From today’s Midfternoon Prayer:
Stand beside the earliest roads,
ask the pathways of old
Which is the way to good, and walk it;
thus you will find rest for you souls.
Jeremiah 6:16a
There was never a time when the psalter was not the prayer of the Church. The first Christians brought it with them from Juadaism. Or, to be even more basic, Jesus prayed the psalms and scriptures of his people, thus giving them to us, his body.
St. Benedict and the early desert fathers arranged the psalms into chunks to be recited or chanted around the clock. Other elements were added,subtracted, arranged, and rearranged over the years. Just as a good road will be widened, paved, and periodically get rough spots filled in over the years. But its still the same road.
So…anyone you know looking for a new way to pray?
Tell them about the earliest road.
The Liturgy of the Hours.
