Annotatio CLXXII

”For God is the king of all the earth: sing ye wisely.” — Psalm 46:3, 8

Cassiodorus, in the commentaries on the Psalms, expounding this little verse, says:¹ “Not only must we sing, but [sing] understanding: for no one does anything wisely which he does not understand.” The heretics use this testimony against those who sing or pray Psalms and prayers not understood before God, asserting that those prayers are of no fruit which — in a foreign and unknown tongue — are offered by the simple and unlearned to the divine majesty: because no one obtains the benefits of prayer unless first, with attentive thought, he has diligently considered what he prays; and he will not be able to consider [it] unless he first has understood it; nor will he be able to understand those things which must be uttered in a tongue foreign and unknown to him. To these [heretics] it must be answered, that there is a twofold attention of praying:² one, peculiar and proper to those who understand only, which looks to the words and the sense of the words, lest anything be erred on either side; but the other far more excellent, and accessible to those who understand as [well as] to those who do not understand, which directs the point of the mind unto the end and scope of prayer — namely, unto God, whom [one] prays, and then unto the very thing which [one] prays for. And it happens that an attention of this kind is sometimes stretched so far that the mind, lifted up in the meditation of God, forgets sometimes the words, and the meanings, and itself. Nor is it doubtful that David and Cassiodorus looked to this attention, when they admonished that one should sing wisely and understandingly. For he undoubtedly sings wisely, and prays, who tastes the savor and fruit of divine contemplation in prayer; and he truly prays understandingly, who contemplates, with intent mind, God whom he prays.³ You have some things pertaining hither in book 6, Annotation 263.