Prayer Post Florence

Loving Maker of the world who, by separating the soil of the earth and banishing the troublesome waters, set the land firm, so that it may produce seeds of different kinds, be beautiful and bright with flowers, abundant in fruit and yielding desirable food, cleanse with the freshness of Your grace the wounds of our sin-parched soul, that it may wash away in sorrow its evil deeds and wear down the power sin has to attract us.

Let our soul obey Your commands and keep far away from anything evil; let it be thankful that it is filled with good and may it never be struck down by death.

Grant this, most loving Father and You, the only Son, equal to the Father and, with the Spirit, the Paraclete, reigning through the ages. Amen. -- Vesper "hymn" from The Hours of the Divine Office, ed. by Leonard J. Doyle, Liturgical Press, 1965.

Psalm 17

"There are two buildings and two cities constructed since the beginning of the world. Christ builds the one, the devil the other....Those who are built on the structure of Christ are lifted up from the depths to the heights; those on the structure of the devil are hurled from the heights into the depths....If a man sees pride dominant in himself, he should not doubt that he is being unhappily built, or rather thrown down, in the city of the devil....Practice obedience with humility. Have you not read: 'For the sake of the words of Your lips I have kept hard ways'? [Psalm 17:4]. The commands of a superior seem difficult; how much harder will be the advice of the deceiver? How much harder are the things which avarice commands its advocates!"--St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 233, "To the Holy Monks at the Monastery in Blanzac"

Psalm 16, with commentary by St. Peter

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices,

My body also dwells secure,

For thou dost not give me up to Sheol,

Or let thy godly one see the Pit. (Psalm 16:9-10)

"Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet...he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses." (Acts 2:29-32)

Psalm 15

Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle?

Who may abide upon your holy hill?

(Psalm 15:1)

"We recognize that we are the true and living temple of God. God dwells...above all in the soul which has been made according to the image of God and was formed by the hand of the Creator....Christians who are chaste, humble, temperate and kind...observe peace and charity, and do not give false testimony--in such men the temple of Christ is kept intact, and Christ is known to dwell in them....Those who lead a wicked life and observe neither chastity nor justice, receiving 'bribes against the innocent' (Psalm 15:5) will have to endure eternal punishments."--St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermon #229, "On the Blessing of a Church.''

St. Caesarius was a wise pastor. Lest you lose heart, he goes on to say, "For this reason, brethren, with God's help let us avoid serious sin. As for the small sins of which we cannot be free, resist them by daily almsgiving and redeem them by continuous prayer." There's always hope.

Psalm 14

The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds....Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who...do not call upon the Lord? There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. (Psalm 14:1, 4-5)
  The Latin Vulgate uses the term "voluntas" instead of "deeds." Voluntas also connotes will, choice, or desire. Therefore, their desires themselves had become abominable. Cassiodorus states, "Voluntas derives from volatus (flying), because the mind rushes where it wills with great speed." This etymology is a "fanciful notion," his translator says, but it doesn't prevent Cassiodorus from making a very accurate observation: an ignorant and corrupted conscience inevitably leads to "abominable deeds."

Cassiodorus continues: "So it was right that those who expelled from their minds the fear of the Lord, which is salutary in this world, were shaken with groundless trembling." That is, shaken at the Son's coming.

"The virtue preached to us in this psalm is that as far as we can we should with kindly hearts consult the interests of our enemies, so that they do not harden in blind obstinacy and be subject to ineluctable error. The Church rebukes a sinning people, urging them not to hasten to their own destruction; thus they can abandon their wickedness and cast off the vices which can cause them wholly to perish."

Psalm 13

How long wilt thou turn thy face from me? (Ps. 13:1)

"He asks for the appearance of Christ...for that face deigned to save the world. In this way both his longing for God's love was shown and his charity toward his neighbor was clearly fulfilled, since he continually begged for what he knew was beneficial to all. Both are joined in partnership with each other; God cannot be loved without neighbor, nor neighbor without God." (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms)

Psalm 12

"Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,

I will now arise," says the Lord.

"I will place him in the safety for which he longs."

The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure...

(Psalm 12:5-6)

Catholics and Protestants now seen to be following the same numbering system, but what is Psalm 12 to us was Psalm 11 to Cassiodorus (c.487-c.580):  "It is certain that the sons of men can be freed by the power of the Lord. Then, since the strength of the number eleven, to which this psalm is assigned, is acknowledged as revealing to us a sign of the gospel, let us beg the Father of the household in His great mercy to admit us into the vineyard even at the eleventh hour, so that He may deign to bestow on our actions a reward not due to us, but gratuitous." (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms)