zion: the so-called sacrifice “of communion”, that is, a sacred banquet at which the faithful ate the flesh of the sacrifice. Another fundamental need of life is used here

as a symbol of communion with God: hunger is appeased when people hear the divine Word and encounter the Lord. Indeed “man does not live by bread alone, but ... by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Dt 8,3; cf. Mt 4,4). And here flashes across the Christian’s mind the thought of the banquet that Christ prepared on the last evening of his earthly life, whose deep value he had explained in his discourse at Capernaum: “For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6,55-56).

5. Through the mystical food of communion with God, “the soul clings to him” as the Psalmist says. Once again the word “soul” suggests the whole human being. Here one rightly finds the mention of an embrace, an almost physical clinging; henceforth God and man are in full communion and on the lips of his creature only joyful and grateful praise can bloom. Even during the dark night we feel protected by God’s wings, just as the ark of the Covenant is covered by the wings of the cherubim. And then the ecstatic expression of jubilation blossoms: “In the shadow of your wings I sing for joy”. Fear is dispelled, the embrace does not cling to emptiness but to God himself, our souls are upheld by the power of his right hand (cf. Ps 62,7-8).

6. In reading the Psalm in the light of the Easter mystery, our hunger and thirst which impel us towards God find their fulfillment in the crucified and risen Christ, from whom we receive the gift of the Spirit and the sacraments which give us new life and the nourishment that sustains it. St John Chrysostom reminds us in commenting on the Johannine phrase: from his side “flowed blood and water” (cf. Jn 19,34), he says “that baptism and the mysteries [that is, the Eucharist] were symbolized in that blood and water”. And he concludes: “Have you seen how Christ has united his bride to himself? Have you seen with what kind of food he feeds us all? By the same food we are formed and are fed. As a woman feeds her child with her own blood and milk, so too Christ himself continually feeds those whom he has begotten with his own blood” (Homily III address to catechumens, 16-19 passim: SC 50 bis, 160-162).

Canticle

Let every creature bless the Lord Dan 3,57-88.56

Oallyou works of the Lord, O bless the Lord. To him be highest glory and praise for ever. And you, angels of the Lord, O bless the Lord.

To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, the heavens of the Lord, O bless the Lord. And you, clouds of the sky, O bless the Lord. And you, all armies of the Lord, O bless the Lord.

To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, sun and moon, O bless the Lord. And you, the stars of the heav’ns, O bless the Lord.

And you, showers and rain, O bless the Lord.

To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, all you breezes and winds, O bless the Lord. And you, fire and heat, O bless the Lord. And you, cold and heat, O bless the Lord.

To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, showers and dew, O bless the Lord. And you, frosts and cold, O bless the Lord.

And you, frost and snow, O bless the Lord.

To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, night-time and day, O bless the Lord. And you, darkness and light, O bless the Lord. And you, lightning and clouds, O bless the Lord. To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

O let the earth bless the Lord.

To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, mountains and hills, O bless the Lord. And you, all plants of the earth, O bless the Lord. And you, fountains and springs, O bless the Lord.

To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, rivers and seas, O bless the Lord. And you, creatures of the sea, O bless the Lord. And you, every bird in the sky, O bless the Lord. And you, wild beasts and tame, O bless the Lord. To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, children of men, O bless the Lord. To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

O Israel, bless the Lord. O bless the Lord. And you, priests of the Lord, O bless the Lord.

And you, servants of the Lord, O bless the Lord. To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

And you, spirits and souls of the just, O bless the Lord. And you, holy and humble of heart, O bless the Lord.

Ananias, Azarias, Mizael, O bless the Lord. To him be highest glory and praise for ever.

