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SCRIPTURE
READINGS
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Job |
7:1-4,
6-7 |
| Psalm |
146 |
| I
Corinthians |
9:16-19, 22-23 |
| Mark |
1:29-39 |
The
psalms can help us to pray. Down the ages they have
been a treasured source for Christians. Those writers
so many centuries before Christ experienced many
emotions that ring true for us. So we find words
that speak for us in powerful poetry. They express
our worship and adoration, our thanksgiving for
blessings and our sorrow for sin, our anguish over
suffering, our questioning, even our anger and our
uncertainties. We encounter the psalms during Mass
as a response to what we have heard in the First
Reading. We hear them from the Reader, and we are
invited to respond together by repeating a refrain
from that same psalm. Perhaps you have discovered,
as I have, that you can take that refrain with you
and repeat it over during the day. It becomes a
familiar part of you. Repetition is an aid to prayer.
I
have found one psalm particularly helpful. It is
Ps.30 which begins 'In you, O Lord, I take refuge.'
That is the Grail Version which we use in the Missal.
If you are using the Jerusalem Bible or the Revised
Standard Version you will find it as Ps.31. The
Grail follows the Greek/Latin translation whereas
the others take the original Hebrew,
where Ps.9 is divided into two, affecting the subsequent
numbering.
Ps.30
begins as a confident prayer in distress, calling
on God as rock, refuge, stronghold in time of difficulty.
At verse 6 we find these familiar lines “Into your
hands I commend my spirit, it is you who will redeem
me, Lord.” In St. Luke's account of the Passion
these are the words on Our Lord's lips as he surrenders
himself to the Father on the cross. So they are
very precious and powerful words for our own prayer.
I have found them a great help when facing struggles
and difficulties and in my experience many people
have found the same, over the loss of a loved one
or facing hardship and worry or trying to deal with
a deep inner hurt.
If
you pray through the whole psalm you will find that
there are two more occasions when the author is
vividly aware of being under attack. There is a
sense of panic. He needs to turn again to God for
help. Surely this is a recognition of human weakness.
We learn that trust in God takes time .
Fr
Tony Nye SJ
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