April 6/Fifth Wednesday of Lent
“Praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.” ~ Daniel 3.53
Sometimes prayer rises easily from our hearts to God’s ears; other times, its flow is blocked by anxiety or doubt. In these moments when we are at a loss for words, we might consider reaching for the Bible, to let God pray through us and with us in the words of scripture, even — and especially — when we just don’t “have it in us” to pray. “If you think your heart cannot pray, then pray with your mouth, kneel down, fold your hands, speak loudly,” advised the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner in The Need and the Blessing of Prayer. Today’s happy-hearted song, drawn from a later Greek addition to Daniel, lends itself beautifully to “speaking loudly,” and embodies the human orientation to God that anchors the Christian life. If we speak the psalm aloud, we find ourselves falling into the rhythmic refrain that governs these verses: “blessed are you, O God,” and then, “praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.” The repetition becomes incantatory, as the joy of God’s ineffable goodness is drummed into our variable human hearts, and we may experience a deep awareness of God’s glory. That refrain — fixed, trustworthy, reliable — points to the very nature of God as the fixed, trustworthy, reliable foundation for our lives. The 20th-century British mystic Evelyn Underhill described God as “the changeless and absolute Life, manifesting itself in all [our] myriad nascent, crescent, cadent lives.” We may experience many fluctuations and variations during our earthly sojourn, but if we ground ourselves in the divine glory, as this joyous refrain invites us to do, we will come to know, deep in our hearts, that our lives truly begin and end through him, and with him, and in him.
God of wisdom and truth, As I journey through the busy and splintering world, may I stay grounded in my love of you. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040622.cfm
To hear a setting of Daniel 3, “Glory and Praise for Ever,” by Timothy R. Smith, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDTLdAjNyHE
