The psalms of the morning and evening prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours – selection, distribution and theological meaning

Abstract

The selection of psalms for the Morning and Evening prayer of the Roman Liturgy of the Hours has been profoundly reconsidered on the basis of their clear literary, anthropological and theological criteria. Although both the Morning and the Evening prayers are based on the fundamental cosmic-anthropological symbolism: light and darkness, day and night, their genuine meaning is of theological and paschal nature. The psalms of the Morning prayer express the joy of Church on the threshold of a new day and the veneration of God for his creation of the world and salvation of people. The psalms of the Evening prayer are the song of Church which recognizes the announcement of the rising Jesus Christ in the sign of the declining sun. Thus the basic reference to the selection of the psalms for the Liturgy of the Hours is their full significance – paschal and christological.