Let us praise the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit: To you be highest glory and praise for ever. May you be blessed, O Lord, in the heavens. To you be highest glory and praise for ever.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. “Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord” (Dn 3,57). A cosmic dimension imbues this Canticle taken from the Book of Daniel, which the Liturgy of the Hours proposes for Sunday Lauds in the first and third weeks. This marvellous litany-like prayer is well-suited to the Dies Domini, the Day of the Lord, that lets us contemplate in the risen Christ the culmination of God’s plan for the cosmos and for history. Indeed, in him, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of history (cf. Rv 22,13), creation itself acquires its full meaning since, as John recalls in the Prologue to his Gospel, “all things were made through him” (Jn 1,3). The history of salvation culminates in the resurrection of Christ, opening human life to the gift of the Spirit and adoption as sons and daughters, while awaiting the return of the divine Spouse who will hand the world back to God the Father (cf. 1 Cor 15,24).

2. In this text, in the form of a litany, it is as if our gaze passes all things in review. Our gaze focuses on the sun, the moon and the stars; it settles upon the immense expanse of the waters, rises to the mountains, lingers over the most varied elements of the weather; it passes from hot to cold, from light to darkness; considers the mineral and vegetable worlds, dwells on the various types of animals. Then the call becomes universal: it refers to God’s angels, reaches all the “sons of men”, but most particularly involves the People of God, Israel, the priests and the holy ones. It is an immense choir, a symphony in which the varied voices are raised in praise to God, Creator of the universe and Lord of history. Prayed in the light of Christian revelation, it is addressed to the Trinitarian God, as we are invited to do by the liturgy which adds a Trinitarian formula to the Canticle: “Let us praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.

3. Reflected in the Canticle, in a certain sense, is the universal religious soul, which perceives God’s imprint in the world and is lifted up to contemplate the Creator. However, in the context of the Book of Daniel, the hymn is presented as the thanksgiving of three young Israelites - Ananias, Azarias, Mizael - who were condemned to die burnt in a furnace for refusing to adore the golden idol of Nebuchadnezzar, but were miraculously preserved from the flames. Against the background of this event is that special history of salvation in which God chooses Israel as his people and makes a covenant with them. It is the same covenant to which the three young Israelites want to stay faithful, even at the cost of martyrdom in the fiery furnace. Their fidelity meets with the fidelity of God who sends an angel to drive the flames away from them (cf. Dn 3,49).

In this way the Canticle is patterned on the Old Testament songs of praise for danger averted. Among them is the famous song of victory, cited in chapter 15 of Exodus, in which the ancient Hebrews express their gratitude to the Lord for that night in which they would inevitably have been overcome by Pharaoh’s army, had the Lord not opened a passage for them, dividing the waters and hurling “the horse and his rider ... into the sea” (Ex 15,1).

4. It is not by chance, in the solemn Easter Vigil, that every year the liturgy makes us repeat the hymn sung by the Israelites in Exodus. That path which was opened for them prophetically announced the new way that the risen Christ inaugurated for humanity on the holy night of his

resurrection from the dead. Our symbolic passing through the waters of Baptism enables us to relive a similar experience of passing from death to life, thanks to the victory over death won by Jesus, for the benefit of us all.

By repeating the Canticle of the three young Israelites in the Sunday liturgy of Lauds, we disciples of Christ want to be swept up in the same wave of gratitude for the great works wrought by God, in creation and, above all, in the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

In fact, the Christian discerns a relationship between the release of the three young men, mentioned in the Canticle, and the resurrection of Jesus. In the latter, the Acts of the Apostles see granted the prayer of the believer who, like the Psalmist, confidently sings: “you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption” (Acts 2,27; Ps 15,10).

It is traditional to associate the Canticle with the Resurrection. Some ancient records show the existence of the hymn in the prayer of the Lord’s Day, the weekly Easter of Christians. Moreover, iconographical depictions which show three young men praying unharmed amidst the flames have been found in the Roman catacombs, thereby witnessing to the effectiveness of prayer and the certainty that the Lord will intervene.

5. “Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven praiseworthy and glorious forever” (Dn 3,56). In singing the hymn on Sunday, the Christian feels gratitude not only for the gift of creation but also because we are the recipients of the fatherly care of God, who in Christ has raised us to the dignity of being his sons and daughters.

