| “The Psalms have that very close proximity to the human experiences of longing, need, thanksgiving, and praise of God,” Abbot Gregory Polan said. |
When the U.S. Catholic bishops wanted a new translation of the psalms that captured their musicality while hewing closely to the original Hebrew, they turned to Abbot Gregory Polan, a musical prodigy and scripture scholar who teaches Hebrew.
Polan is also the leader of Conception Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Missouri that dates to 1873. He teaches at Conception Seminary College.
In America magazine, Polan calls the psalms “the heartbeat of the Bible.”
“Jesus himself prayed the Psalms,” Polan said. “They were the prayers, if I can say, that he learned on his mother’s knee.”
His revised translation of the psalms was approved by the bishops’ conference in 2010.