Dear Ascension Women Psalter Readers,
Please consider joining other women of Ascension in the Psalter Reading Group. Whether you are a seasoned Psalter reader or joining for the first time, we welcome you to participate in this prayerful, ascetic exercise beginning on Monday, March 18th. It is a true blessing to offer these “songs of praise” to our Lord together as we journey through Great Lent!
For this reading, we will use Songs of Praise by Sylvia Leontaritis (available in Ascension's bookstore for $22). This book contains short, spiritual reflections and journal pages along with the Psalter readings to inspire our understanding of the text. If you choose not to use the book, you may also read from the Psalms in your Bible (with Septuagint numbering of the Katihsmata) instead. The Orthodox Study Bible, the book Songs of Praise by Sylvia Leontaritis (also available in our bookstore), or The Psalter are examples of resources that follow Septaguint vs. Hebrew text.
As always, you may choose the time of day (and place) that best works for you to privately read your “Kathisma” (assigned Psalms) for the forty day Fast. There are 20 Kathismata (sections). Each Kathisma contains about 7-8 Psalms and takes about 15-20 minutes to read. Each reader will begin on March 18th with an assigned Kathisma, and then read the succeeding Kathisma until you get through all 20. Then you will repeat the entire process, thereby reading the Psalter twice to get to the 40th Day of the Fast. If we have a minimum of 20 people sign up, as a group we will pray the entire Psalter each day of the Lenten Fast, which is a great blessing! We will also offer a brief prayer during our daily readings for each member of our Psalter group.
Please sign-up by clicking the button below by March 17th, so that we can assign the list of readers accordingly, and send along with a simple explanation of how the Psalter reading works for those who are new to this. If you have any questions, please contact Rae Anne Alvarez at rkalvarez5@gmail.com.
May reading the Psalms and focusing our minds on our spiritual life enrich our preparation for the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
