Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

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Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

from the early centuries of the church. Among these many letters we find a long tradition of sisters and brothers writing to one another to encourage each other in the use of Psalms for prayer, pastoral ministry, and public worship. We close this journey with a letter from a mother to her son written over one thousand years ago. It was written by a godly mother, Dhouda, to her son who was serving in the military sometime around the year 843. Dhouda adapted an earlier letter she had read on the Psalms and she passed it on to her son in her own words. 2 Imagine receiving this letter as if from your own mother. Read it with the openness and honor a godly mother deserves to receive. My dear Son, As your mentor in all things, I stand ready at your side, so that with God’s help youmay choose the Psalms to recite for the range of your needs. When Psalms are sung with heartfelt intensity, a channel is prepared to the heart so that Almighty God may pour into it the mystery of prophecy or the grace of remorse for those who meditate with spiritual fervor. The sacrifice of divine praise, therefore, provides a way between us and Jesus. While our repentance pours out through psalms, we are opening in our heart this channel through which we may come to Jesus. Surely, it is a good thing for the mind to cleanse itself as much as possible of daily affairs and cling to divine, heavenly, spiritual things, so that the heavenly can be revealed to it. Nothing in this mortal life can make us cling more closely 2 Dhouda adapted an earlier letter on the use of Psalms written by an English pastor named Alcuin (d. 804). Alcuin, in turn, was building on similar letters written by earlier pastors. See for example the letter by the Egyptian pastor Athanasius (d. 373) written to his friend Marcellinus on how to read and pray the Psalms.