Holy Thursday 2024 - Morning Prayer - Sanctifying the Hours through the Psalms

 Over the next three days, we will gather for morning prayer. Morning prayer is one of the official prayers of the Church—it is part of the Liturgy of the Hours—official & liturgical prayers recited at fixed hours throughout the day by clergy, religious orders, and some lay Catholics. 

From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the liturgy of the hours. The practice is based on the Jewish tradition of praying at fixed times: morning, afternoon, and evening corresponding to different sacrificial offerings that were offered in the Temple.

Every morning, a burnt offering would be offered in the Temple. Prayers would be offered in gratitude to God: for various aspects of daily life, such as the ability to see, freedom from bondage, and the strength to overcome weakness. Psalms would be offered, particularly Psalms of praise, like Psalm 30: “Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to his holy memory.” The Temple priests offered these prayers and sacrifices on behalf of the whole Jewish people and the world, just as priests today pray the liturgy of the hours on behalf of the Church.

“To the very end of his life, as his passion was approaching, at the last supper, in the agony in the garden, and on the cross, the divine teacher showed that prayer was the soul of his Messianic ministry and paschal death. 

And so it is fitting for us, in these final hours of Lent, as we prepare for the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, for us to gather to offers prayers, that Jesus himself offered up to God. Psalms of praise, psalms of trust, psalms pleading God’s mercy.

Each of the different prayers and psalms of morning prayer take on special significance during Holy Week. Consider our first Psalm, Psalm 80, how it intertwined themes of redemption, suffering, and restoration.

The psalm opens with the image of God as the shepherd of Israel. During the Triduum, Jesus, the Good Shepherd leads His flock through the cross to the new life of the resurrection, he lays down his life for his sheep.

The Psalms repeated plea, "God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved," is significant. For during the Triduum, we consider how God fulfills this plea. Through Christ’s Paschal mystery—God brings back scattered humanity—humanity scattered due to sin, back into the one flock—that purified of sin—we might come to see the face of God in eternity.

The Psalm’s vivid descriptions of suffering, being fed with "tears for their bread" and being the "taunt of our neighbors," foreshadows the suffering of Jesus during the Passion, but how through Jesus—God unites himself with all those who suffer hunger, thirst, mockery, injustice. 

The final verses of Psalm 80, "May your hand be on the man you have chosen", encapsulates the trust Jesus had during his Passion—trust that His Father was with him, guiding his mission—and how Christians too are to trust in God’s presence with us in our trials—trusting that the cross leads to the resurrection and eternal life. 

I invite you to pray the liturgy of the hours throughout the Triduum, slowly and reflectively. The point isn’t to rush through them, but to consider how these beautiful prophecies are fulfilled by Our Lord, and how God desires to fulfill them in our lives as well, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.