Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

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Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Psalm 63 with Gertrude the Great – Thirsting for God You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you (v. 1). And early in the morning, as if running to meet your God, say this prayer with these three verses: God, my God; for you I watch at daybreak. For you my soul has thirsted, for you my flesh, how many ways! In a desert land, and where there is no way and no water: so in the sanctuary, have I come before you to see your virtue and your glory. Ah! O God, love, you alone are my entire and true love. You are my dearest salvation, all my hope and joy and my supreme and best good. My God, my dearest love, in the morning I will stand before you and will see that you yourself are everlasting pleasantness and gentleness. You are what my heart thirsts for. You are the entire sufficiency of my spirit. The more I taste you, the more I hunger [for you]: the more I drink, the more I thirst. O God, love, the vision of you is for me like the very brightest day: that one day which, in the courts of the Lord, is better above thousands; for this alone sighs my soul, that you have redeemed for yourself. Ah! When will you satisfy me with the gentleness of your mellifluous 1 face? How my soul yearns and pines for the fat 2 of your pleasantness. Behold, I have chosen and chosen above all to be a castaway in the house of my God so that I may be able to aspire to the refreshment of your most dulcet 3 face.

1 Mellifluous – soothing 2 Fat – richness 3 Most dulcet – sweetest