Pope: even in sorrow, God's presence remains, it is a source of comfort, trust
Continuing reflections on prayer, Benedict XVI begins to speak of the Psalms, "school of prayer" made in the words of God which contain the whole complexity of human existence. Hymns, lamentations, individual and collective petitions, songs of thanksgiving, penitential psalms, wisdom psalms, and other genres.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Even in desolation, in pain, the presence of God remains, it is a source of consolation, of confidence, knowing that we are walking towards the definitive light. This is the lesson one draws from the Psalms, a "school" to which Benedict XVI dedicated his general audience today.
Continuing his Wednesday catechesis on prayer, the Pope told the 20 thousand people in St. Peter's Square that, after examining some very significant figures of the Old Testament: Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Elijah, he will now open "a new course in the lessons on prayer", instead of commenting on people's prayers, "we will enter the prayer book par excellence, the Book of Psalms. "
The 150 Psalms are a "complex form of prayer", in which there is "our way we relate to God and turn to Him. "In the Psalms expressions of joy and suffering, longing for God and our perception of our own unworthiness, happiness and sense of abandonment, loneliness and painful trust in God, the fullness of life and fear of dying, are all intertwined. All reality flows into the believer's prayers that the people of Israel first and later the Church took up as the mediation of the privileged relationship with the one God and the only appropriate response to His revelation in history. "
"The Psalms – he said - are manifestations of the soul and faith, in which everyone can recognize and communicate the experience of a special closeness to God to which every man is called. And it is all the complexity of human existence that is concentrated in the complexity of the different literary forms, the various Psalms, hymns, lamentations, individual and collective petitions, songs of thanksgiving, penitential psalms, psalms of wisdom, and other genres that can be found in these poems ".
The Psalms can be divided into "two broad areas, the petition, linked to the lament and praise." "The petition expresses distress or confession of sin, asking to be forgiven, in the confidence of being heard," it is "the recognition of God as good, helpful, ready to forgive and listen". The plea, in short, "is animated by the certainty that God will respond and this opens up to praise and thanksgiving." Similarly, in praise, recalling the gift received, we recognize our smallness, our condition as creatures, inevitably marked by death. " "In this way, prayer and praise intertwine and merge into one song."
The Psalms teach us to pray, in them "the Word of God becomes prayer. That is the beauty and uniqueness of this book". The prayers in fact are not contained within a narrative that explains the function "and because they are the God's word, we turn to God with the words he himself has taught us." "They are a school of prayer."
With this in mind, " the manner and frequency with which words of the Psalms are taken from the New Testament are important and significant." "In the Lord Jesus, who prayed during his earthly life with the psalms, they find their definitive fulfilment and reveal their deepest and fullest sense. The prayers of the Psalms, with which we speak to God, speak of Him, speak to us of the Son, the image of the invisible God, which fully reveals the Father's face. The Christian, therefore, praying the Psalms, prays to the Father in Christ and with Christ, assuming those songs in a new perspective, which has its final interpretative key in the paschal mystery. Thus horizon of the orator opens up to unexpected realities, every Psalm acquires a new light in Christ and the Psalter can shine in all its infinite richness. "
"Let us therefore take up this holy book - the conclusion of the Pope - let us be taught by God to turn to Him, let us make of the Psalter a guide to help us and accompany us in our daily prayer life."
Continuing his Wednesday catechesis on prayer, the Pope told the 20 thousand people in St. Peter's Square that, after examining some very significant figures of the Old Testament: Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Elijah, he will now open "a new course in the lessons on prayer", instead of commenting on people's prayers, "we will enter the prayer book par excellence, the Book of Psalms. "
The 150 Psalms are a "complex form of prayer", in which there is "our way we relate to God and turn to Him. "In the Psalms expressions of joy and suffering, longing for God and our perception of our own unworthiness, happiness and sense of abandonment, loneliness and painful trust in God, the fullness of life and fear of dying, are all intertwined. All reality flows into the believer's prayers that the people of Israel first and later the Church took up as the mediation of the privileged relationship with the one God and the only appropriate response to His revelation in history. "
"The Psalms – he said - are manifestations of the soul and faith, in which everyone can recognize and communicate the experience of a special closeness to God to which every man is called. And it is all the complexity of human existence that is concentrated in the complexity of the different literary forms, the various Psalms, hymns, lamentations, individual and collective petitions, songs of thanksgiving, penitential psalms, psalms of wisdom, and other genres that can be found in these poems ".
The Psalms can be divided into "two broad areas, the petition, linked to the lament and praise." "The petition expresses distress or confession of sin, asking to be forgiven, in the confidence of being heard," it is "the recognition of God as good, helpful, ready to forgive and listen". The plea, in short, "is animated by the certainty that God will respond and this opens up to praise and thanksgiving." Similarly, in praise, recalling the gift received, we recognize our smallness, our condition as creatures, inevitably marked by death. " "In this way, prayer and praise intertwine and merge into one song."
The Psalms teach us to pray, in them "the Word of God becomes prayer. That is the beauty and uniqueness of this book". The prayers in fact are not contained within a narrative that explains the function "and because they are the God's word, we turn to God with the words he himself has taught us." "They are a school of prayer."
With this in mind, " the manner and frequency with which words of the Psalms are taken from the New Testament are important and significant." "In the Lord Jesus, who prayed during his earthly life with the psalms, they find their definitive fulfilment and reveal their deepest and fullest sense. The prayers of the Psalms, with which we speak to God, speak of Him, speak to us of the Son, the image of the invisible God, which fully reveals the Father's face. The Christian, therefore, praying the Psalms, prays to the Father in Christ and with Christ, assuming those songs in a new perspective, which has its final interpretative key in the paschal mystery. Thus horizon of the orator opens up to unexpected realities, every Psalm acquires a new light in Christ and the Psalter can shine in all its infinite richness. "
"Let us therefore take up this holy book - the conclusion of the Pope - let us be taught by God to turn to Him, let us make of the Psalter a guide to help us and accompany us in our daily prayer life."
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