In this posthumous collection of poet and teacher Donald Sheehan’s reflections on Psalms and psalmic prayer, culled from his journals and teaching notes, you will find two quite different kinds of writing working in tandem: poetic and personal journaling by a man of faith, a scholar, a linguist, and, in the deepest sense, a teacher; alongside scholarly linguistic and poetic analysis by a man steeped in poetry who thought like a poet.

In the spiritual life, two things are essential: what we do, and how we do it. In this wonderful collection of the late Donald Sheehan’s thoughts on the Psalms, we see both. He takes us into what the Psalms are in depth-the Word of God. He also demonstrates, time and again, how those depths shape his life and the world in which he lives. Thus, we are given two things: the Word of God and a life in which the Word has given shape. It is a path we all should walk. -Fr. Stephen Freeman