Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 130: A Confession of Sin—As the faithful gathered for the daily evening sacrifice to confess their sins and receive the healing Word of forgiveness, each individual penitent prayed: “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” Psalm 130, another song of Ascents, was prayed as the high priest entered into the holy place to lead the people in the confession of sin. Like the Tax Collector who cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” the psalmist places no faith in his own righteousness but lays his sin before his gracious Lord. “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning.” As we eagerly anticipate the absolution from the lips of our pastor, so the psalmist waited for the priest to emerge from the Temple and pronounce the Lord’s forgiveness to the penitent sinners. The foundation of the Church’s hope and confidence is that “with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption.”

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