What’s the best way to offer ourselves to God? How is it done? Why is it important? Find out in today’s excerpt and reflection from Finding God Through Meditation.
Of Oblation
Cordial thanks being given to God, presently the heart breaks naturally into that affection, which the kingly prophet David felt in himself, when he said: “What shall I render to our Lord, for all things that he hath rendered to me?” (Ps 115:12). Which desire, we shall in some sort satisfy, if we offer to God whatsoever we have.
First, therefore, we must offer to God ourselves, for his perpetual servants, wholly resigning ourselves to his holy will, howsoever he shall please to dispose of us. We must likewise direct all our thoughts, words, and works, whatsoever we shall do or suffer, to the supreme honor and glory of his sacred name.
Then we must offer to God the Father all the merits of his only begotten Son, all the labors and sorrows he did undergo, in this miserable world, to fulfill the will of his heavenly Father, beginning from his nativity and hard manger, to his contemptuous crucifying and giving up his spirit; forasmuch as these are all the goods and means whereof in the New Testament he has left us heirs; wherefore, as that is no less our own, which is given us freely, than that we get with our industry; so the merits of Christ, which he freely bestowed upon us, are no less our own than if we attained them with our sweat and labor.
Hence every man may offer this sacred oblation as the first, numbering one by one, all the labors and virtues of the life of Christ, his obedience, patience, humility, charity and his other virtues, seeing these are the most excellent of all oblations that we can offer to God.
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Finding God through Meditation, by St. Peter of Alcantara, brings the wisdom of the great saint into your hands. St. Peter directed St. Teresa of Avila on difficult questions she had about prayer and she turned to this work for guidance.
If you would like to read the entire text, please click here and purchase Finding God Through Meditation from Emmaus Publishing.
About Dan Burke
Dan is the President of the Avila Foundation, the parent organization of SpiritualDirection.com, the Avila Institute for Spiritual Formation, and Divine Intimacy Radio, author of the award winning book, Navigating the Interior Life – Spiritual Direction and the Journey to God, and his newest books Finding God Through Meditation-St. Peter of Alcantara and 30 Days with Teresa of Avila. Beyond his “contagious” love for Jesus and His Church, he is a grateful husband and father of four, the Executive Director of and writer for EWTN’s National Catholic Register, a regular co-host on Register Radio, a writer and speaker who provides online spiritual formation and travels to share his conversion story and the great riches that the Church provides us through authentic Catholic spirituality. Dan has been featured on EWTN’s Journey Home program and numerous radio programs.
