Photo Caption: During a break at the Psalms workshop, young Gregory Raymond Hodes seems pleased with the bunny made by Sister M. Marion, FSJB, as he looks blissfully into the eyes of his mother, Mary Catherine.

By: By Jennifer Willems

Jeff Cavins may not have explored each of the 150 Psalms found in the Bible, but the select few he “broke open” at a workshop in Peoria last Saturday filled every minute allotted to him and left participants wanting to know more.

Sponsored by the diocesan Office of Catechetics, “Journey Through the Psalms” drew 200 people to the Spalding Pastoral Center. By his reckoning, the seminar was the eighth time he has visited the Diocese of Peoria to present overviews of his popular Scripture studies and it marked his second trip to central Illinois this spring — St. Paul’s in Macomb hosted a presentation of his foundational study, “The Great Adventure Bible Timeline,” at the end of March.

Such faithfulness has its rewards: Cavins told participants they were the first group to walk through “Psalms: The School of Prayer” in a day. Before he left, he also gave them tips on how to get the most out of their study of the Psalms and other Scripture passages through the process of lectio divina.

“I always look forward to coming to Peoria because you’re so serious about God’s Word,” Cavins told those who attended the seminar. “You come with that serious, studious heart and want to put it into practice and that brings out the best in a teacher.”

A SCHOOL OF PRAYER
Cavins said the early church saw the Psalms as a school of prayer and they continue to be that for people who allow themselves to be “soaked” in them.

Jesus did, he told them.

“Jesus learned to pray and the Psalms would have been important to a Jewish boy in the first century,” Cavins said. “It’s where you come into contact with the experiences of daily life . . . where they allowed God to guide them and teach them. They were a real part of his prayer life.”
He compared it to the way children learn to write by picking up their father’s pencil and letting his hand guide theirs.

“That’s what happens when we begin to enter the Psalms,” Cavins said. “We allow the hand of God to cup our hands and trace what prayer is.”

He added that the Psalms open up a mirror to the soul and show us how to respond to a variety of situations.

Psalms 120 to 134 are considered Pilgrimage Psalms, for example, and were prayed by the men as they made their way up to Jerusalem to pray in the Temple, their Father’s house. They did this three times a year and there was no minivan playing Disney movies while they traveled, Cavins said, so they prayed these Psalms of Ascent.

“On the way to Jerusalem they had a long, treacherous journey,” he explained. Thieves would be waiting to rob people along the road and this would have been where the Good Samaritan encountered the person who had been beaten and left for dead.

Cavins said you can hear that in these Psalms, as the people place their trust in the God of Israel, who will not sleep as the pagan gods did, but keep them in safety. On the pilgrimages he leads in the Holy Land, Cavins has the travelers sit on the steps of the Temple Mount. Those steps are not uniform on purpose, he said.

“When they built the Temple they knew you could not come haphazardly. You had to be purposeful on the journey,” he said.

Cavins reminded them that the church sees our lives as a pilgrimage with the goal of returning to our true “homeland” and seeing God face to face. When we “go up” to Mass each Sunday and seek God’s blessing, we are taking part in that pilgrimage and must do it with purpose.

The Cavins family uses that 10-minute drive to pray the rosary together and read the Psalms of Ascent to prepare themselves to be in the presence of God, he said, suggesting that they find a way to make their own journey a time of prayer and preparation, too.

He added that the Psalms of Ascent offer a remedy for times of trouble, calling people to lift their eyes to the mountain — and God — for help.

PSALMS OF RESTORATION, PRAISE
The Psalms are also a school of restoration, offering hope and healing to those who sin, according to Cavins. Among the greatest of these penitential Psalms is Psalm 51, which David wrote after he sinned with Bathsheba and realized what he had done.

“This should be written down . . . so you can check your heart when you go to confession,” he said.

What makes Psalm 51 so powerful is that after David admits that he sinned, seeks wisdom, and asks to be purged of his sin, he asks God to blot out his iniquities and “create in me a clean heart” and put a “new and right spirit in me.”

“He doesn’t hide — he goes straight to the Judge,” Cavins said. “He doesn’t make excuses. He calls it what it is.”

The sacrament of reconciliation is there to cleanse those who are willing to do the same, he said.

The Psalms can also be a school of praise and thanksgiving, which is a wonderful way to redeem suffering, Cavins said. The structure of these Psalms includes stating the problem, explaining who God is, thanking him for that and knowing that victory will come and God will reign.

Many people say this biblical pattern of praise and thanksgiving doesn’t work today, but he said they often don’t know what God’s works. “How can you praise God if you don’t know him and what he’s done?”

Cavins suggested Psalms 145, 106, 22 and 69 for further reflection.

LECTIO DIVINA EXPLAINED
To get the most out of their time with the Psalms and all passages of Scripture, Cavins suggested they engage in lectio divina or divine reading. A practice that was developed in the Middle Ages, Pope Benedict XVI has said this is the key to the new evangelization.

The goal of lectio divina is to hear from God in a practical way, Cavins said. He suggested they use a notebook to aid their daily reflection.
The first step is to read a passage of Scripture — it doesn’t have to be along passage, he explained — and notice what is going on. Gather information.

“I write down phrases that pop out at me,” he said.

The second step is to meditate on what you’ve noticed so that you understand not only what the passage says, but what it means.

The third step is to let God speak to you and for you to respond to God. The fourth step is to sit in the presence of the Lord and contemplate, as you would sit with one you love, Cavins said.

Then find ways to put what you have learned into practice, he said.
Each workshop participant received a copy of “Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina” from Ascension Press to offer further guidance. It was written by Dr. Tim Gray, who has visited the Diocese of Peoria with Cavins in the past to make presentations at the Diocesan Summer Institute.