Today in the Second Reading of the Office of Readings, St. Ambrose reflects on the Psalms, below is a section of what he wrote;
St Ambrose's commentaries on the Psalms
The delightful book of the psalms
Although the whole of Scripture breathes God’s grace upon
us, this is especially true of that delightful book, the book of the psalms.
Moses, when he related the deeds of the patriarchs, did so in a plain and
unadorned style. But when he had miraculously led the people of Israel
across the Red Sea , when he had seen King Pharaoh
drowned with all his army, he transcended his own skills (just as the miracle
had transcended his own powers) and he sang a triumphal song to the Lord.
Miriam the prophetess herself took up a timbrel and led the others in the
refrain: Sing to the Lord: he has covered himself in glory, horse and
rider he has thrown into the sea.
History instructs us, the law teaches us,
prophecy foretells, correction punishes, morality persuades; but the book of
psalms goes further than all these. It is medicine for our spiritual health.
Whoever reads it will find in it a medicine to cure the wounds caused by his
own particular passions. Whoever studies it deeply will find it a kind of
gymnasium open for all souls to use, where the different psalms are like
different exercises set out before him. In that gymnasium, in that stadium of
virtue, he can choose the exercises that will train him best to win the
victor’s crown.
If someone wants to study the deeds of our
ancestors and imitate the best of them, he can find a single psalm that
contains the whole of their history, a complete treasury of past memories in
just one short reading.
For the full text of the above reading and Office go to;
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