The Penitential Psalms

If not abstaining from flesh-meat on Friday, then what? I have usually followed the advice of Paul VI to either give alms, or to pray. A redoubled focus on prayer on Friday is surely appropriate, given Our Lord's three hour agony on Calvary, when He himself prayed during His great self-offering as our High Priest and Sacrifice.

One sensible choice, then, would be to meditate on His Passion – as by reciting the Fifteen Oes of St Bridget (eminently pious prayers probably composed in mediæval England which ought be disentangled from the superstitious and unapproved promises too often linked with them under the pretext of their attribution to St Bridget of Sweden); or by praying with Our Lord Himself the Passion Psalms (Pss 21:1 to 30:6 inclusive), which mediæval authors conclude He meditated upon as He hung upon the Cross, given their first and last verses being among His Seven Last Words. So, too, attendance at Mass would unite one to the Passion of Christ (as celebrated by some, all too painfully – offer oneself up as a victim soul); as would, at a lesser level, the singing prayerfully of hymns in honour of the Passion, such as the Vexilla Regis.

But Friday is not merely the weekly commemoration of the suffering and death of the Son of God – it is moreover the time for the sons of men to smite their breasts (as once did the mocking crowd at Golgotha as shamefaced they stole away), realizing that it is our sins that impelled Jesus to shed His Blood to save us, and that we Christians who backslide do but recrucify Our Lord.

For this reason, the Penitential Psalms (beloved of St Augustine, who had them written out and affixed to the wall of his bedchamber as he lay dying during the Vandal siege of Hippo) are excellent passages to "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest". However, while praying all seven – Psalms 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129 and 142 – is the ideal, mayhap circumstances preclude this: what then? 

Now two of the Penitential Psalms are better known (or ought be) than the others: the Miserere (Psalm 50) and the De profundis (Psalm 129), which are par excellence  the psalm-prayers of penitence and for the souls in purgatory (where repentant sinners go, ere their penance be complete). I first came across these said together as a devotion in a Monastic Breviary, which prefixed certain verses of Psalm 2, and appended the Collect for Good Friday – the whole being appointed for use while taking the discipline (a practice never to be undertaken without permission of a prudent spiritual director, be it noted!).

Since I have a good memory – which is a real help in the matter of praying the Psalms and indeed of internalizing Scripture, in the hope it may melt the hard heart and engender virtue – I long since learnt those two Psalms by heart. I customarily add to the first the "Glory be" and some preces (threefold Kyrie, Lord's Prayer, versicles and a collect for forgiveness of sins), and to the second "Eternal rest" and some more preces (versicles and the collect Fidelium for the faithful departed). It strikes me that Our Lord prayed for sinners (the living dead) as He died, that they might truly live; and that the merits of His atonement extend to Purgatory also. For this reason, when – as often – I have not the Penitential Psalms easily to hand, I can at least pray these two thereof.

A calculation demonstrates that saying the Miserere and De profundis thrice each, with the usual prayers appended, equates to the whole Seven Penitential Psalms: which I take to be a reasonable and rational measure of suitable prayer for Friday penance. Usually I pray them according to the Vulgate text, but also in English sometimes (I know them in the Grail version, from using the modern Liturgy of the Hours for years), adding these customary preces in the Latin tongue:

Preces for Psalm 50 

(after concluding with the Gloria Patri)

Kyrie, eleison. R/. Christe, eleison. Kyrie, eleison.

Pater noster, (secreto) qui es in cælis: Sanctificetur nomen tuum: Adveniat regnum tuum: Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie: Et dimitte nobis debitas nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.

V/. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem. R/. Sed libera nos a malo.

V/. Salvos fac servos tuos. R/. Deus meus, sperantes in te.

V/. Esto nobis, Domine, turris fortitudinis. R/. A facie inimici.

V/. Nihil proficiat inimicus in nobis. R/. Et filius iniquitatis non apponat nocere nobis.

V/. Domine, non secundum peccata nostra facias nobis. R/. Neque secundum iniquitates nostras retribuas nobis.

V/. Mitte nobis, Domine, auxilium de sancto. R/. Et de Sion tuere nos.

V/. Domine, exaudi orationem meam. R/. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.

Oremus.

Or. Deus, cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere: suscipe deprecationem nostram; ut nos, et omnes famulos tuos, quos delictorum catena constringit, miseratio tuæ pietatis clementer absolvat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R/. Amen.

Preces for Psalm 129 

(after concluding with Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine: et lux perpétua lúceat eis.)

V/. A porta inferi. R/. Érue, Dómine, ánimas eórum.

V/. Dómine, exáudi oratiónem meam. R/. Et clamor meus ad te véniat.

Orémus.

Or. Fidélium, Deus, ómnium cónditor et redémptor, animábus famulorum famularúmque tuárum remissiónem cunctórum tríbue peccatórum: ut indulgéntiam, quam semper optavérunt, piis supplicatiónibus consequántur. Qui vivis et regnas per omnia sæcula sæculorum. R/. Amen.

V/. Requiéscant in pace. R/. Amen.

Daily De Profundis for the Dead

The De Profundis (Psalm 129 according to the LXX, Vulgate, and related translations; Psalm 130 in modern Bibles) is one of my favourite psalms.  

