Deus Misereatur

  (The quotation in the picture is from "The Works of Hannah More: Essays," from the chapter "Errors in Prayer" on page 324) Many, many years ago, I came across this observation from St. Augustine in one of his sermons on the Psalms. He was developing some thoughts regarding Psalm 77:1, where the sacred songwriter states, “ I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me .” Augustine then says that “many men cry unto the Lord for the sake of getting riches and avoiding losses, for the safety of their friends, for the security of their house, for temporal felicity, for secular dignity, lastly, even for mere soundness of body, which is the inheritance of the poor man. For such and such like things many men do cry unto the Lord; scarce one for the sake of the Lord Himself. For an easy thing it is for a man to desire anything of the Lord, and not to desire the Lord Himself ; as if forsooth that which He gives could be sweeter than Himself that gives.” It is an eas...

  Unlike Marduk, Ba’al, Asherah and the gods of the nations, when you made humankind, you said: “ Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so ” (Genesis 1:29-30). Truly, LORD God, you made us not because you needed us. You made us not because you were lonely and lacked love. You made us not because you needed us to scratch some itch or stroke your ego. You made us because you are love and goodness, and so desired to give and lavish that love and goodness on us! Therefore, we adore and worship you: “ Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created ” (Revelation 4:11). Fo...