Responsorial Psalms of Sunday

The psalms are prayers from the time before Christ and were used in Jewish liturgies. As a school of prayer, they continue to provide us with the language of prayer. A section of a psalm is used in the Liturgy of the Word every day at Mass. It is called the Responsorial Psalm because it is intended to be a response or echo of the first reading of the day. On the Sundays in Ordinary Time, the first reading itself is chosen as a preparation for the gospel of the day, so we find that the psalm, while echoing the Old Testament reading, also anticipates the gospel.