Dear Friends,
Last week, we reflected briefly on Mary’s prayerful stance of focusing on and listening to God. Her contemplative posture before God made her ready to encounter the angel and say yes to God to be the mother of the Savior.
Obviously, another approach to prayer that Mary certainly lived was the regular praying of the psalms. The song she sings while visiting Elizabeth, the Magnificat, echoes both Hannah’s Song in the Book of Samuel and the Psalms. Jews, at the time of Jesus, would have prayed the psalms three times a day from memory. Books and scrolls made from lambskin would have been very expensive for ordinary people, so most people simply memorized the psalms. We might think it difficult to memorize so many psalms, but you and I have a similar experience when it comes to music. Songs we learned as children can be quickly recalled and sung without having to read the words or see the music. Mary would have praised God with the songs she learned as a little girl. The psalms were normally set to music, and that makes it much easier to remember them. I imagine that Mary sang those psalms when she was working around her parents’ house or when she ran an errand for them at the market. The psalms would have been a constant part of Mary’s life and her prayer.
In the Book of Psalms, we, like Mary, have ancient words to speak to God. A rich tapestry of praises, laments, meditations, requests, and urgent supplications are given to us to guide and direct our prayers. The psalms are like a school of prayer. They tie our personal prayers to the corporate prayers of the people of Christ from every generation. They warm our hearts, inform our minds, and shape our wills. St. Benedict, in his Rule, asks that the monks sing all 150 psalms every week. In the Liturgy of the Hours, priests, deacons and many lay faithful continue to pray the psalms throughout the day. If anyone comes to me and is wondering how to pray, I will usually encourage them to start with the psalms. The psalms show us how to put into words our deepest hurts and longings, our struggles that leave us anxious or angry, our confessions of guilt, and our joyful thanks and praise so that we share all our life experiences with God who listens and responds. We lay out in prayer whatever it is we feel, and then we put our confidence in God.
When we pray Mary’s Magnificat this Advent, I invite you to also ponder Psalm 89 and see where the roots of Mary’s prayer came from. Poetry flowing from her lips was possible because she daily prayed the poetry of the psalms. Here is the beginning of Psalm 89:
The favors of the Lord I will sing forever:
Through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever.”
In heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
“Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”
Peace,
Fr. Damian