Rainbow Psalms in 30 Days is a meditation rendering of 146 of the 150 Psalms, 36 Canticles, and many Sayings of Jesus arranged for morning and evening in a 30 day repeating cycle following the Book of Common Prayer.
These renderings were composed with specifically LGBTQ+ readers in mind. They remain relevant for all people of God.
(Warning: If you have a very strong preference for the traditional masculine imagery for God, you will not like this meditation rendering.)
Designed by a former parish priest who has prayed the Psalter for over thirty years, these choices were made in this meditation rendering:
1. For the name YHVH, or Yahweh, the Hebrew word Adonai (ah-duh-nigh') meaning My Lord, is used. In several places the words El or Elyon or Elohim are retrieved, as is Sabaoth instead of Mighty or Hosts.
2. Following the Christian understanding of one God in the three persons of the Trinity, masculine pronouns for God are avoided.
3. Except in the traditional Lord's Prayer and doxology, rather than the Greek Father (pater) the more intimate Aramaic Abba is used (think Dad, Daddy, Papa) as in Mark 14:36. Among my family and friends, no one addresses their Daddy as Father. See also Saint Paul's use of Abba in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6.
4. In an admittedly imperfect effort to pray the gospel as well as the psalms, the word enemy is most often rendered as enmity and foes as adversity.
5. Where people are referred to as evil, the emphasis is shifted to those who do the bad, or ways that are bad.
6. Since race is a human construct, and we are all members of the one human race, words such as tribe and family are used.
Most of the Antiphons are Sayings of Jesus drawn from Sunday Gospel readings: In the Sunday Lectionary, the Old Testament readings have connections with the Gospel reading, and the Responsorial Psalm is a response to the Old Testament reading. This means that on any given Sunday there is a relationship between the Gospel reading and the Psalm. The antiphons were chosen based on this relationship.
Some of the intercessions and petitions are drawn from Guadium et Spes, "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World," Vatican II, 1965, paragraph 27.
Stephen Joseph Wolf has prayed the Psalter for over thirty years from several different translations. Hinge Hours for Ordinary Time and Two Weeks Ordinary were previous edition of this book.
Wolf, Stephen Joseph: - Stephen Joseph Wolf is retired, a former parish priest (22 lents & holy weeks), spiritual director and retreat leader, and before that a certified public accountant (14 tax seasons), who before that worked as a landscaper, desk clerk, laundry worker, janitor, paper boy, and student, growing up the second of eight sons of a parish secretary and Nashville's best television repairman. He completed a B.S. at MTSU, an M.B.A. at Belmont University, and an M.Div. at Mundelein Seminary. He continues to write poems and songs and paint folk art icons, sing baritone for the LGBTQ+ chorus Nashville in Harmony, play the ukulele with Music for Seniors and others, volunteer as a bookkeeper for two non-profits, serve on the board of PFLAG Nashville, and gather with the LGBTQ+Catholic group Always God's Children. He lives in Nashville with his husband Billy.
