{"id":1222,"date":"2014-11-02T14:48:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T19:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/?p=1222"},"modified":"2014-12-23T20:53:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T01:53:31","slug":"in-search-of-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"In Search of Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On All Soul\u2019s Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us \u2013 those upon whose shoulders we stand.<\/p>\n

Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very reason that we are able to journey just a little bit further from where we started \u2013 whether\u00a0in the fields of science, mathematics, philosophy, music, or theology.<\/p>\n

Without their courageous exploration, their sense of curiosity, their scientific experimentation, their\u00a0life-affirming passion, our lives today would be very different. Perhaps, even,\u00a0non-existent.<\/p>\n

Today is also a day that we take a few moments to acknowledge and\u00a0praise the One who loved us \u2013 and our\u00a0departed \u2013 <\/em>into existence.<\/p>\n

Everything that we see, touch, experience, and\u00a0love flows directly from one source \u2013 the same source our\u00a0ancestors drew upon.<\/p>\n

And so we recall the 23rd Psalm, perhaps the most beloved\u00a0of all of the Psalms:<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. <\/span><\/p>\n

He makes me lie down in green pastures;\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n

He leads me beside still waters;
<\/span><\/p>\n

He restores my soul. He leads me in\u00a0right\u00a0paths For His Name\u2019s sake.
<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil;
<\/span><\/p>\n

For you are with me;
<\/span><\/p>\n

Your rod and Your staff \u2013 they comfort me.
<\/span><\/p>\n

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, <\/span><\/p>\n

You anoint my head with oil; <\/span><\/p>\n

My cup overflows.
<\/span><\/p>\n

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life. <\/span><\/p>\n

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord My whole\u00a0life long.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Psalms, all of them, are words of praise and of adoration. Words of praise and adoration just\u00a0might be the key to our opening \u2013 and\u00a0maintaining \u2013 a relationship with the Divine.<\/p>\n

Our prayers sometimes feel as if they bounce off the ceiling. Perhaps it\u2019s because they all too often become\u00a0an exercise in asking for things<\/em> \u2013 whether of the material or the physical kind. An ever-growing\u00a0wish list <\/em>of\u00a0the things that we desperately\u00a0want<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We may have\u00a0forgotten what our dear departed perhaps better understood: praise and adoration\u00a0can provide the wings upon which our words take flight.<\/p>\n

Thomas Merton touched upon some of these very thoughts in his book\u00a0Praying the Psalms<\/em><\/a>:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Praise is cheap today. Everything is praised. Soap, beer, toothpaste, clothing, mouthwash, movie stars all the latest gadgets which are supposed to make life more comfortable \u2013 everything is constantly being \u2018praised.\u2019 Praise is now so overdone that everybody is sick of it, and since everything is \u2018praised\u2019 with the official hollow enthusiasm of the radio announcer, it turns out in the end that nothing is praised. Praise has become empty. Nobody really wants to use it.<\/p>\n

Are there any superlatives left for God? They have all been wasted on foods and quack medicines. There is no word left to express our adoration of Him who alone is Holy, who alone is Lord.<\/p>\n

So we go to Him to ask help and to get out of being punished, and to mumble that we need a better job, more money, more of the things that are praised by the advertisements. And we wonder why our prayer is so often dead \u2013 gaining its only life, borrowing its only urgency from the fact that we need these things so badly.<\/p>\n

But we do not really think we need God. Least of all do we think we need to praise him.<\/p>\n

It is quite possible that our lack of interest in the Psalms conceals a secret lack of interest in God. For if we have no real interest in praising Him, it shows that we have never realized who He is.<\/p>\n

For when one becomes conscious of who God really is, and when one realized that He who is Almighty, and infinitely Holy, has \u2018done great things to us,\u2019 the only possible reaction is the cry of half-articulate exultation that bursts from the depths of our being in amazement at the tremendous, inexplicable goodness of God to men.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thoughtful words, truly. Do we really know who God is? From deep within our very souls?<\/p>\n

I know that I have a long way to go. I\u2019ve noticed that I pray for\u00a0my needs always. I pray for my desires often.\u00a0I pray for my will to be in line with God\u2019s will sometimes. But I pray\u00a0shouting thanks and praise almost never.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s time for a new outlook \u2013 a\u00a0fresh start.<\/p>\n

Today just may be\u00a0the perfect day for me to try.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/p>\n

Acknowledgement for the Merton material used here: Philip Rushton<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On All Soul\u2019s Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us \u2013 those upon whose shoulders we stand. Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very reason that we are able to journey just a little bit further from where we started \u2013 whether\u00a0in the fields of science, mathematics, philosophy, music, or theology. Without their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1976,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Search of Praise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On All Soul's Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us - those upon whose shoulders we stand. Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Search of Praise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On All Soul's Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us - those upon whose shoulders we stand. Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grace Pending\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-02T19:48:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-24T01:53:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Zampino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Zampino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/\",\"name\":\"In Search of Praise\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-02T19:48:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-24T01:53:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#\/schema\/person\/59d96d1b788f2ef8f59caf1e224b1cd7\"},\"description\":\"On All Soul's Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us - those upon whose shoulders we stand. Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In Search of Praise\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/\",\"name\":\"Grace Pending\",\"description\":\"Verso L'alto\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#\/schema\/person\/59d96d1b788f2ef8f59caf1e224b1cd7\",\"name\":\"Tom Zampino\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de015d84c828f685f4f9ff8d90e60e5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de015d84c828f685f4f9ff8d90e60e5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tom Zampino\"},\"description\":\"Tom Zampino is an attorney in private practice in New York City who makes his home on Long Island. He and his beautiful and accomplished wife have raised two fantastic daughters, four cats, two dogs, and various other domesticated creatures over the past three decades.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/author\/tzampino\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In Search of Praise","description":"On All Soul's Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us - those upon whose shoulders we stand. Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In Search of Praise","og_description":"On All Soul's Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us - those upon whose shoulders we stand. Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/","og_site_name":"Grace Pending","article_published_time":"2014-11-02T19:48:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-24T01:53:31+00:00","author":"Tom Zampino","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Zampino","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/","name":"In Search of Praise","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-11-02T19:48:34+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-24T01:53:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#\/schema\/person\/59d96d1b788f2ef8f59caf1e224b1cd7"},"description":"On All Soul's Day each year, we remember those who have departed this earth before us - those upon whose shoulders we stand. Their existence\u00a0is the\u00a0very","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2014\/11\/in-search-of-praise\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In Search of Praise"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/","name":"Grace Pending","description":"Verso L'alto","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#\/schema\/person\/59d96d1b788f2ef8f59caf1e224b1cd7","name":"Tom Zampino","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de015d84c828f685f4f9ff8d90e60e5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de015d84c828f685f4f9ff8d90e60e5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tom Zampino"},"description":"Tom Zampino is an attorney in private practice in New York City who makes his home on Long Island. He and his beautiful and accomplished wife have raised two fantastic daughters, four cats, two dogs, and various other domesticated creatures over the past three decades.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/author\/tzampino\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}