Praise God!

I am currently taking my last two classes I need for my Masters degree. One of the books we are reading, "Encountering the Book of Psalms" had an idea in Chapter 6 under "The Anatomy of Priase" that I never really paid much attention to before, which I should have, and thus I want you to also :D

The book speaks about how the vocation of our existence as humans is to praise God: "A case can be made on the basis of the Psams that the purpose of human existence is to praise God." In St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians 10:31, he tells us that we should give praise to God no matter what we are currently doing. The book for class continues, "Further, to disengage oneslef from the vocation of praise is to deny one's own human existence." In other words, by not giving God praise, we are denying our human existence!!! St. Catherine of Siena speaks about having a cell inside of the deepest part of the soul in which one is to remain for the cell, as that of a monk, should be a place of quiteness and where one can encounter God. By creating this cell, we can do as the book says, "it becomes necessary at times to summon our inner self to the tabernacle of praise." The last quote I want to give you from the book is this, "we could say that to praise God is to live, and to live is to praise God."

Thus, I must ask you this: are you alive? How often do we praise God in the midst of the distractions of this world? I know I have trouble for sure not falling into the complaining mode. However, If we strive to live, to praise God in all we do, then we can say like Job in Chapter 1:21, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."