A project of the Spirituality Committee of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
“How is it possible that at the same time a man and Jesus Christ should both pray in the Psalter? It is the Son of God made man, who has borne all our human weakness in his own flesh, who here pours out the heart of all mankind before God, who stands in our place and prays for us. He has known pain and anguish, guilt and death more deeply than we have. Thus it is that the prayer of that humanity he hs assumed comes before God in the Psalms. It is indeed our prayer, but since he knows us better than we know ourselves, since for our sake he became true man, it is also truly his prayer, and it can only become our prayer because it was his.”
Deitrich Bonhoeffer The Psalms: Prayer Book of the Bible SLG Press 1994 p.6 [original in German 1953]
We have used the Sunday Responsorial psalm to offer a focus for reflection during the week ahead for yourself or share with others. You could note your own thoughts as a possible personal journal.
Acknowledgements
Excerpts from The Psalms: A New Translation © 1963 The Grail (England) published by HarperCollins.
6 August The Transfiguration of our Lord
13 August 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
15 August Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
20 August 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
27 August 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