God’s fatherly care makes us see creation in a new way and its astounding beauty offers an elegant sign in which we can catch a glimpse of his love. With these sentiments Francis of Assisi contemplated creation and lifted his praise to God, the ultimate source of all beauty. It comes naturally to imagine that the prayers of the Biblical text were echoed in his soul when at San Damiano, after touching the peaks of physical and spiritual suffering, he composed the “Canticle of Brother Sun” (cf. Fonti Francescane, 263).

Psalm 149

Song of praise and joy sung by festive chorus and instruments

Sing a new song to the Lord, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel rejoice in its Maker, let Sion’s sons exult in their king. Let them praise his name with dancing and make music with timbrel and harp.

For the Lord takes delight in his people. He crowns the poor with salvation. Let the faithful rejoice in their glory, shout for joy and take their rest. Let the praise of God be on their lips and a two-edged sword in their hand, to deal out vengeance to the nations and punishment on all the peoples; to bind their kings in chains and their nobles in fetters of iron; to carry out the sentence pre-ordained: this honour is for all his faithful.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. “Let the faithful exult in glory, let them rise joyfully from their couches”. The order which you have just heard in Psalm 149, points to a dawn which is breaking and finds the faithful ready to chant their morning praise. With a suggestive phrase, their song of praise is defined as “a new song” (v. 1), a solemn and perfect hymn, perfect for the final days, in which the Lord will gather together the just in a renewed world. A festive atmosphere pervades the entire Psalm; it begins with the initial Alleluia and then continues with chant, praise, joy, dance, the sound of drums and of harps. The Psalm inspires a prayer of thanksgiving from a heart filled with religious exultation.

2. The protagonists of the Psalm in the original Hebrew text are given two terms that are taken from the spirituality of the Old Testament. Three times they are defined as the hasidim (vv. 1,5,9), “the pious, the faithful ones”, who respond with fidelity and love (hesed) to the fatherly love of the Lord.

The second part of the Psalm provokes surprise because it is full of warlike sentiments. It is strange that in the same verse, the Psalm brings together “the praises of God on the lips” and “the two-edged sword in their hands” (v. 6). Upon reflection, we can understand why the Psalm was composed for the use of the “faithful” who were involved in a struggle for liberation; they were fighting to free an oppressed people and to give them the possibility of serving God. During the Maccabean era, in the 2nd century B.C., those fighting for freedom and faith, who underwent a severe repression from the Hellenistic power, were defined as the hasidim, the ones faithful to the Word of God and the tradition of the fathers.

3. In the present perspective of our prayer, the warlike symbolism becomes an image of the dedication of the believer who sings the praises of God in the morning and then goes into the ways of the world, in the midst of evil and injustice. Unfortunately powerful forces are arrayed against the Kingdom of God: the Psalmist speaks of “peoples, nations, leaders and nobles”. Yet he is confident because he knows that he has at his side the Lord, who is the master of history (v. 2). His victory over evil is certain and so will be the triumph of love. All the hasidim participate in the battle, they are the faithful and just who with the power of the Spirit bring to fulfilment the wonderful work that is called the Kingdom of God.

4. St Augustine, starting with the reference of the Psalm to the “choir” and to the “drums and harps”, commented: “What does the choir represent?... The choir is a group of singers who sing together. If we sing in a choir, we must sing in harmony. When one sings in a choir, one off-key voice strikes the listener and creates confusion in the choir” (Enarr in Ps 149; CCL 40,7,1-4).

Referring to the instruments mentioned in the Psalm he asks: “Why does the Psalmist take in hand the drum and the harp?”. He answers, “Because we praise the Lord not just with the voice, but also with our works. When we take up the drum and the harp, the hands have to be in accord with the voice. The same goes for you. When you sing the Alleluia, you must give bread to the poor, give clothes to the naked, give shelter to the traveler. If you do it, not only does your voice sing, but your hands are in accord with your voice because the works agree with the words” (ibid., 8,1-4).

