Previously I blogged on the excellent Psalm 42, Judica me, but now wish to supplement my reflections thereon. The theme (which to be honest I hardly considered) for this WYD Juventutem pilgrimage just past was Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam - "Send forth Thy light and Thy truth" (Ps 42:3a): which may be considered as a plea, pleasing to the Father ipso facto because expressed by His adopted children using words inspired by the Holy Ghost, petitioning for the sending forth God's light and truth (his inspiration for our wills to do what is good, and his illumination for our intellect to grasp what is true), or again for Him to send us His Holy Spirit to sanctify and govern us by His grace, precisely to breath in us and enlighten us, or again for Him to send us Christ His Son, Who is the Light and the Truth, even in His Sacraments, to physically touch and heal and save us, or again to send us both Persons, and with Them, by the circumincession of the Trinity, for He Himself to come into our hearts. And does the theme remind us of the rest of the verse: "let them lead me and bring me unto Thy holy mountain, and into Thy tabernacles: and I will go in to the altar of God"? Here we see how such a Divine illapse must needs move us beyond ourselves, to come unto Mount Sion, that is the Church, both in heaven (ultimately, but for now in hope) and on earth, and within her, to come unto the Altar, the true Christian Altar, Christ, there to plead His Sacrifice and receive It, as sacrificants and communicants.
Further reflection on this profound psalm and this verse in particular can be drawn from the various psalm-collects that tradition has passed down to us, and that the modern Divine Office permits to be used:
Almighty Father, source of everlasting light, send forth your truth into our hearts and pour over us the brightness of your light.
OR
Father, your Son was condemned by reason of our sins, but on Easter morning you glorified him with the glory he always had with you. Do not leave us, his members, in the enemy's hands, but bring us, through our joyful participation at your altar, to your eternal tabernacle on high to adore in spirit and in truth.
From a high church Lutheran source comes a 'third' apposite psalm-collect, which I suspect is probably a more literal translation from the Latin original of the first prayer above (though the long ending is non-standard, and reflects some of the Anglican BCP variations, as is common for Lutheran prayers in English):
Almighty God, fountain of perpetual light, we pray Thee that, sending out Thy truth into our hearts, Thou wouldst lighten us with the new brightness of Thine eternal light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.
Further reflection on this profound psalm and this verse in particular can be drawn from the various psalm-collects that tradition has passed down to us, and that the modern Divine Office permits to be used:
Almighty Father, source of everlasting light, send forth your truth into our hearts and pour over us the brightness of your light.
OR
Father, your Son was condemned by reason of our sins, but on Easter morning you glorified him with the glory he always had with you. Do not leave us, his members, in the enemy's hands, but bring us, through our joyful participation at your altar, to your eternal tabernacle on high to adore in spirit and in truth.
From a high church Lutheran source comes a 'third' apposite psalm-collect, which I suspect is probably a more literal translation from the Latin original of the first prayer above (though the long ending is non-standard, and reflects some of the Anglican BCP variations, as is common for Lutheran prayers in English):
Almighty God, fountain of perpetual light, we pray Thee that, sending out Thy truth into our hearts, Thou wouldst lighten us with the new brightness of Thine eternal light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.
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