 So living in wonderful New England last summer friends of mine came up to visit and we went up to New Hampshire And you're seeing a picture here from Canon Mountain and we were coming down the tram And I just took this beautiful picture and it just kind of doesn't it just make you want to go there, right? Is it beautiful right how good is you know, huh? Oh Lord my God when I am awesome wonder, right? Well, so my friends they have a they have a son who I think is like He's gonna be one of the great. He is he's like a blossoming theologian and evangelist in our country and He's amazing and when we were oh, that's a picture right there. That's his name's Andre Maybe we can show the next picture to Ready watch this one. How cute is that? That's Andre, so we're going down the tram in little Andre He sees like this beautiful view And he'd start singing randomly Our God is an awesome God. He rains from where did he get that right? I mean out of all the babes, right, but it says it does see my word my voice changing it does say That funny, okay It does speak a truth though, right reveal something profound about who we are that we are created for worship And this in in his innocence. He's just moved to sing well really funny so later on we're at the what's called the flume gorge and I had I had separated from them I was with my uncle and my godson and we were just a little late and the vretz they got up they have a Contingent kid so they were just a little you know kid check-in time do what they need to do, you know So I hear this story afterwards. So we happen to pick the week. It was really funny the week in which These this community of Hasidic Jews were descending upon New Hampshire and everywhere we went they were there It was wonderful. It was wonderful. So Families taking a breather gather themselves up and a family of Hasidic Jews starts walking by and at the same exact moment a Family of Muslims walks by Muslims Jews Muslims Jews what is a little Andre stock to do ready wasn't even rehearsed it wasn't out of nowhere We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year You can't make it up that really happened. That's true okay, so I Want to show you picture my parents dog. This is Rocco We see a picture of Rocco. There's Rocco. Isn't he cute? He's the cutest face, huh? So my mom mom mom has some disabilities my mom's been a daily communicant from many many many many many years and so Certain times during the week when she can't get a ride to mass I'll come and celebrate mass for my mom and so it's just me and my mom having mass with Rocco and We have this routine every time I come in the door He comes running up and he greets me and he's so excited and then he runs into the room And then he just starts eating his treat dog treats cookies, whatever fine He finishes his retreats. I kid you not and at this point as he's finishing his treats I've set up the altar and we're ready to go the dog sits at the foot of the altar and just stares at me with that face now I'm like Lord like It's really hard to pray with this cuteness looking at me You know I'm saying like I got to concentrate Do you know what it's like like trying to like my mom's doing the readings to not look at the dog? Cuz he's just staring at me like I love you. I love you, you know, okay So my mom's made this comment one time and it's really funny. She said, you know Matt I Think Rocco's been to more masses than most Catholics and I laughed and I said ma I think you're right. I Think he has But here's the thing and this is what's kind of interesting. So like for the liturgy It's like clockwork the liturgy of the word He's he's all into it and he's focused, but then when we transition to the liturgy Eucharist I don't know what it is But he leaves the floor and he jumps up to the couch and he gets into a ball and he sleeps Like during the legion the Eucharist You know it's almost like he's listening attentively and then he goes like rest in the Lord, you know that kind of thing With that being said though with that being said as as I said earlier, you know Rocco's been to more masses than most Catholics Yet, I've never seen him make the sign of the cross once When I say the Lord be with you he doesn't say and with your spirit like he doesn't respond He hasn't figured out like how to worship yet cuz he's a dog And dogs are not created for worship, but guess what we are amen We are created for worship. We are created for worship. It's how God has created us to love him We are created to worship God with all of our mind heart soul and body We're created for worship and if we don't worship the one true God, we will worship other things We will worship false idols. That's true. You're created for worship. So if you're not worshiping Jesus, you're gonna worship something else That's true. It's true for everyone. It's true. You're created for worship. You're created for worship When we worship God We make a sacrifice because every act of worship involves a sacrifice Ancient Israel temple worship involved a sacrifice even even in the pagan cults worship invited and involved sacrifice At the heart of every mass. There's a sacrifice. Jesus offers His very life for us in the holy Eucharist his cross is made present in every mass. So worship entails sacrifice worship is always a sacrifice and offering of Our hearts of our wills of our lives of our soul of everything of who we are to love himself That's worship and when we worship God we are awakened When we worship God, we're awakened to truth. Remember we talked about truth this morning We're awakened to truth the truth of who God is and who we are as his beloved children that inheritance that we heard Debbie speak about we're awakened to the truth of who God is and who we are We're awakened to the truth about God's power and his purposes for our lives When we worship God, we start to get into the river of the Holy Spirit and we start to experience and taste that which I has not seen and ear has not heard and neither has it entered into the heart of Man what God has prepared for those who love him and we start to get into that flow of the Holy Spirit Where we say it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and we allow God to live his life in us amen That's the worship that we're called to every day You're not called to worship God one conference to the next or one Sunday to the next We are called to be a worshiping people every day Every day every day. We're invited for worship. Amen every day. You and I are called to worship The church affirms us in the liturgy of the hours in the liturgy of the hours the office of readings morning prayer Daytime prayer evening prayer night prayer in the liturgy of the hours. It's so that we pray without ceasing Priests make promises consecrated persons make promises deacons make promises to pray the liturgy hours faithfully Worshiping God and for the body of Christ the church in the world We're to be a worshiping people. We have to write that in to our system If you were to ask me what's the problem and so we could go on for hours about problems So I don't want to say like this is the the problem But a significant problem among disciples that I see Which I guess maybe begs the question of your disciple. They don't pray enough This is what I I see good people like the top 10 percenters of your parish and they don't have a daily prayer life They don't worship God. They don't seek