Read the Psalter with Us During Great Lent!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christ is in our midst!

Read the Psalter with us during Great Lent! Zacchaeus Sunday is right around the corner! The Lenten Triodion is not far off, and Great Lent will be here in four weeks. Alexis DeNure is putting together Psalter Reading Groups with the goal of each group reading the Psalter in its entirety every day for the length of the Fast.

How This Works

• During the 40 days, you will read the complete Psalter twice. Each group will have 20 people. With each person starting on a different assigned Kathisma, the group will pray the complete Psalter each day. For example, on day 1, Timothy would read Kathisma 1; Anastasia would read Kathisma 2; Elizabeth would read Kathisma 3, and so on. On day 2, Timothy would read Kathisma 2; Anastasia would read Kathisma 3; Elizabeth would read Kathisma 4, and the person who read Kathisma 20 on day 1, would read Kathisma 1 on day 2.
• Everyone can read and pray at home at the time that works best.
• After praying your Kathisma, you will have a list of all who are participating in your Psalter Group to be remembered in prayer by name.

How to Sign Up

• Respond to this email or send an email to stsavaoca@gmail.com by Sunday, March 7th.
• Please include your baptismal name
• Look for an email the week before Great Lent begins. It will have the names of those who are praying with you in your group, a pdf on how to pray the Psalter at home, and a pdf of the Psalter.

Everyone is welcome to pray the psalms with us! Please share this with your Orthodox and non- Orthodox family, friends, and coworkers!

In Christ,
Fr. Photius Avant

"A psalm implies serenity of soul; it is the author of peace, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts. For, it softens the wrath of the soul, and what is unbridled it chastens. A psalm forms friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those at enmity. Who, indeed, can still consider as an enemy him with who he has uttered the same prayer to God? So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward unity, and joining people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces also the greatest of blessings, love. A psalm is a city of refuge from the demons; a means of inducing help from the angels, a weapon in fears by night, a rest from the toils of the day, a safeguard for infants, and adornment for those at the height of their vigour, a consolation for the elders, a most fitting ornament for women. It peoples the solitudes, it rids the market places of excesses; it is the elementary exposition of beginners, the improvement of those advancing, the solid support of the perfect, the voice of the Church. It brightens feast days, it creates a sorrow which is in accordance with God. For, a psalm calls forth a tear even from a heart of stone. A psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the spiritual incense."
-St. Basil the Great