Frank MATERA, Praying the Psalms in the Voice of Christ: A Christological Reading of the Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2023, pp. 182. $29.95 pb ISBN 9780814667590. Reviewed by Richard SHIELDS, Dundas, Ontario

Reciting the Breviary can become a daily grind. The one praying—by monastic or priestly obligation or out of personal piety—can get caught up in the monotony from verse to verse, and in the process lose connection to the integrity of the liturgical hour being prayed. In the introduction to this short book, the author reveals how in reading St. Augustine’s Commentary on the Psalms he was surprised by and questioned how the Bishop of Hippo saw Christ everywhere in the psalms. This led Matera to an inquiry and a new perspective that allowed him to pray the psalms in the voice of Christ, not metaphorically, but in an existential connection to Christ in the mystery of His death and resurrection. Matera does not take credit for a novum in liturgical prayer. He readily acknowledges that a Christological understanding of the psalms was present in the early Church as witnessed in the Scriptures. The early Church interpretation was nuanced. It saw some psalms as spoken by Christ, others as spoken to Christ, some about Christ, others about the Church, and still other psalms as spoken by the Church. These are approaches, not categories, and are often found mixed within a single psalm. The Christological focus does not replace the importance of knowing the psalms in their historical setting, their Sitz im Leben, but reflects rather their versatility. Just as Israel adapted the psalms to new situations, the pascal mystery gives opportunity and impetus for the Church to pray them in union with Christ the head of the body.

Given Matera’s premise, what does this book offer? The book is divided into four chapters “that comment on the psalms assigned to each of the four weeks of the Liturgy of the Hours.” For each hour there is a brief reflection that brings unity to that psalm group (showing as Matera notes “there is purpose and logic in the way the Liturgy of the Hours has chosen and arranged the psalms”). Obviously, this book stands as a companion to the breviary. It is not a scholarly work on the psalms that is to be read from beginning to end. With that in mind, I took up the Breviary and before I began to pray one of the hours, I reflected on Matera’s explanation of how these psalms can be understood in the light of the pascal mystery and how although praying them alone, they connected me to the risen Christ and to the whole Church. I found in each hour a spiritual integrity that I had struggled to find previously.

How do you review a book that is not a book, but a prayerful companion to the one praying? I would call this short companion to the Breviary a labour of love of Professor Matera. His love of the Scriptures, of the Catholic prayer tradition, and of those who pray the liturgical hours is evident in the scholarly, yet accessible way he brings together biblical themes and Christ-centered attention for each psalm group. I would recommend it to those whose duty it is to pray the Breviary each day, to seminarians, and also to anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of the psalms or might simply be wondering “why do we use Jewish prayers in Catholic worship?”