Editor’s note: This article was first published in the Aug. 2, 1997, issue of America, titled “Praying the Psalms: Some Notes.” For some years I have been keeping rather extensive reading notebooks.

VATICAN CITY (EWTN News/CNA) — The Book of Psalms can teach people how to pray and is the “prayer book ‘par excellence,’” Pope Benedict XVI said in his June 22 audience with pilgrims in St. Peter’s ...

The Psalms, says theologian Eugene H. Peterson, are God’s gift to those who want to learn how to pray. “If we wish to develop our entire heart, mind, soul and strength, the Psalms are necessary,” the ...