From it comes the motto of the Redemptorists: Apud Dominum misericordia, et copiosa apud eum redemptio – "With the Lord there is mercy and fulness of redemption" (v. 7).  [This is also the 4th antiphon for 2nd Vespers of Christmas.]  The psalm is a brief, intense meditation on human redemption: "If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord who would survive?  But with you is found forgiveness: for this we revere you" (vv. 3-4).  

It is par excellence the psalm to pray for the faithful departed, interpreting it as the plaint of souls in Purgatory ("Out of the depths...  My soul is waiting... is longing for the Lord..."); an old custom is to pray it at 9m, at the tolling of a bell.

In English, I know it according to the Grail version (not the "inclusive" second edition, LOL), since this is what appears in the Divine Office, which I've prayed since 1994; I also long since learnt it in Latin, according to the Vulgate, and this has been reinforced by my switch to praying the 1962 Breviary, since early October this year.  I tend to pray it indifferently in either language, as I do with the Angelus, etc.  (The Rosary is very good in Latin, but it takes a little longer...)

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, * 

Lord, hear my voice!  

O let your ears be attentive * 

to the voice of my pleading.  

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, * 

Lord, who would survive?  

But with you is found forgiveness: * 

for this we revere you.  

My soul is waiting for the Lord, *

I count on his word.  

My soul is longing for the Lord, * 

more than watchman for daybreak.  

Let the watchman count on daybreak * 

and Israel on the Lord.

Because with the Lord there is mercy * 

and fulness of redemption, 

Israel indeed he will redeem * 

from all its iniquity.

If saying this devotionally, as for instance as a prayer of penitence, one would add at least the Glory be; and perhaps Kyrie eleïson, Christe eleïson, Kyrie eleïson, then the Lord's Prayer, etc..  To pray this for the dead, it is traditional to add:

Eternal rest * grant unto them, O Lord, 

and let perpetual light * shine upon them.  (Cf. 4 Esdras ii, 34, 35)

V/.  From the gates of hell,

R/.  Deliver, O Lord, their souls.  (Cf. Isaias xxxviii, 10, 17; Pss 48:16; 85:13; 88:49)

V/.  May they rest in peace.

R/.  Amen.

V/.  O Lord, hear my prayer.

R/.  And let my cry come unto thee.  (Ps 101:2)

Let us pray.

O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant unto the souls of Thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that through our devout supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired.  Who livest and reignest world without end.  R/.  Amen.

V/.  Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

R/.  And let perpetual light shine upon them.

V/.  May they rest in peace.

R/.  Amen.

Some get disturbed by the versicle "from the gates of hell", but once one reads the canticle of Ezechias in Isaias xxxviii, 10-20 it becomes clear that this versicle is simply alluding to that Old Testament cry for mercy from one brought nigh unto death.  

The collect is interesting, as it is addressed to God the Son (that's why it ends "Who livest and reignest", not "Thro' Christ our Lord" – never make the mistake of praying to Christ "through Christ", it's heretical!), presumably because it was felt that His saving office was alluded to by calling Him "God... the Redeemer of all the faithful".  

(The same is true of nearly all the Advent collects in the traditional liturgy; tho' research shews them to have originally been ad Patrem, it was felt over time better to consider them as ad Filium, since their calls for God to come were considered to apply to the coming of Christ at Christmas.  The old Gallican (Non-Roman Western) liturgy addressed as many prayers to the Son as to the Father, and once the Roman Rite was adopted by the rest of the West, Gallican influences flowed into the Roman Rite and created the atmosphere whereby such changes in address were made.)

Here is the Latin of the psalm (according to the Gallican Psalter of the Vulgate, as used in the Breviary et al.; the Neo-Vulgate is just slightly different):

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine: * 
Domine, exaudi vocem meam.
Fiant aures tuæ intendentes: * 

in vocem deprecationis meæ.
Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine: * 
Domine, quis sustinebit?
Quia apud te propitiatio est: * 
et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine.
Sustinuit anima mea in verbo ejus: * 
speravit anima mea in Domino.
A custodia matutina usque ad noctem: * 
speret Israël in Domino.
Quia apud Dominum misericordia: * 
et copiosa apud eum redemptio.
Et ipse redimet Israël, *
ex omnibus iniquitatibus ejus.

Note that the Vulgate renders certain phrases differently: "by reason of Thy law I have waited upon Thee, O Lord" (verse 4b); "From the morning watch even until night let Israel hope in the Lord" (verse 6), treating the repetition of the phrase as in the Grail version as dittography.

And the additions pro defunctis:

Requiem æternam * dona eis, Domine.  

Et lux perpetua * luceat eis.  

V/.  A porta inferi,

R/.  Erue, Domine, animas eorum.

V/.  Requiescant in pace.

R/.  Amen.  

V/.  Domine, exaudi orationem meam.  

R/.  Et clamor meus ad te veniat.  

Oremus.  

Fidelium, Deus, omnium Conditor et Redemptor: animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum remissionem cunctorum tribue peccatorum; ut indulgentiam, quam semper optaverunt, piis supplicationibus consequantur.  Qui vivis et regnas in sæcula sæculorum.  R/.  Amen.  

V/.  Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine.  

R/.  Et lux perpetua luceat eis.  

V/.  Requiescant in pace.  

R/.  Amen.