5. There is a second term which we use to define those who pray in the Psalm: they are the anawim, “the poor and lowly ones” (v. 4). The expression turns up often in the Psalter. It indicates not just the oppressed, the miserable, the persecuted for justice, but also those who, with fidelity to the moral teaching of the Covenant with God, are marginalized by those who prefer to use violence, riches and power. In this light one understands that the category of the “poor” is not just a social category but a spiritual choice. It is what the famous first Beatitude means: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5,3). The Prophet Zephaniah spoke to the anawim as special persons: “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of wrath of the Lord” (Zep 2,3).

6. The “day of the Lord’s wrath” is really the day described in the second part of the Psalm when the “poor” are lined up on the side of God to fight against evil. By themselves they do not have sufficient strength or the arms or the necessary strategies to oppose the onslaught of evil. Yet the Psalmist does not admit hesitation: “The Lord loves his people, he adorns the lowly (anawim) with victory” (v. 4). What St Paul says to the Corinthians completes the picture: “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor 1,28). With such confidence the “sons of Zion” (v. 2), the hasidim and anawim, the faithful and the poor, go on to live their witness in the world and in history. Mary’s Canticle in the Gospel of Luke, the Magnificat, is the echo of the best sentiments of the “sons of Zion”: glorious praise of God her Saviour, thanksgiving for the great things done by the Mighty One, the battle against the forces of evil, solidarity with the poor and fidelity to the God of the Covenant (cf. Lk 1,46-55).

EVENING PRAYER II

Psalm 109

Sit at my right hand! vv. 1-5,7

TheLord’s revelation to my Master: “Sit on my right: your foes I will put beneath your feet.”

The Lord will wield from Sion your sceptre of power: rule in the midst of all your foes.

A prince from the day of your birth on the holy mountains; from the womb before the dawn I begot you.

The Lord has sworn an oath he will not change. “You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.”

The Master standing at your right hand will shatter kings in the day of his wrath. He shall drink from the stream by the wayside and therefore he shall lift up his head.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. We have just listened to one of the most famous Psalms in Christian history. Indeed, Psalm 109 [110], which the Liturgy of Vespers presents to us every Sunday, is cited frequently in the New Testament. Verses 1 and 4 in particular are applied to Christ in the wake of the ancient Judaic tradition that has transformed this Davidic hymn of royal praise into a Messianic Psalm.

This prayer’s popularity is also due to its constant use at Sunday Vespers. Psalm 109 [110], therefore, in its Latin Vulgate version, has been the subject of many splendid musical compositions that have marked the history of western culture. The Liturgy, in accordance with the procedures decided upon by the Second Vatican Council, has omitted the violent verse 6 from the original Hebrew text of this Psalm, which, moreover, is composed of only sixty-three words. It is very close in tone to the so-called “Cursing

Psalms” and describes the Jewish king advancing in a sort of military campaign, crushing his adversaries and judging the nations.

2. Since we will have an opportunity to return to this Psalm on other occasions, (see pages 160-1; 291; 399) after thinking about its use in the Liturgy, we will now be satisfied with an overall glance at it. We will be able to distinguish clearly two parts in it. The first (cf. vv. 1-3) contains an oracle addressed by God to the one the Psalmist calls “my lord”, that is, the sovereign of Jerusalem. The oracle proclaims the enthronement at God’s “right hand” of David’s descendent. In fact, the Lord speaks to him, saying: “Sit at my right hand” (v. 1). It is quite likely that this is an allusion to a rite that required the person chosen to sit on the right of the Ark of the Covenant, to receive the power of government from the supreme king of Israel, in other words, the Lord.

3. Against this background we can sense the presence of hostile forces that have been neutralized by a victorious conquest: the enemies are portrayed at the feet of the sovereign, who solemnly advances among them bearing the sceptre of his authority (cf. vv. 1-2). This undoubtedly reflects a real political situation, recorded at the time when one king handed over his power to another with the uprising of a few subordinates or an attempt to conquer. Henceforth, however, the text refers to a general contrast between the plan of God, who works through his Chosen People, and the scheming of those who would like to assert their own hostile and counterfeit power. Here, then, we have the eternal conflict between good and evil that takes place in the context of historical events through which God manifests himself and speaks to us.

