453rd Meditation
“All praise to you Eternal Father, Holy God, living and all-powerful. You have no equal, and nothing compares with the works You have created.”
The hymn of praise to the Most Holy Trinity, the first phrase of which we have just heard, was written after someone asked me what would be a good way to begin our time of silent prayer, which is the first thing we do in the early morning in our community.
The answer was simple: we should begin by praising God!
Indeed, our Father is pleased when His children praise Him, when they call Him by the name of “Father” and testify to His incomparable glory. In doing so, they understand God better and better and add their voice to the great chorus of praise of the Church, to the song of the bride to her groom, to the rejoicing of the saints described to us in the Book of Revelation:
“And I saw (…) those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and wonderful are thy deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!'” (Rev 15:2-3).
When we invoke the name of our Father, when we proclaim His glory, when we praise His creation and all the works of His hands, which far exceed our capacity, we do not lose ourselves in the immensity of an impersonal cosmos, but we say to our Father:
You, beloved Father, have created all things: “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all” (Ps 104:24) You have created the number of stars and all that we can see. Everything is an expression of your love; all your works testify to you. So everything becomes home to us when we recognize God in His works, because they are shrouded in the mystery of His love.