The elemental human experience of the search for God’s presence amidst the hills and valleys of life is revealed within the Psalms. Turning each experience into a poetic, beautiful prayer is their genius. They are a gift to each heart desiring a deeper intimacy with God.
Praying From The Depths
of the Psalms
$12.95
Praying From The Depths
of the Psalms
The elemental human experience of the search for God’s presence amidst the hills and valleys of life is revealed within the Psalms. Turning each experience into a poetic, beautiful prayer is their genius. They are a gift to each heart desiring a deeper intimacy with God.
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About the Author
Fr. John Henry Hanson, O. Praem., is a Norbertine priest of St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, CA. He has earned his STB and master's in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome, and was ordained to the priesthood in 2006. Currently, he is a formator in his community's seminary, in addition to teaching at St. Michael’s Preparatory School. He also preaches retreats, is chaplain to several communities of women religious, and serves Armenian rite Catholics.
The Value of the Psalms
The Psalms give us words where our own words fail, helping us express the inexpressible. They furnish us with a kind of sacred vocabulary for praise, repentance, mourning, rejoicing—even giving voice to our feelings of betrayal, abandonment, and anger. No truly human emotion is off-limits in the Psalms. And if sometimes we feel spiritually tongue-tied before the Lord, the problem might be an underdeveloped taste for the very words he has already put into our mouths.
(From the Author's Preface)
Quotes from the Book
"We live topside much of the time, unrecollected, avoiding the depths, just dealing with the events of life as they come, but not living simultaneously in that secret inner chamber in which the Lord who sees in secret rewards us as only he can. Courageous souls willing to descend beneath the surface distractions, passions, and vanities of daily life will find themselves standing in the truth, before God."
"Our personal poverty is the “depths” from which our truest and best prayer rises. This is where all deep prayer is born. To speak to God from the depths of the heart is to cry out from a place where we have nothing but nothingness itself to offer."
"For good reason does Psalm 34 invite and compel, “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps 34:8). You acquire a taste by savoring what you consume. And you can’t acquire this unique spiritual taste without doing what saints and people of prayer do so much of: praying from the depths. Merely “saying” prayers is one thing, and a very good thing, but far from the best thing. To be a soul of deep prayer is to cry out like the one who waited in a lonely hollow until the Lord was ready to rescue him."
"That is the beauty of the Psalms: in speaking to and for all, they speak to each one of us differently. Under the Spirit’s inspiration and guidance, the words match our needs of soul in every circumstance."
"Praying from the depths of heart clearly isn’t about straining the mind with thoughts, deep concentration, or even deep introspection. Allowing the grace of the Holy Spirit to well up within, to breathe as he wills, to intercede for us with groans beyond words, is to pray from the depths of the heart. Our humble openness to the truths he wishes to reveal, the sorrow he wishes to inspire, the joy he wishes to establish and increase, allows him to heal the soul from the ground up, so to speak."