4. The second part of the Psalm, however, contains a priestly prayer whose protagonist is still the Davidic king (vv. 4-7). Guaranteed by a solemn divine oath, the dignity of kingship also unites in itself the dignity of priesthood. The reference to Melchisedek, the priest-king of Salem, that is, of ancient Jerusalem (cf. Gn 14), is perhaps a way to justify the specific priesthood of the king beside the official Levitical priesthood of the Temple of Zion. Additionally, it is also well known that the Letter to the Hebrews starts, precisely, with this oracle: “You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedek” (Ps 109 [110]:4), in order to illustrate the special and perfect priesthood of Jesus Christ. We will examine Psalm 109

[110] in greater detail later, going through it verse by verse and making a careful analysis.

5. To conclude, however, let us reread the first verse of the Psalm that contains the divine oracle: “Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool”. And let us read it with St Maximus of Turin (fourth-fifth century A.D.), who commented on it in his Sermon on Pentecost: “Our custom has it that the sharing of the footstool is offered to the one who, having accomplished some feat, deserves to sit in the place of honour as champion. So too, the man Jesus Christ, overcoming the devil with his passion, opening underground realms with his Resurrection, arriving victorious in heaven as one who has brought some undertaking to a successful conclusion, listens to God the Father inviting him: ‘Sit at my right hand’. Nor must we be surprised if the Father offers to share with us the seat of the Son who, by nature, is consubstantial with the Father... The Son sits on his right because, according to the Gospel, the sheep will be on the right; on the left, on the other hand, will be the goats. The first Lamb, therefore, must sit on the same side as the sheep, and the immaculate Head must take possession in advance of the place destined for the immaculate flock that will follow him” (40, 2: Scriptores circa Ambrosium, IV, MilanRome, 1991, p. 195).

Psalm 113A

They all sang with one voice vv. 1-8

WhenIsrael came forth from Egypt, Jacob’s sons from an alien people, Judah became the Lord’s temple, Israel became his kingdom.

The sea fled at the sight: the Jordan turned back on its course, the mountains leapt like rams and the hills like yearling sheep.

Why was it, sea, that you fled, that you turned back, Jordan, on your course? Mountains, that you leapt like rams, hills, like yearling sheep?

Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, in the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool and flint into a spring of water.

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. The joyful and triumphant song we have just proclaimed recalls Israel’s Exodus from the oppression of the Egyptians. Psalm 113A [114] belongs to the collection that Jewish tradition has called the “Egyptian Hallel”. These are Psalms 112-117 [113-118], a selection of songs used especially in the Jewish Passover liturgy.

Christianity has taken Psalm 113A [114] with the same paschal connotation, but opened it to the new interpretation derived from Christ’s Resurrection. The Exodus celebrated by the Psalm becomes, therefore, the symbol of another, more radical and universal liberation. Dante, in his Divine Comedy, places this hymn, in its Latin Vulgate version, on the lips of the souls in Purgatory: “In exitu Israel de Aegypto: they all sang together with one voice...” (Purgatory II, 46-47). In other words, he saw in the Psalm the song of expectation and hope of those who are on the way, after purification from every sin, towards the final goal of communion with God in Paradise.

2. Let us now follow the thematic and spiritual line of this short, prayerful composition. It opens (cf. vv. 1-2) by recalling the Exodus of Israel from Egyptian oppression until its entry into that Promised Land which is God’s “sanctuary”; that is, the place of his presence in the midst of his people. In fact, land and people are fused together: Judah and Israel, terms with which the Holy Land or the Chosen People were designated, come to be considered as the seat of the presence of the Lord, his special property and inheritance (cf. Ex 19:5-6).

After this theological description of one of the fundamental elements of faith of the Old Testament, that is, the proclamation of the marvels God worked for his people, the Psalmist reflects more profoundly, spiritually and symbolically on the constitutive events.

