Orthodox Mom

View Original

Psalter Group

A year or so ago, one of the local Presbytera's invited the women of our church to join her parish in reading the Psalter (not to be confused with The Spiritual Psalter which is a compilation of poems and prayers by St. Ephraim the Syrian, also one of my favorite books!) during the 40 day fasting periods.  I fell in love with this tradition and am hoping to carry it on here on this blog.The way it works is, each person participating is assigned a certain kathisma (or group of Psalms) to begin with and you just continue with the next kathisma each day. Between everyone the entire psalter is read every day throughout the fast. Then you read the trisagion prayers and pray for everyone in the group.It is done at home whenever you are able to read it. There are no designated times, as long as you read it at some point each day. I find it easiest to read in the morning. Sometimes I stand before the icon and other times I read it with my coffee. I've even read it waiting in the doctor's office. Whatever works for you is fine.  A quiet moment may not always present itself, but I find whenever I read it, a peaceful silence comes over my heart.  Perhaps, that 's better anyway, to be able to create peace and quiet amid chaos.It's a very spiritually edifying activity.You can either read your assignments from the Psalter itself or from the book of Psalms in the Bible.If anyone is interested in participating please leave a comment on this post. We need at least 20 people. I will post a list of everyone's starting point on Saturday night, so please sign up asap if you're interested.Hope you'll join in!