Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 473 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 473 - Part II. How are the Psalms important for our prayer?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The Psalms, along with the Our Father, are part of the Church’s great treasury of prayers. In them the praise of God is sung in an ageless way.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2587) The Psalter is the book in which the Word of God becomes man's prayer. In other books of the Old Testament, "the words proclaim [God's] works and bring to light the mystery they contain" (DV 2). The words of the Psalmist, sung for God, both express and acclaim the Lord's saving works; the same Spirit inspires both God's work and man's response. Christ will unite the two. In him, the psalms continue to teach us how to pray.      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) There are 150 Psalms in the Old Testament. They are a collection of songs and prayers, some of them several thousand years old, which are still prayed today in the Church community - in the socalled Liturgy of the Hours. The Psalms are among the most beautiful texts in world literature and move even modern readers immediately by their spiritual power.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2588) The Psalter's many forms of prayer take shape both in the liturgy of the Temple and in the human heart. Whether hymns or prayers of lamentation or thanksgiving, whether individual or communal, whether royal chants, songs of pilgrimage or wisdom meditations, the Psalms are a mirror of God's marvelous deeds in the history of his people, as well as reflections of the human experiences of the Psalmist. Though a given psalm may reflect an event of the past, it still possesses such direct simplicity that it can be prayed in truth by men of all times and conditions.

(This question: How are the Psalms important for our prayer? is continued)