Learning to Live Praise

Summary of a teaching by Donna Orsuto (1982)

We often hear the question asked: How can one integrate the praise of God which I experience at a prayer meeting with the rest of my life? Does this praise stop at the end of the meeting or has it truly penetrated my life? St. Augustine in his writings speaks much about praise. He tells us that when we say "alleluia" we are urging one another to praise God. "You say to your neighbour, praise the Lord, and he says the same to you." Therefore we not only urge one another to praise but we do the very act we are asking the other to do.

But what about when we go our various ways? The answer is that we have to learn to live praise. Praise must be an expression of our whole being. We are called to praise God not only with our voices but by our actions. Thus even though our tongues may be silent our actions should cry out in praise of God. One might ask: Isn’t it difficult, if not impossible to praise God in the midst of anxieties and difficulties or when all is going wrong? St. Augustine himself asked the question. He asked: "Do you really expect me to sing alleluia to you in the midst of my anxiety?" He concludes that yes, when we can sing to God no matter what happens because we have the assurance that (1) God is faithful and, (2) He never asks more than we can handle; He always sees us through.

If we are to continue praising we must be aware of the results of praise. First of all we are training for our eternal destiny. We are waiting in hopeful expectation to be filled by God. Augustine gives us a good example of the Lord’s action. He

asks: Suppose you are going to fill some container and you know you will be given a large amount of liquid, what do you do? You go about stretching your sack or wineskin in order to make enough room for the liquid. By stretching and working it you increase the capacity of the sack; this is how God deals with us. By making us wait and giving us a gift of praise God increases our desire for Him and enlarges the capacity of our beings so that we are able to receive what will be given to us. God really means to fill us with His goodness. That’s why we are called to cast out what is bad. If God wishes to fill our vessel with honey and we are full of sour wine where will the honey go? The vessel must be emptied and cleansed of its contents.

This is exactly where praise comes in. As we praise God now with our whole being, our vessels are being stretched and cleansed so that God can fill us. Thus we see that

praise can go beyond our prayer together if we recognise that we must interiorize this praise in our personal prayer life and allow it to penetrate all our actions.
that because God is faithful and in control we can trust in Him and praise Him in the midst of difficulties believing with St. Paul that "God makes all things work together for the good of those who have been called according to his decree." (Romans 8:28)
through praise God is able to mould us, stretch us and cleanse us so that we can receive Him, so that we shall be ready when the day comes that we are called to see Him face to face.