Take off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

And when Jacob awaked out of sleep, he said: Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And trembling he said: How terrible is this place! this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven. (Gen. 28:16,17)

How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of host! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones: Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever. (Psalm 83:2-5)

How terrible is Thy house O Lord! The whole notion of "reverence and godly fear" as Cardinal Newman put it is nearly gone. In its place is an unseemly familiarity with the sacred. True, the whole goal of our existence is union with God. Indeed, the very fiber of our being longs for it - something we will never understand in this life, but will in the next. As St. Augustine says: "Our hearts are restless, O Lord until they rest in Thee." But union with God is to be found on His terms, not ours, and this is a wonderful thing: If we have it our way, we trivialize worship, dragging God down to our level, as it were. When we approach Him in reverence and fear, He lifts us up to partake in the Divine. Remember, he who humbles himself will be exalted.

How wonderful and awesome is our God! Who are we that He should deign to come and make
His dwelling among men? How struck with awe we should be every time we recall the great miracle of His Presence in the Holy Eucharist. It is an invention that could only be conceived by Love Itself. How can God love us so much as to place Himself so completely at our disposal? How reverent, how grateful, how amazed we really should be every day! How we should love such a wonderful God Who has such a love for us! Let us fall on our knees and cry "Holy, Holy, Holy" is the Lord, the God of Hosts. How sweet it is to be in His presence!


During my holy hour this early evening, I read the following excerpt from Plain and Parochial Sermons vol. 8 Sermon 1 authored by the newly-beatified Bl. John Henry Newman. Bl. J.H. Newman has so much to teach us. His elevation to the altar is timely and a true blessing for the Church. Thanks be to God, and to the Holy Father.

Excerpt from Sermon 1. Reverence in Worship by John Henry Newman

"Indeed so natural is the connexion between a reverential spirit in worshipping God, and faith in God, that the wonder only is, how any one can for a moment imagine he has faith in God, and yet allow himself to be irreverent towards Him. To believe in God, is to believe the being and presence of One who is All-holy, and All-powerful, and All-gracious; how can a man really believe thus of Him, and yet make free with Him? it is almost a contradiction in terms. Hence even heathen religions have ever considered faith and reverence identical. To believe, and not to revere, to worship familiarly, and at one's ease, is an anomaly and a prodigy unknown even to false religions, to say nothing of the true one. Not only the Jewish and Christian religions, which are directly from God, inculcate the spirit of "reverence and godly fear," but those other religions which have existed, or exist, whether in the East or the South, inculcate the same. Worship, forms of worship—such as bowing the knee, taking off the shoes, keeping silence, a prescribed dress, and the like—are considered as necessary for a due approach to God. The whole world, differing about so many things, differing in creed and rule of life, yet agree in this—that God being our Creator, a certain self-abasement of the whole man is the duty of the creature; that He is in heaven, we upon earth; that He is All-glorious, and we worms of the earth and insects of a day."