Vespers for Sept 30

Wow, this was kind of a fun Office, tonight, on this feast of the curmudgeonly St. Jerome – the psalms really spoke to the day, even down to the prayer for our legislators in the final intercessions.

The podcast is here, and it contains all the page directives for the Breviary. As usual I’m using the breviary shown below; I love the translations, and this is the most commonly used of the breviaries for the Liturgy of the Hours.

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, another Doctor of the Church, and since she is one of my favorite intercessory friends, I’ll be doing both Morning Prayer and Vespers.

I must say, I find the psalmody and the Divine Office puts an entirely different cast on to the whole day, and the news. You might say it helps break things down and clear away the detritus of a day, and assists in holding the long view of things. There is nothing like reading a 3,000 year old psalm and having it fit a day perfectly to make you realize that the human condition is what it is, broken, needy and forever in search of wholeness.

Note: I keep getting emails from people telling me that my voice surprises them. Most of them say that they mean it in a “good” way, but that I sound much younger than 50. I assure you, I really am 50! Which can only mean that my writing voice is very different. Immature? :-)

While we’re offering up prayers, consider whispering one for the mighty PJ O’ Rourke, who is dealing with a cancer that sounds survivable, but I’m sure is scary.