Praying the Psalms With the Early Christians: Ancient Songs for Modern Hearts

by Mike Aquilina, Christopher Bailey

Mike Aquilina and Christopher Bailey open a treasure chest of ancient Christian wisdom that will enrich your experience and appreciation of the psalms. Gathered together in this book are reflections from some of the greatest saints of the early church on the psalms. Each of the short chapters on selected psalms is designed to help you pray these beautiful and personal Old Testament songs—not just to read or recite them, but to make them part of your lives. Each chapter the complete text of the psalm in the Revised Standard Version translation; a brief introduction that sets the psalm in context; “Words to remember”—a few lines to recall throughout the day; short reflections in modernized language from one or two great early Christian thinkers; questions to help you apply the words of the psalm and the ideas of the early Christian writers to your life.Also included are brief biographies of the men and women quoted in the book.

Genres: Catholic

211 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Mike Aquilina is author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Fathers of the Church, The Mass of the Early Christians, and A Year with the Church Fathers. He has co-hosted eight series that air on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). He has co-authored books with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and theologian Scott Hahn. He is past editor of New Covenant magazine and The Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper. He appears weekly on Sirius Radio's "Sonrise Morning Show." Mike and his wife, Terri, have six children, who are the subject of his book Love in the Little Things.

In 2011 Mike was a featured presenter of the U.S. Bishops' Diocesan Educational/Catechetical Leadership Institute. He also wrote the USCCB's theological reflection for Catechetical Sunday in 2011.

His reviews, essays and journalism have appeared in many journals, including First Things, Touchstone, Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, National Catholic Register, and Catholic Heritage. He contributed work on early Christianity to the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought.

Mike is a also poet whose works have appeared in U.S. literary journals and have been translated into Polish and Spanish. He shared songwriting credits with Grammy Award-winner Dion DiMucci on the forthcoming album "Tank Full of Blues."

Reviews

[Julie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Book of Psalms has been the prayer book and hymnal of God's people for three thousand years. Christians came to see the psalms as the prayers of Christ, to Christ, and about Christ. Mike Aquilina and Chris Bailey remind us of this. They also have a plan to help us replace the latest meaningless jingle running around our brains with the psalms.

Thirty-four psalms have been chosen as examples to help us learn how to pray, learn, and understand these ancient prayers anew as Christ's voice speaking to us. As always with these two authors, who I admit are among my favorites, the writing speaks simply and directly to our lives, our faith, and to giving us a tool to improve our relationship with God. They are masters at helping us see how the Church Fathers' wisdom still applies to our modern lives. Combining the Fathers with the psalms is a master stroke toward helping us better understand and use these timeless prayers daily.

Read expanded review here:
http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/200...

[Dave Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short book on the Psalms, I say short because it only contains forty of the one hundred fifty, is a great companion to further study, meditation on the classic poems attributed mostly to King David. Mike Aquilina includes expositions, exhortations and dialogues from the Patriarchs (founding Fathers of the Catholic faith) at the end of each chapter with a few challenging questions to really help one with introspection and their own faith walk. The extra-biblical commentary is a mound of gold for those interested in Theology and really delves deeply into the analogies, metaphors and deeper meanings of these age old oft quoted psalms.

10 burritos.