Why Worship

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote a wonderful little book called You, which is really about us and our relationship with God. Although the cultural references are a little dated, here is a cursory explanation, sprinkled with golden nuggets of insight, of why we worship God.

If you are a father, do you not like to receive a tiny little gift, such as a penny chocolate cigar, from your son? Why do you value it more than a box [of cigars] from your insurance agent? If you are a mother, does not your heart find greater joy in a handful of yellow dandelions from your little daughter, than a bouquet of roses from a dinner guest? Do these little trivialities make you richer? Would you be imperfect without them? They are absolutely of no utility to you! And yet you love them. And why? Because by these gifts your children are “worshipping” you; they acknowledge your love, your goodness, and by doing so they are perfecting themselves; that is, they are developing along the lines of love rather hate, thankfulness rather than ingratitude, and therefore they are becoming more perfect children and happier children as well.

As you do not need dandelions and chocolate cigars, neither does God need your worship. But if their giving is a sign of your worth in your children’s eyes, then is not prayer, adoration, and worship a sign of God’s worth in our eyes? And if you do not need your children’s worship, why do you think God needs yours? But if the worship of your children is for perfection, not yours, then may not your worship of God be not for His perfection, but yours? Worship is your opportunity to express devotion, dependence, and love, and in doing that you make yourself happy.

…God would still be perfectly happy if you never existed. God has no need of your love, for there is nothing in you, of and by yourself, which makes you lovable to God. Most of us are fortunate to have even a spark of affection from our fellow creatures. God does not love us for the same reason that we love others. We love others because of need and incompleteness. But God does not love us because He needs us. He loves us because He put some of His love in us. God does not love us because we are valuable; we are valuable because He loves us.

…Without Him, you are imperfect; but without you, He is still Perfect. It is the echo that needs the Voice, and not the Voice that needs the echo. …God thirsts for your love, not because you are His waters of everlasting life, but because you thirst, He is the waters. He needs you only because you need Him.

It is always about the other. By giving yourself to others in some form or another, you receive and are transformed. The cycle of love continues to flow. All is gift…receive, share, and give thanks.

The Struggle

The struggle to be creative is the friction of the Spirit trying to pass through you to others. It is much like electricity passing through wire. You are the wire, and the friction causes heat to make the wire malleable. And in the end, the wire itself becomes a majestic work of art formed by the hand God.

To Enter the Desert as an iHermit

The old CowPi Journal is just shy of 800 entries, and I don’t have that much more to say in this format at this time and place. My energy has been elsewhere. The Quote of the Day will continue through the beginning of December and then it will be done at 1007 quotes (with only one repeat). The blogging system is getting overloaded, and I’m tired of adding to it. I do not know if I will return to this journal in the future. Both weblogs will remain online.

Silence and solitude is what I seek, to enter the desert to be with God, to learn deeply how to live awake in the Presence of God in the present moment. I cannot physically go to the desert. My vocation is to be a husband, father, friend, teacher, and I gladly continue to follow that call. No regrets, no burdens, no disappointments, for that is the path God called me to follow, whether I knew it or not at the time. It is a path that has made all the difference.

Besides cultivating silence inside and out, like turning off the car radio and limiting the amount of television, I have found that I often surf the internet out of boredom, or more honestly, for avoiding something somewhere else in my life. Worse, the internet has become full of noise, distractions from the one important thing. So I have chosen to isolate myself on the internet. I am going to become an iHermit, an internet hermit.

I have given up visiting, reading and commenting on weblogs, blogs, online journals, forums, list servers, etc. I still need to use the internet for resources and references for my job, yellow pages, maps, etc., and emails with job, family and friends. But not for anything else, except to write a new journal. I am going to seriously miss the few weblogs that I consistently read, but this call is too strong. It needs to be all or nothing for me at this point in time.

I am still called to write, but from a much deeper level. So I have created a space for solitude on the internet, a new journal called You. This is my place for prayerful reflection and writing. You are welcome to read along if it feeds you.

Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

And so, I prayerfully turn inward in order that I may turn outward as a more perfect reflection of You.

Principle and Foundation

At the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius of Loyola wrote the Principle and Foundation as a mission statement to guide everything he did and to guide retreatants through the Exercises.

About this time last year when I was in A Retreat in Daily Life, I wrote my own Principle and Foundation. It seems fitting to re-state it as a mission statement for this journal.

I am being created in the image of God in that I can know, choose, and love. God seeks to have a direct, loving friendship with me.

All of creation is sacramental and reflects God’s truth and love. The purpose of creation is to reflect God’s love back to him and to the rest of creation. My purpose is to love God and to love others.

All of creation is within God and of God, but is not God. Mistaking creation’s reflection of God for God will lead me astray from my purpose in life. Things and people point toward God and his glory like a signpost pointing the way toward Truth. When I cling to things or people, I cling to the signpost and am prevented from moving toward God and his truth because I think I already have it. When I cling to things or people, I restrict my freedom to love and serve. Therefore, I must be detached from things and people in a loving and gentle manner in such a way that I am free to reflect God’s love to them.

All is gift. I must remain open to receive, not take. In receiving, I should be thankful, responsible, and generous to share God’s gifts.

The choices I make should always lead me into a deeper friendship with God and lead me to a better reflection of his love through me to others.

Dei Gratia, “By the Grace of God”. All is gift. All glory comes and returns to God through creation. I am only the wire through which the electricity of God flows. I should be so lucky. Dei Gratia

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