MSI Press Blog

  From Morning Prayer today: Responsory: "I will bless the Lord all my life long.". When Scripture says, “I will bless the Lord all my life long,” it does not mean we give God something He lacks. It means we respond to the God who lacks nothing. That’s the heart of it. What “blessing God” doesn’t mean It doesn’t mean we confer grace, protection, or favor on Him. It doesn’t mean God is improved, enriched, or made happier by our words. It doesn’t mean God is waiting for us to bless Him so He can be complete. God is already perfect fullness , the One from whom all blessing flows. What it does mean In Scripture, to bless God means: To acknowledge who He is — to speak well of His goodness, His faithfulness, His mercy. To praise Him publicly — to let our words and actions reveal His worth. To thank Him — gratitude is one of the purest forms of blessing. To align our lives with His will — a life lived in fidelity is itself a blessing offered back to God. To return love for lo...

  From Morning Prayer:  “Sing a new song unto the Lord.” (Psalm 98:1) Morning Prayer begins with praise. Before petitions, before reflection, before the day’s demands — the Church sings. "Sing a new song" a line that appears often in Scripture — in Psalms 33, 96, 98, 149, and in Isaiah’s vision of renewal. Each time, it signals something more than novelty. The “new” song is not new because it’s never been sung before. It’s new because God has done something new , and the world itself is being remade. What Makes the Song New In Hebrew poetry, “new” does not mean “recent.” It means renewed — fresh with gratitude, alive with grace. When the psalmist calls for a new song, it’s a summons to awaken the heart to what God has just done: deliverance, mercy, creation itself reborn. Morning Prayer, or Lauds , is the hour of resurrection. It greets the dawn not as repetition but as revelation. Every sunrise is a new creation. Every breath is a new song. The Church places this psalm at ...

  From Morning Prayer: “God of mercy, may our celebration of your Son’s resurrection help us experience its effect in our lives.” The Church never treats the Resurrection as a past event we simply remember. It is a present power we are meant to experience . This short prayer from Morning Prayer is deceptively simple, but it carries a profound invitation: the Resurrection is not only something Christ underwent — it is something meant to take effect in us. What is that “effect”? 1. The Resurrection restores our hope The first effect is interior: a shift from resignation to hope. The Resurrection tells us that no situation is final, no darkness is absolute, no tomb is truly sealed. When we pray this line, we are asking God to let that truth sink into the places where we have quietly given up — the relationships we think cannot heal, the habits we think cannot change, the grief we think we must simply carry alone. 2. The Resurrection reorders our identity If Christ has risen, then deat...