Domine Exaudi Orationem Meam (Denis the Carthusian's Commentary on the Psalms)

Domine Exaudi is the fifth of six volumes of the Commentary on the Davidic Psalms by Denis the Carthusian (1402-1471), informally and popularly called the "ecstatic Doctor," the Doctor ecstaticus. It continues the translation project of bringing to an English audience Denis's great program of exploring all 150 Psalms in their literal, allegorical, tropological, and analogical senses. By this technique, Denis hoped to impart to his readers, who were Christians of all stations and states, a greater breadth of knowledge of the Psalter, the book of the Scripture which is the centerpiece of the prayer life of the Church, the Divine Office, and of any serious devotional life. By teasing out from the literal text of the Psalms its allegorical meaning, the reader encounters, by the deft interpretive hand of Denis, the often-hidden Christocentric essence of the Psalms. Moreover, the Psalms both well-prayed and well-understood become a vehicle of informing our faith with the spirit of charity by guiding us, through their tropological meaning, about what to believe and what to do so that we might be pleasing to the God whom we love. The Psalms, when understood in their anagogical sense, likewise become the sure foundation for our hope, for they inform us of our heavenly bourne, our fatherland to which the blessed Trinity beckons us and woos us. Using "scripture to interpret scripture," yet guided by the sure and trustworthy speculative theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the mystical theology of Dionysius the Areopagite, this Commentary provides a unique and sustained insight into the mind and the spirit of this most prolific, erudite, and saintly member of the Carthusian order.