Psalms

The Psalms are the poetic cornerstone of contemplative practice throughout the centuries. Yeshua's last words on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" are a quote from Psalm 22.  In the ancient monastic tradition, all 150 psalms are chanted in the course of a single week, with some psalms chanted every day. We will begin with one of the pslams appointed for the feast day of Mary Magdalene.  I invite you to work with this poem  daily for our first week together.  Notice how it is different if you read it aloud or if you chant the text in a simple Gregorian style. How does it feel in your body? What images arise within you as you say or sing the words?  Try using the psalms a doorway into silence, returning to the word or phrase that most calls to your  heart as a "formula" (the term early Christians used that is the equivalent of a mantra)
To chant, stay on a monotone. At boldfaced words, go up. At italicized words, go down.

Psalm 139, NIV

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.