All creation gives thanks to God, Angels: Day 041

All creation gives thanks to God

All God’s works give thanks to him, the psalm says. How? St. Augustine asks. Not because stones and trees can speak, but because the perfectly ordered beauty of creation makes God’s intelligent creatures praise him.

“All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all thy saints shall bless thee!” (Ps. 145:10).

“All your works shall give thanks to you.” How will they give thanks? Isn’t the earth his work? Aren’t the trees his work? Cattle, animals, fish, birds—aren’t they his works? Of course they are. So how will they give thanks to him?

Certainly I can see how the angels give thanks to him. The angels are his works, and we are his works. When we give thanks to him, his works give thanks to him. But do trees and stones have a voice to give thanks? Yes, they certainly have: “All your works shall give thanks to you.”

Now, no one should think that speechless stones or animals have an intelli- gence that can comprehend God. Anyone who thinks this strays far from the truth. God has arranged everything and made everything: he has given sense and under- standing and immortality to some, such as the angels; to others he has given sense and understanding with mortality; and to some he has given neither sense, under- standing, nor immortality, such as plants, trees, and stones. But even these cannot be lacking in their kind, and by degrees he has ordered his creation, from Earth up to Heaven, from visible to invisible, from mortal to immortal. This framework of creation—this most perfectly ordered beauty—ascending from lowest to highest, descending from highest to lowest, never broken, but compounded of dissimilar things—all of it praises God.

Why does it all praise God? Because when you think about it, and see its beauty, in it you praise God. –St. Augustine, Exposition on Ps. 145, 13

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Have I taken time lately to enjoy the wonders of God’s creation—by a walk in the park, for example, or a look at the stars, or reading and thinking about the angels—and to praise God for it?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, I praise you for your creation, from the most glorious angels to the humblest and tiniest stones.

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