October
29, 2013 Martin Mallon
(Ireland) Martin's previous
articles
(Comments
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PRAISE
AND THE CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC RENEWAL
The
Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) began at a retreat for college students at
In
his book, Your Life in the Holy Spirit, The Word Among Us Press,
The
posture of standing with arms outstretched and palms open (the orans position)
was customary when the community entered into the prayer of praise,
in contrast to the penitential prayer made on one’s knees. (Page 205)
Shreck
goes on to point out that:
...in
the catacombs, few, if any, figures are portrayed kneeling in prayer, while many
frescoes show the orans with upraised arms, praising God.
(Page 205)
Shreck
then quotes Origen, a church father of the third century (185-232), explaining “in
his treatise On Prayer that bodily posture reflects the disposition of the
soul.”
Origen
concludes:
And
although there are a great many different positions for the body, he should not
doubt that the position with the hands outstretched and the eyes lifted up is to
be preferred before all others, because it bears in prayer the image of
characteristics befitting the soul and applies it to the body... (Page 205)
So,
according to the early church, the best way to pray is “with the hands
outstretched and the eyes lifted up”. This way “is to be preferred before
all others”.
It
makes me wonder why do so many Christians today have difficulty with this method
of prayer, especially when we consider that “it bears
in prayer the image of characteristics befitting the soul and applies it to the
body”?
The early church was full of the Holy Spirit, it was full of joy as can be seen in the Acts of the Apostles. What is joy? It is the experience of the unconditional love of God, the Holy Spirit; what could give us more joy. This helps explain the position of prayer adopted when praising God with joy; didn’t David dance and sing with this same joy, the Holy Spirit, in the Old Testament.
So
we can see that the prayer of praise is bang on in the best tradition of the
early church as regards praying.
Why should we praise the Lord? If we have any doubts we only have to listen to the instructions in Psalm 97:1-4:
Sing a new song to the Lord (We are ordered to praise God!)
for
he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation. (We are given the reasons for praising Him)
The response to the psalm is: The Lord has shown his salvation to the nations. (The response gives us the reason for our praises – Jesus has saved us.)
The
last line of the psalm is:
Shout
to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.
What a great command; and if we obey it we are filled with joy. Alleluia!
The Gospel for the 28th Sunday of the year hammers home the importance of praise:
On
the way to Jerusalem Jesus travelled along the border between
This leper, a Samaritan, came back “praising God at the top of his voice” because he was cured from leprosy; Jesus has redeemed us so that we can spend eternity in heaven in bliss – how much more have we cause to praise God than the leper. But Jesus is asking each of us the hard question “where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God”. Let’s keep on praising God for all our blessings, at least we will be doing something Jesus desires.
Psalm
147 is a beautiful psalm and verse 1 and 7 point out how good it is to sing
praises to God:
1
Praise the Lord.
How
good it is to sing praises to our God,
how
pleasant and fitting to praise him!
7
Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make
music to our God on the harp.
This psalm lists many of the reasons we have for being grateful to God.
In
fact, in praise God has shown us such a wonderful way to worship Him. It is hard
to put into words the joy we find in glorifying Jesus with. Ephesians 5 puts it
well:
…be
filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart (Ephesians
5:18b-19)
When we sing to the Lord with all our hearts, we are filled with joy, we are filled with the Spirit. What an amazing privilege and honour it is to sing praises to our God! Praise is it’s own reward; yet it is strange how easily we can forget to praise! Do we all praise God as instructed so often in the Bible?
Praising
the Lord is an old established tradition as can be seen from the book of Exodus:
The
Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; This is my God,
and I will praise
Him; my father's God, and I will extol Him . (Exodus 15:2)
Again,
Psalm 9:11 commands us to praise:
Sing
praises
to the LORD, who dwells in
We
do not know or remember all the things for which we should be praising God. We
must also remember that it is easy for us to raise up our hands and praise God
and feel good about it, but then afterwards when someone asks for help do we
just ignore them? Let us not forget, Jesus told us:
For
I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me
anything to drink, I was a stranger and you never made me
welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you
never visited me. (Matthew 25:42-43)
This
is the real evidence of our faith, there is no point in praise or prayer if they
are not meant, are not from the heart and are not reflected in our lives: “It
is by my deeds that I will show
you my faith.” James 2:18
Psalm 149 informs us that praising God is our glory, “the glory of all his faithful”:
let
them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let
the high praises
of God be in their throats.
This
is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.
We
read here
that
“praise is one of the greatest weapons we have against the enemy…and against
ourselves.” If we are mourning or have cause to be sad or worried praise will
help us, but it is not magic; it will lift us, help us and give us joy, the Holy
Spirit, reminding us that God walks with us in our troubles and does not always
make them vanish – and God always bring good out of every situation.
Interestingly,
“the word “Praise” appears most frequently in the psalms, and it does so
in two ways.
First,
as an offering of thanksgiving, and adoration: “I will
give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises
to You among the nations … (Psalm
57:9)”, and
Secondly,
as a command: “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from
the heavens; praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him,
all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise
Him, highest heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise
the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created … (Ps
148:1-5).”
Let’s
respond to the psalmist’s invitation and in all we think, say, and do today,
let the high praises of God be in our throats!”
Praise
the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD while I live; I
will sing praises to my God while I have my being! (Ps 146: 1-2)
The Second Vatican Council and the Holy Spirit are still changing our church for the better.