“The Apostle admonishes women to be silent in church,
yet they do well to join in a psalm; this is gratifying for all ages and fitting for both sexes.
Old men ignore the stiffness of age to sing [a psalm], and melancholy veterans echo it in the joy of their hearts;
young men sing one without the bane of lust, as do adolescents without threat from their insecure age or the temptation of sensual pleasure;
even young women sing psalms with no loss of wifely decency, and girls sing a hymn to God with sweet and supple voice
while maintaining decorum and suffering no lapse of modesty.
Youth is eager to understand [a psalm], and the child who refuses to learn other things takes pleasure in contemplating it;
it is kind of play, productive of more learning than that which is dispensed with stern discipline.”
St. Ambrose, On Psalm 1
JUST ABOUT SAYS IT ALL, DOESN’T HE?