3. The Red Sea of the Exodus from Egypt and the Jordan of the entry into the Holy Land are personified and transformed into witnesses and instruments that have a part in the liberation wrought by God (cf. Ps 113A [114]:3,5).

At the beginning in the Exodus, the sea rolls back to allow Israel to pass, and at the end of the journey through the desert, it is the Jordan which turns back in its course, leaving its bed dry so that the procession of the children of Israel can cross over (cf. Jos 3-4). At the centre there is a reference to Sinai: it is now the mountains that participate in the great divine revelation which takes place on their summits. Likened to living creatures such as rams and lambs, they skip and exult. With a very vivid personification, the Psalmist now asks the mountains about thereason for their confusion: “Why is it... you mountains, that you skip like rams? You hills, like the lambs of the flock?” (Ps 113A [114]:6). Their response is not mentioned: it is given indirectly through an injunction, subsequently addressed to the earth, so that it too should tremble “before the Lord” (cf. v. 7). The confusion of the mountains and the hills, therefore, was a startled adoration in the presence of the Lord, God of Israel, an act of glorious exaltation of the transcendent and saving God.

4. This is the theme of the last part of Psalm 113A [114] (cf. vv. 7-8), which introduces another important event of Israel’s march through the desert, that of the water that gushed from the rock of Meribah (cf. Ex 17:1-7; Nm 20:1-13). God transformed the rock into a spring of water which becomes a lake: the source of this miracle is his fatherly concern for the people.

This gesture acquires, then, a symbolic meaning: it is a sign of the saving love of the Lord who sustains and regenerates humanity as it advances though the desert of history.

St Paul was known to use this image and, on the basis of a Jewish tradition which claims that the rock accompanied Israel on its journey through the desert, he re-read the event in a Christological key: “All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4).

5. In this wake, commenting on the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, a great Christian teacher such as Origen conceived of the New Exodus undertaken by Christians. Indeed, this is what he says: “Do not think that it was only then that Moses led the people out of Egypt: now too we have Moses with us..., that is, the law of God wants to bring you out of Egypt; if you listen to it, it wishes to distance you from Pharaoh... It does not want you to remain in the dark actions of the flesh, but to go out into the desert, that you reach a place apart from the upheavals

and instability of the world, that you reach stillness and silence... So when you have arrived in this place of calm, there you can sacrifice to the Lord, recognize the law of God and the power of the divine voice” (Homilies on Exodus, Rome, 1981, pp. 71-72). Taking up the Pauline image that calls to mind the crossing of the sea, Origen continues: “The Apostle calls this a baptism, realized in Moses in the cloud and sea, so that you too, who have been baptized in Christ, in water and in the Holy Spirit, may know that the Egyptians are pursuing you and want to reclaim you to serve them: namely, the rulers of this world and the evil spirits to whom you were first enslaved. They will certainly seek to follow you, but you will go into the water and escape unharmed, and having washed away the stains of sin, you will come out as a new man ready to sing the new canticle” (ibid., p. 107).

Let us rejoice and be glad! Rv 19:1,2,5-7

Alleluia.Salvation

and glory and power belong to our God, (R Alleluia.)

His judgements are true and just. R. Alleluia (alleluia). Alleluia.

Praise our God, all you his servants, (R Alleluia.)

You who fear him, both small and great. R. Alleluia (alleluia).

Alleluia.

The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns, (R Alleluia.)

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory. R. Alleluia (alleluia).

Alleluia.

The marriage of the Lamb has come, (R Alleluia.)

And his bride has made herself ready. R. Alleluia (alleluia).

Commentary by Pope St John Paul II

1. Continuing with the series of Psalms and Canticles that constitute the ecclesial prayer of Vespers, we come across a hymn-like passage from

Canticle

Chapter 19 of the Book of Revelation that consists of a sequence of alleluias and acclamations.

