Remember Your Mercies, O God
Today’s responsorial psalm indicates that God never wavers in the offer of forgiveness. Psalm 25 invites us to turn our attention from our own behavior to God’s covenant love – compassion, steadfast love, kindness, goodness, and a request of God to show the “way.” The last verse used teaches us that it is the humble who God guides to justice and teaches the right way. Those who are proud are not able to receive guidance, for they believe they know what they need to know, and so their hearts are hardened to learning more. Those who are humble are able to receive God’s guidance and open their hearts to learning. As we pray this psalm, let us ask God to teach us what we need to know.
Make me know your ways, O God; Teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are God, my savior.
For you I wait all the day long.
Remember your mercy, O God, and your steadfast love,
which you have given from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth, or my transgressions;
But in your goodness, remember me according to your steadfast love!
You, O God, are good and upright. You instruct sinners in your way.
You lead the humble in the right path; you teach your way to the poor.
[verses adapted from People’s Companion to the Breviary © 1997 by the Carmelites of Indianapolis]