God Speaking to us Through the Liturgy of the Hours

I have posted before on the Liturgy of the Hours. I just saw something related at one of my Anglican/Emerging Church blogs on my links that Bryan Sherwood runs. He is a big Thomas Merton fan and finds a lot of benefit from his writings, the Divine Office, and Monastic principles and prayers

He writes:

One of my favorite books is called The Intimate Merton: His Life From His Journals. Edited by Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo. This book highlights some of Fr. Tom's best journal entries culled from his seven personal journals. I like what he writes about the penitential psalms.
Another thing: I have discovered the penitential psalms. You do not discover them until you know how much you need them. You do not know your need until you experience it. You do not experience your poverty when you tell yourself about it but when God tells you that you are poor. When God tells you of a sickness, it is because He means, at the same time, to provide a remedy. It is the Devil who tells us that we are ill and taunts us for it, reminds us of our helplessness by making us even more helpless. (p. 112-113).

All I can say to that is Amen.

I say Amen too. My life is not what I have envisioned it would be. I have been through a lot of ups and downs, good times and intense pain.

I have kept the faith, I have sinned, I have sinned against others I love, I have had joy, and had despair. It is through God's grace and nothing I did that kept his Church and his teachings in my mind. I mentioned earlier that as for me I had a hard time praying the Hours when I converted because I vould not relate to the Psalms. That is so different now. The above quote by Merton really strikes me how God uses them to speak to me.


By the way
One Other Great Liturgy of the Hours link that has a ton of resources is here.