A Psalter for Prayer: Annotated Edition

An Adaptation of the Classic Miles Coverdale Translation, Augmented by Prayers and Instructional Material Drawn from Church Slavonic and Other Orthodox Christian Sources

David M James,

• Publisher: Holy Trinity Publications
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9780884655015
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

A Psalter for Prayer is the first major English edition to include all the prayers needed to read the Psalter at home according to an Orthodox tradition that reaches back to the time of the desert fathers, known popularly as the 'cell rule'. In addition, the contents include many texts, traditionally printed in Orthodox Psalters, that are not easily found in English, such as the Rite for Singing the Twelve Psalms, directions for reading the Psalter for the Departed and much more.
This digital annotated edition includes endnotes omitted from recent, devotional editions. Some are rubrical or informational notes, but most are intended to help the reader understand why a particular word, phrase, or verse is used in this English version to translate the Septuagint Greek of Alfred Rahlfs.
This annotated edition will allow readers to not only judge for themselves the fidelity of A Psalter for Prayer to the received Greek text of the Orthodox Church and to its Latin and Church Slavonic translations, but also to better understand how the Psalter as the prayer book of the Church evolved into its present form and what such a book teaches us about the centrality of the psalms in Christian prayer and how to pray them at home and in church.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• The Athanasian Creed
• A Brief Summary of the Faith
• The Letter to Marcellinus
• How the Psalter Is to Be Said Throughout the Whole Year
• The Seven Bow Beginning
• Prayers Before Reading the Psalter
• The First Kathisma
• The Second Kathisma
• The Third Kathisma
• The Fourth Kathisma
• The Fifth Kathisma
• The Sixth Kathisma
• The Seventh Kathisma
• The Eighth Kathisma
• The Ninth Kathisma
• The Tenth Kathisma
• The Eleventh Kathisma
• The Twelfth Kathisma
• The Thirteenth Kathisma
• The Fourteenth Kathisma
• The Fifteenth Kathisma
• The Sixteenth Kathisma
• The Seventeenth Kathisma
• The Eighteenth Kathisma
• The Nineteenth Kathisma
• The Twentieth Kathisma
• The Canticles
• Prayers After Reading the Psalter
• The Megalynaria & Selected Psalms for the Principal Feasts
• The Rite Chanted Following the Departure of the Soul from the Body
• Reading the Psalter for the Departed
• The Commemoration
• The Rite for Singing the Twelve Psalms
• From the Fathers Concerning the Cell Rule
• The Hymn of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
• Appendix: The Numbering of the Psalms