Praise

     What are reasons for praise? Do we praise God in moments of joy? Do we praise God in moments of peace and contentment? Do we praise God in moments of weakness or in moments of sorrow and suffering? Praise is due to God in moments of happiness and joy just as David shows us in 2 Samuel 6 when he dances before the Lord, however, it is not our only reason for praise. In our moments of weakness, we must praise! "'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) In moments of sorrow and suffering, our souls must praise! Job, after losing everything he owned and all of his children, "arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshipped. And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'" (Job 1:20) There is beauty in praising God in moments of pure joy and freedom in praising God in times of sorrow and suffering.

     Praise allows us the opportunity to realize our place in relation to Him who created us. "Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory...simply because HE IS" (CCC 2639). It teaches us humility and graciousness like Our Lady. Mary is a woman of praise! "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant...." (Luke 1:46-48) When we seek to live a life of praise, we seek to live a life modeled after that of Our Lady and of the saints.
     We were created for praise! This praise, which finds it's climax in the celebration of the Mass, should permeate our daily lives! Praise is so much more than routine monotonous recitation of prayers. Praise moves the soul; sometimes even to tears. More than that, praise is not about what we can receive from it but what we have to offer to Him who gave us everything! Praise isn't about what you're feeling while you're praising. It's about what you offer up to God even in moments when you get nothing in return. Praise is beautiful in moments of pure elation when a soul is moved to tears for love of the Savior and beautiful even in moments when there is no feeling, just praise.
     There are so many forms of praise. Vocal. Silent. Visible. Invisible. All of these forms of praise are crucial to the spiritual life. We experience these types of praise in every Mass (GIRM 39-45) and should strive to live these types of praise in our everyday lives for they stretch us and push us beyond ourselves! They free us from the limitations we place upon our selves and allow us to elevate to union with the Divine!


     We live in a world of indifference; a world slowly leading souls astray. It's the moments that we become indifferent to the things, people, and situations around us that we slowly begin to lose touch with the True reality, Christ, and miss the whole reason we are here in the first place, the ministry of salvation of souls. People are becoming conditioned to the lies of the world. Too many are afraid to speak Truth. Imagine what would happen if we lived out the praise we offered to God in Mass everyday? Imagine how many souls would see, let alone, HEAR about the mercy and love of God that many so often miss on a day to day basis! Imagine how many more souls would encounter Truth! Imagine how much healing our hearts and souls would receive and therefore, imagine how much more productive our work, ministries, and lives would be. When we begin to give back to God what is truly His, we can barely begin to count the blessings and graces that He bestows upon us. 
     Emptying ourselves of all that we are in every moment of praise only allows for greater opportunities to be filled with the Divine. We will, then, notice that it is not ourselves that we are radiating and reflecting to the world but that of the Infant born in a Manger, the One who "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" (Phil. 2:7). For it is in true service of another that one comes to know the depths of our love. It is in Jesus' true service - even to "death, death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8), that we come to know the depths of His love for us. This kind of love transforms hearts and lives and deserves, in turn, perfect praise. May we seek, as the shepherds, to pay homage to Him, and in union with the Host of Angels, sing "Glory to God in the Highest!" (Luke 2:14)
     In the words of Padre Pio, "[We] ought to ask God for just one thing: to love Him. All the rest should be thanksgiving" (Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Letters, Vol.1, 2nd Edition). "Praise is the antidote to sin. Saint Paul says that godlessness consists in knowing God but not giving Him the glory and the thanks that are His due (see Romans 1:21). If that is so, then the opposite of sin is not virtue but praise! Praise is what best helps us to decentralize and to recentralize on God" (Sober Intoxication of the Spirit by Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap., pg. 125).


Written by Alycia, Special Events Coordinator for the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm