I have said to you many times, devote yourselves to the study of Holy Scripture, the psalms and the writings of the Fathers and study them with Divine Eros. Look up every word in the dictionary and read clearly and correctly and with attention to the meaning and every last detail and punctuation. Find out how many times a word, such as for example, simplicity, occurs in the Holy Scripture. The light of Christ will flood your soul.
The Psalms are the most beautiful songs of poetry that this world possesses. They are the link between the Old and the New Testament, they unify the promise and fulfillment…. when chanted or sung, the Psalms tie the words of wisdom and feelings directly to our hearts.
The Psalms reflect timelessly the universal hopes and fears, love and hate, joys and sorrows of the human heart, and varying moods of human spirit: awestruck and wonder at Gods mighty acts, marvels of creation,groping complexity, the apparent prosperity of selfish scoundrels – from calm trust and deep certainty to cries of hope and desperation.
Just got back from visiting my dad in Florida for Thanksgiving and I am SO GLAD that my copy of Songs of Praise was waiting for me in my mailbox when we returned!!! Songs of Praise is a devotional, perhaps one of the first devotionals written with Orthodox Christians in mind. Its author is Sylvia Leonaritis, who also writes the popular blog Orthodox Mom. For many years now she has organized an online Psalter Prayer group made up of Orthodox women the world round.
Over the years, praying the psalms has been a great source of joy and comfort to me, so I was really really glad to hear about this book. For Orthodox Christians the psalter is our ancient song of Praise and hymn of prayer. The Psalter is the ancient hymnal of Israel and of the Church. It is a deeply integral part of our faith and worship. So as soon as we opened the mail, the dog and my youngest daughter and I took a walk into town to the local coffee shop and I sat outside to pour over the pages of Songs of Praise.
I really love that – between each Kathisma – Sylvia offers words of encouragement rooted in faith and stemming from her own personal journey and walk with Christ. Her own struggles, her own joys, her love of God and her Faith walk. Such reflections are a reminder that the psalms are not just lofty words but rather speak to the heart of every Christian and also that the psalms encompass every human emotion from thanksgiving, brokenness, repentance, tears, Praise, sorrow, joy, grief, fear, anger, seeking refuge, love, blessing, seeking God and ultimately offering ourselves to Him and cultivating that needful relationship in prayer.
In other words – real life, real struggle, real joy.
Sylvia’s reflections remind the reader that Christ Himself is present in the psalms and that He meets us wherever we are in our walk of Faith and that our journeys of Faith are not about being perfect people but about being a people who through Christ – in our Orthodox Faith – are being perfected.
There is ample space in the book for journaling and devotion. This is a lovely practice that we see so often from our Protestant friends – but in fact – I would put forth that journalling is really an Orthodox practice. Monastics keep spiritual journals and I am a firm believer that Orthodox monastic practices are a benchmark and guidepost for us all. Not only that, the Psalter itself is an outpouring of the heart of Saint David – the man who is called “a man after God’s own heart” The Psalms are actually his devotions.
The journalling pages are a great place to write your intentions, to cast your cares, give thanks, draw a picture, list those whom you hold up in prayer, copy a psalm verse you want to commit to memory, or to journal a word or phrase that has special meaning during this season of your individual journey in Faith.
Sylvia has been journalling for many years, and mentions that it is a great source of joy for her to go through the previous years pages of her journals and see how God has woven goodness in her life, how prayers have been answered or even unanswered and how that has all been needful and worked together for good in her life.
One of my favorite reflections in the book is Letters to the Theotokos because it is so sweet – a lovely reflection on our devotion to Panagia and her role in our salvation and example as a mother, the veil of her protection and intercession for us all.
If you’ve never prayed the psalms know this – the reading of the psalms is a beautiful encouragement to everyone – to pray the psalms and have them pray in you. It will uplift your life. This devotional is a great resource – encouraging women (and men) to bring the psalter into the rhythm of everyday life and the Liturgical cycle.
I can not encourage you enough to get this book. It is available at the Ancient Faith Store
“The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own,
the more simple and rich will our prayer become.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Today begins for Orthodox Christians our preparations toward the Nativity and it is such a gratitude that psalter prayer groups begin today in countless Orthodox Churches and social media groups. Especially for moms, between this weekend and Nativity most everything becomes a blur. If you have kids there are lots of Christmas concerts and pageants and festivities that all require their share of running around and planning and time. Each one of them is a joy – but if we’re honest, most people find that need for balance, focus and silence catches up with them because there is so much to do and it all just blends together.
