Why Pray a Psalm at Mass?

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At every Mass we pray or sing a psalm after the first reading. A psalm is a prayer-song taken from the Old Testament and attributed to King David, who, as you know, played the harp. I thought of blogging about psalms today because we are in the month of the Holy Rosary, a devotion that is rooted in the Psalms. Originally people prayed the 150 psalms. Having them memorized was even the requirement for joining some communities. The many illiterate people were at a disadvantage. But then some creative person started praying 150 Our Fathers as a substitute for the psalms and thus began the paternoster beads, the forerunner to our rosaries. The psalms were an integral part of Hebrew worship and the prayers of Jesus and Mary. They are also appropriate for our worship and our personal prayer life. Because they express our every emotion, we can find a psalm to pray when we are glad, sad, mad, or have been bad. Being in Scripture, the ultimate source of the Psalms is God. They are his love songs to us and the songs he wishes us to sing to him. They contain such tender verses as these: "If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast" (Psalm 139:9–10).  Click to continue 

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