Theme No 2
The Psalms, the prayer of the assembly
1. Formation Prayer
(To be recited by all present).
In the name of the Father …
Heavenly Father, as we commence this
session of the Formation Programme, help us to believe you are near to us and that you
care for each one of us every day of our lives. Send the Holy Spirit to be our helper and
our guide, enlightening our minds, giving us the grace to serve you with generous hearts
and inspiring us to stand firm as Christians in your love. We ask this through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
2. Scripture Reading - Psalm
139:1-10
(Read by the discussion leader or the member nominated by him.)
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You
search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a
word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I
cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take
the wings of the morning, and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your
hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me fast.
3. The Message
(Read by the discussion leader or the member nominated by him.)
From the time of King David to the birth of
Jesus Christ, there was a deepening in prayer for oneself and for others. These prayers
were collected and placed into a Book called Psalms or Praises, a masterwork of prayer in
the Old Testament. The American monk, the late Thomas Merton, once wrote: "Those
whose vocation in the Church is prayer, find that they live on the psalms, for the psalms
enter into every department of their lives". We can be confident that Jesus learnt to
recite the psalms from his earliest years in the home and the synagogue at Nazareth.
Indeed he quoted more often from the psalms than from any other book of the Scriptures.
The Church’s liturgy calls upon the psalms more often than any other Old Testament
book. Even though the language and the ideas expressed in the psalms may sound rather
strange or even violent, they do express the situation or the concerns of various
individuals or communities in the world at the present time. So when we pray the Psalms,
we are entering into the hearts and the minds of those people who are our brothers and
sisters. We too have to struggle against temptation and discouragement which are often
expressed in the psalms. Then there are times when we can sing our hymns of personal
triumph.
4. The Exercise
(Five minutes of reflection by all members.)
Am I in need of the psalms to assist me in
expressing my innermost thoughts and concerns in prayer to God?
Why do I accept or reject the claim that
psalm 139 is one of the most appealing, prayerful poems of the Old Testament?
One of the more familiar psalms is psalm 23
"The Lord is my shepherd". How does Jesus use the ideas contained in that psalm
to convey the knowledge, love and care of God for us?
5. The Sharing
(Members share aspects of their personal faith and its place in their lives that have come
to them through the Exercise.)
6. The Word
(The basis of meditation and reflection for the ensuing month given by the discussion
leader.)
'Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my
soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life
long.'
7. Closing Prayer
(Recited by all members)
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; the
Lord is my rock and my defence: my Saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will trust.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and
to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New
Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
