Italy- Psalm 24, which the liturgy of the XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time presents to us, is a didactic Psalm in an acrostic style, meaning that each stanza begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the first part, which we pray on this Sunday (vv. 1-7), the psalmist addresses God, expressing his trust, and asks for forgiveness for his sins, appealing to God’s merciful love. The central part of the Psalm (vv. 8-15) is a meditation on God’s goodness toward sinners, toward the poor, and toward those who fear the Lord. The Psalm concludes (vv. 16-22) with a supplication in which the person praying renews his pleas to be delivered from his afflictions.
- Saint Augustine said that Christ speaks and prays in this Psalm “in persona Ecclesiae suae”, that is, he asks forgiveness for the Church and for humanity after taking the sins of all upon himself. Christ became one of us to such an extent that he addresses the Father with expressions that could only spring from our lips as poor children. On the lips of Christ, the human word becomes the Word of God. We too, by uniting ourselves to the prayer of Christ, transform our human word into the Word of God.
- The prayer of the Psalms works within us the sentiments pleasing to God: through them, God molds a true spirituality within us. Through the Psalms, not only do we express our true face, but it is God who reveals himself to us as infinite goodness and tenderness. The Psalms are the manifestation of divine pedagogy: God calls us and bends down toward us, teaching us how to pray and how to speak with him.
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Psalm XXVI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
24 September 2026