I will offer a sacrifice of praise

How to understand a sacrifice of praise

Padre Roger Luís - foto: arquivo cacaonova.com

I love the LORD, who listened
to my voice in supplication,

Who turned an ear to me
on the day I called.

I was caught by the cords of death;
the snares of Sheol had seized me;
I felt agony and dread.

Then I called on the name of the LORD,
“O LORD, save my life!”

Gracious is the LORD and righteous;
yes, our God is merciful.

The LORD protects the simple;
I was helpless, but he saved me.

Return, my soul, to your rest;
the LORD has been very good to you.

For my soul has been freed from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

I shall walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
III
I kept faith, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted!”

I said in my alarm,
“All men are liars!”

How can I repay the LORD
for all the great good done for me?

I will raise the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD.

I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.

Dear in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his devoted.h

LORD, I am your servant,
your servant, the child of your maidservant;
you have loosed my bonds.

I will offer a sacrifice of praise
and call on the name of the LORD.

I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,

In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah! ” (Psalm 116 NABRE)

nabrepermission

I don’t know if you met the heart the psalmist while praying this Psalm, but we can see that he went through disappointment with the people, through fall and tribulation. However, he overcame obstacles and is now returning to what God gave him. This was a man of life with the Lord, of intimacy with the Father.

We live in a time of much confusion, of the faith of a people that understands the meaning of their identity, people who were created by God for His praise and joy, but full of trends that original sin left them. So the hedonism has been so successful! People think being happy is to live freely all that pleasure offers them.

Is in the ‘ yes ‘ to God that the human will become free

Mother Teresa teaches us not to love the beauty, for it ends one day. We must know that time cannot end with a love without explanation, the Love of God cannot end. The world, however, proposes the reverse; it gives us the joy of having. However, the real joy is in our life with the Lord.

It in the ‘ yes ‘ to God that the human will becomes free and finds its completion. Saint Maximus says ‘ yes ‘ to God becomes opposition to the world, because Satan said to Adam and Eve in paradise, that if they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree, they would be free. So the men bring upon themselves this worldly belief. However, we need to understand that the joy will be constant and persistent if we do the will of the Father.

What poverty to live only for the weekend! We need to be happy on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, because Jesus saved us. God is shaking us! Where, who’s our happiness? Jesus is our achievement.
The temptation of the devil is to abandon the truth to live a false life. The devil, when he tempted Jesus, said that if the Son of God would prostrate Himself before him, Satan would give him all the kingdoms. Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted to follow him, they would have to resign themselves and embrace the cross.

Pope Francis explains that Peter confessed Christ as the Messiah, but when he talked about dying and by the cross, the disciple refused. Peter said: “I will follow you, but without the cross.” The Pontiff said that he who announces the Christ without cross is not following.

If we join the Lord, our lives will surely move forward. As Saint Paul said: “in my flesh I complete the sacrifice of Christ”. We are the Church of the cross. When the Islamic State threatened Rome, it said that would invade the Church of the cross.

We are the Church of the cross

 

For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” [Isaiah 29:14] 

For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save them that believe. For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For the foolishnessof God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.(1 Corinthians 1:18-25 d-r)

Know that there is the strength God in the cross. When you are persecuted and humiliated, when you’re sick, know that there is strength of God in you. Proclaim the cross, because it is his strength.

When all goes well, it is easy to praise, but when unemployment, sadness and disappointment are knocking at our door, is it still easy to praise? No! The sacrifice of praise is to have willingness to praise when things are tough.

In the Bible, there is a very strong example of praise. Satan asks to test Job, because this was a sick life, wife, children, health and everything. Job was losing his property, starting with the herd;then the children. But, in this reality, he said: “blessed be the name of the Lord!”.

Padre Roger prega no "Vem Louvar" - foto: arquivo cacaonova.com

After all this, Job lost health, he had  to sit in the trash and clean his body with a tile. Job’s wife kept murmuring, but he said they always received from good from God, should receive from him the evil?

We want to offer a sacrifice of praise to the Lord! Living like this, we will be much happier. No matter what happens, God will always be alongside us. If we’re on the cross with the Lord, we will be happy, because there’s salvation.

As I offered to God a sacrifice of praise

In my teens, I went away from God and went to a life of doom. Once, I was in a funk and, that night, for that night there were no drugs.

When I drank my first SWIG , I heard a voice: “you only see me when you need me”. I thought I was already were “drunk”, but that voice insisted three times; the third time, touched me on the wall and realized it wasn’t my place. I Got out of there and didn’t want to do any more drugs. Some time later, I left my drinking and I started attending a prayer group. There, God was working my heart. A year later, I went to church every day.

There was a time, I started to see me in the place of the priest; via-playing in his place, but denied that it would be true. I was fighting with God, saying he didn’t want it, I didn’t want it either.

I started dating. We were happy. I went to a Carnaval without her and there God spoke to my heart deeply through a phrase of Catherine of Sienna “If the will of the Lord is also mine,for only through the will of the Lord will Il be happy.” I went before the crucified and prayed saying to God that I didn’t want to be a priest, but I was going to do his will, because in it I would be happy.

Pope Benedict XVI says Gethsemane is the place of the olive press. There, Jesus asked that the chalice was away from him, but He still said ‘ yes ‘ to the will of the father. The Pope Emeritus says that when God’s will happens, heaven touches the Earth.

The contempt is incense for the devil, but praise is offering to God. So we need to give the Lord a sacrifice of praise, because this is freedom! Just look at Paul and Silas in jail.