CANADA PRAYS: An initiative of Anglican Fellowship of Prayer and Society of St John the Evangelist to help us all enter more deeply into the richness of prayer. For more information, please visit anglicanprayer.org
This week: PRAISE
Q. Why do we praise God?
A. We praise God, not to obtain anything, but because God’s Being draws praise from us.[1]
Brother David Vryhof, of SSJE, says that praise is how we begin to pray, because praise “orients our whole being towards God, in whose image and for whose purposes we are made.”[2]
The act of praise is seen when we worship, and also permeates our entire lives. Our praise of God is acknowledging God’s role in our lives, putting God first in all we say and do in God’s world. Our love for God, our praise for God, is to become a daily reality, so normal in our lives that it becomes evident to all around us.
Thomas Berry writes that “the nobility of our lives depends upon the manner in which we come to understand and fulfill our assigned role.”[3] Br David reminds us that our role is to celebrate that “[w]e have been created by God and for God, and we will find our deepest joy and satisfaction when we live in union with God.”[4]
Canada Prays #prayersof #praise: God of glory, I praise you…
Some thoughts on praise, from Karina:
[1] “An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism” in The Book of Common Prayer, According to the use of The Episcopal Church, 2007. p.857. Available at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/downloads/book_of_common_prayer.pdf
[2] http://ssje.org/ssje/2009/10/06/praising-god-our-true-vocation-br-david-vryhof/
[3] Thomas Berry, “The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future”
[4] http://ssje.org/ssje/2009/10/06/praising-god-our-true-vocation-br-david-vryhof/
