[Scriptum compendiosum Psalterii intentionem declarans]

One must also be careful lest we incur the curse of the prophet, who says: A manicule points to the following quote. "Cursed is everyone who does the work of God carelessly." It is indeed worthy that our mind should concord with our voice. When we stand for the divine work, everyone should withdraw himself from those present with diligence and adhere to divine things, so that heavenly gifts may be revealed to him. For there is nothing in this mortal life in which we can more familiarly adhere to God than in divine praise. The devotion of the psalms prepares the mind for the Holy Spirit and merits the gifts of all graces. Whence Gregory says: "The Spirit of God is not always present in the minds of the prophets, so that when they do not have the prophetic spirit, they acknowledge that they have this from the gift of God when they do have it." Whence the prophet Elisha, when he was about to die, being sought out, and having recognized that the spirit of prophecy was lacking to him, had a psaltery brought to him so that the spirit of prophecy might descend upon him through the praise of psalmody and fill his soul with future things. For the voice of psalmody, when it is performed with the intention of the heart, is prepared through this as a path to the heart for almighty God, so that He may infuse the mysteries of prophecy or the grace of contrition into the intent mind. Whence it is written: "The sacrifice of praise will honor me." In the sacrifice, therefore, of divine praise, a path is made to Jesus

of ascent, because when contrition is infused through psalmody, a way is made for us in the heart through which we reach Jesus at the end. No mortal, therefore, can explain the power of the psalms with words or mind if they are sung in divine praise not just with the surface of the lips, but with an intent mind and a pure heart. For in the psalms you will find, if you search with an intent mind and not with the speed of words, such an intimate prayer as you could by no means think up by yourself. In the psalms you will find a maternal confession of your sins and an integrated prayer of divine and lordly mercy. In the psalms you will find protection against the adversities of all things that happen to you, and an intimate thanksgiving for graces. In the psalms you confess your infirmity and misery, and you will provoke the mercy of God Himself. For all the virtues in the psalms you will merit from God so that they may fly to you. * You will find the power of the psalms. And therefore there is no need for you to scatter yourself through diverse books. In the Psalter alone you have material for reading, searching, and teaching until the end of life. In it you will find the prophetic, evangelical, apostolic, and all divine books touched upon and described spiritually and intelligibly, and you will find there prophesied the first and second coming of the Lord.