Those holiday hectivities (I just made that word up) is one reason I am so fortunate that for the past many many years I have been with a local Psalter Prayer group formed by an extraordinary group of prayerful women – I’ve learned so much from them.
One thing in particular I have learned is that the whole body of us is so much greater than the sum of our persons. That is because when we start praying the Kathismas on the 15th the entire psalter along with our individual intentions and commemorations will be offered daily. That is a mighty thing.
Praying a Kathisma is about twenty minutes that often passes so quickly, one feels they have barely begun.
What else I have learned from these prayer warriors is that on those days when I fail in my prayers I know that I have been born on the prayers of others.
It’s the beginning of the Nativity Fast, most of us are having some combination of veggies and beans for the next forty days, and yet feasting on the Psalms we lack nothing. May this Nativity Season be blessed and bountiful for you and for all of us!
Psalmody is the ABC for beginners, progress for the more advanced, confirmation for the perfect, the voice of the Church. It makes festivals radiant; it creates mourning that is in accordance with God, for psalmody draws tears even from a heart of stone.
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Saint Ephraim the Syrian
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Praise the Lord, for a psalm is a good thing;
Let praise be sweet to our God.
The Lord is building Jerusalem,
And He shall gather together the dispersion of Israel;
He heals the brokenhearted
And He binds up all their wounds.
He numbers the multitude of stars
And calls them all by name.
Great is our Lord, and great is His strength;
His understanding exceeds every measure.
The Lord raises up the gentle,
But humbles sinners to the ground.
Begin with thanksgiving to the Lord;
Sing to our God with the harp,
To Him who covers heaven with clouds,
Who prepares rain for the earth,
Who makes grass grow on the mountains
And the green growth for the service of men,
To Him who gives the cattle their food
And who gives food to the nestlings of ravens
When they call upon Him.
He shall not take pleasure in the strength of a horse,
Nor be pleased with the legs of a man;
The Lord is pleased with those who fear Him,
And with those who hope in His mercy.
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Psalm 146
Psalmody is calm of soul, author of peace.
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Psalmody is convenor of friendship, union of the separated, reconciliation of enemies.
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Saint Ephraim the Syrian on Psalmody
Tomorrow, November 15, ushers in the period of the Nativity Fast for Orthodox Christians. This is a 40 day period leading up to the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Aside from amending and curtailing some of our physical nourishment, we also increase our spiritual nourishment, in the form of almsgiving, prayer and worship. This is our time of preparation.
For more than a decade, I have been a part of an incredible group of women, who pray the psalter during the seasons of the Nativity and Great Lent. It is a time of year, toward which we always look forward. If you have never participated in a psalter prayer group, it is very easy to get one started.
The Psalter is the Book of Psalms broken into twenty groupings of psalms, called Kathisma’s. It is not necessary to have twenty members in a psalter prayer group, but if you do, then the psalter is prayed in it’s entirety every day by the group.
It’s about twenty minutes to pray a Kathisma, but it is wonderful time to reorient oneself from the constant droning of what often becomes a hectic season of Christmas shopping, dashing here and there to holiday parties (which are no doubt fun times to spend with friends), and the overall commercialism of a season which no longer wants Christ in the midst of it.
So each day of praying the psalms becomes a twenty minute respite for calm of soul.
In praying the psalter, each woman also prays for one another and so psalmody within a psalter prayer group is absolutely the conveyor of friendship and union of the separated, because though we pray each in our own homes, we pray with oneness of soul uniting us in prayer. Some members have moved out of the area over time, and so that makes these occasions of the year when come together again through the Psalms, all the more special.
By the end of the Nativity period, each woman will have prayed through the psalter twice and that is both a sober grounding and a blessing.
“It is the profound Christian persuasion that Christ walks within the psalms”(1) and so it is a great joy to pray the psalms, as we walk with Christ on this journey toward His Incarnation.
Have a Blessed Nativity Season.
(1) Father Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms
gladsomelife.com 