Behind these joyful invocations is the dramatic lament intoned in the previous chapter by the kings, merchants and seafaring men at the fall of imperial Babylon, the city of evil and oppression, symbol of the persecution unleashed against the Church.

2. To counter this cry that rises from the earth, a joyful chorus of a liturgical nature rings out in the heavens, and in addition to the alleluia, repeats the amen. The various acclamations, similar to antiphons, that the Liturgy of Vespers now combines in a single hymn, are actually put on the lips of various figures in the Apocalypse text. We discover first of all a “great multitude”, made up of the hosts of angels and saints (cf. vv. 1-3). Then, we can single out the voice of “the twenty-four elders” and “four living creatures”, symbolic figures who seem to be the priests of this heavenly liturgy of praise and thanksgiving (cf. v. 4). Lastly, a single voice is raised (cf. v. 5), which in turn involves in the Canticle the “great multitude” with which it began (cf. vv. 6-7).

3. In future stages of our journey we will have the opportunity to describe the individual antiphons of this grand and festive hymn of praise by several voices (see pages 166; 294; 402). Let us now make do with two observations. The first concerns the introductory acclamation which states: “Salvation, glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just” (vv. 1-2).

At the heart of this joyful invocation is the representation of God’s decisive intervention in history: the Lord is not indifferent, as if an impassive emperor, remote from human events. As the Psalmist says, “The Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his searching glance is on mankind” (Ps 10 [11]:4).

4. Indeed, his gaze is a source of action, for he intervenes and demolishes overbearing and oppressive empires, brings down the proud who challenge him and judges those who perpetrate evil. Again, it is the Psalmist who describes in picturesque images how God bursts into history (cf. Ps 10 [11]:7), referred to by the author of the Apocalypse in the previous chapter (cf. Rv 18:1-24), the terrible divine intervention regarding Babylon, uprooted from her centre and hurled into the sea. Our Canticle

mentions this act in a passage that is not part of the celebration of Vespers (cf. Rv 19:2-3).

Our prayer, therefore, must above all invoke and praise divine action, the Lord’s effective justice, his glory, which he obtains by triumphing over evil. God makes himself present in history, taking the side of the righteous and of victims, exactly as the brief and essential acclamation of the Apocalypse declares and the Canticles of the Psalms so often repeat (cf. Ps 145 [146]:6-9).

5. Let us emphasize another theme in our Canticle. It is developed in the final acclamation and is a dominant motif in the Apocalypse itself: “The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready” (Rv 19:7). Christ and the Church, the Lamb and the Bride, are in a profound communion of love.

Let us seek to make this spousal mystery shine out through the poetic witness of a great Father of the Syrian Church, St Ephrem, who lived in the fourth century. Using symbolically the sign of the Wedding at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1-11), he introduces the town itself, personified, in order to praise Christ for the great gift received:

“Together with my guests I will thank him for he has deemed me worthy to invite him: he who is the heavenly Bridegroom, who descended and invited all; and I too was invited to come to his pure wedding feast. Before the peoples I will recognize him as the Bridegroom; there is none other like him. His wedding chamber has been ready for centuries, and it is richly decked out and lacks nothing: not like the wedding feast of Cana where he provided for all that was lacking” (Inni sulla Verginitá, 33, 3: L’Arpa dello Spirito, Rome, 1999, pp. 73-74).

6. In another hymn that also sings of the Wedding at Cana, St Ephrem stresses that Christ, invited to the weddings of others (here, precisely, that of the newly married couple of Cana), wanted to celebrate the feast of his wedding: the wedding with his bride, which is every faithful soul. “Jesus, you were invited to someone else’s wedding feast, the spouses of Cana; here, instead, is your own pure and beautiful feast: it gladdens our days because your guests also, O Lord, have need of your songs: let your harp fill everything! The soul is your bride, the body your nuptial chamber, your guests are the senses and thoughts. And if only one body is a wedding feast for you, the whole Church is your nuptial banquet!” (Inni sulla Fede, 14, 4-5: op. cit., p. 27).