to become a sacrifice when they pray giving God their heart now This is hard stuff. I understand. It's hard to kind of leap in and give God your heart But like ultimately that's what we got to be heading or also We're gonna be stagnant in our prayer and we're gonna be stagnant in our call to discipleship Worship involves a sacrifice and ultimately It's about giving him our lives our hearts everything of who we are becoming one with his divine will You were created for such a time as these look at your fingerprints real quick for a second I want you to look at your fingerprints for a second. Okay So how many people in the world today Seven point Something billion maybe seven point five billion people in the world today Do you know that no two people have the same fingerprints? Do you know that? No two people have to say even identical twins. You do not have same single same fingerprints. It's really true 7.5 billion people and you're looking at a one-of-a-kind set of fingerprints You know what that makes you it makes you unique You are unique. There's no one like you There's no one like you you are a unique masterpiece that comes from the heart of a master creator And the reality is because we don't believe in incarnation reincarnation There never has been and there never will be another you. You know what that makes you? Unrepeatable Each and every one of you is a unique Unrepeatable masterpiece Gift from the heart of a master creator. Can I get an amen? That's really true unique Unrepeatable masterpiece gift gifts are meant to be given away Our hands are symbolic of our service of our lives of our of our work, right? Hands are so important. They're so symbolic of giving of offering So in the history of the world God could have created you and I could have created us to live in 1808 He could have created us to live in the year 1016. He could have created us to live in the year 2515 he created us for some reason in God's wise and loving providence He created you and I to live right now, which means this if you're a unique Unrepeatable masterpiece that means that the God of the universe has a unique Unrepeatable plan master plan that only you can fulfill Get busy, which means You were created for such a time as these That comes from the book of Esther You were created for such a time as this You were created for greatness. I love the way Greatnesses is is uh, what's the word? I want to use Defined couldn't have a blank moment there. I love the way greatness is defined by Jesus to St. Faustina and her diary in this is greatness for God love of God and humility God says you want to be great love God and be humble which makes complete sense Because if you're loving God and being humble, you're saying yes, let it be done unto me It makes complete sense because God knows what he's created you for and so our job is to say yes to him Right, and so if we love in God and worshiping him and we're humble We're gonna allow him to live his life in us because that's ultimately what being a Christian is about Mary is the ultimate. She's the God bear right the word became flesh in her womb But each and every one of us who have been born again by water and in the in the By water and baptism right who have been born again Christ lives in us unless we've committed mortal sin We got to go to confession But Christ lives in us and we are God bearers in a similar way and we're called to bring Christ forth into the world Will we allow Jesus to live his life in us This is a question of discipleship. Will we allow Jesus to live his life in us? And I'm telling you right now. It's really hard to do it if you're not praying It's really hard to do it if you're not worshiping God. It's hard to do it if you're not fasting Worship is essential. It's essential to allowing God to live his life in you Bishop Baron puts it this way He talks about the field drama versus the ego drama, right and the ego drama is like hey Guess what? I've produced this play. I'm directing this play and guess what? I'm starring in it Right ego drama. It's about the trinity me myself and I that's I use I use that that's not Bishop Baron He wouldn't say it like that Right, but it's all about me and think about that in in in our Facebook culture, right? I mean it's all about your profiles and your status and look at we're so narcissistic Oh my word. It's all about me by Sophie, right? Okay And Baron says this Bishop Baron says he says you know what the ego drama gets boring after a while And that's really true because you're creating your own adventure and your own ventures get boring sometimes That's why I was kind of keep looking for something else you're looking for the next love that's gonna make you happy, right? But like he's saying when you enter into the field drama in other words like we want God to live his life in us It's so exciting because you like encounter women at the jelly isle and like God gives you a chance to do something really cool, right? I've passed by many women at the jelly. I'll believe me But the question is Will we allow Christ to live his life in us? That's the truth and I love the the the St. Paul Galatians 2 20 he says I have been crucified with Christ and the life I live is not my own Christ lives in me and The life I live is the life of faith and the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me He's that's a mystical statement there. It's it's about baptism and it's mystical He had this profound sense and he lived it this profound sense that he's died with Christ in baptism and Christ lives in him That's what we're called to that's what this field drama is all about Sometimes we can feel though that our mission is a mission impossible when we think of the chaos of our work The chaos of family life sometimes Chaos of the neighborhood of the wider family the political situation the country the world. We're like Like what am I supposed to do it so hard to be Christian in all these places and never mind? I was gonna say like we walk into these places that are like because if we're called to be awakened, right? They're all spiritual drowsy. They're in a coma. They're not drowsy most of them. They're in a coma Now here's the thing Disciples of Jesus if you Where's my voice going tonight? Stop it if you're walking into those arenas those coma zones. I like that get it coma zone Like that's pretty good Coma zones if you're coming into those coma zones. I like that spiritually drowsy yourself That arena that zone does not have the ability to wake you up So you're gonna start heading into coma. You got to go into work. You got to go into your families You got to go into your community society clothes equipped awake Or else you're gonna fall victim to the drowsiness of the culture So often We might go to work looking for work to affirm us and to build us up The reality is you can't give what you don't have and if the workplace isn't a holy environment And you're not going there awake You're gonna get swallowed alive But if you're clothed in glory If you're clothed in the praises of God in worshiping him if you're going into work awake You then stand the chance to be a profound light of Christ into the darkness But you'll never be able to give what you don't have and if you're not worshiping God with all of your mind heart And so if you're not seeking him in worship daily worship and giving him your heart in your life You are not gonna have an impact. You'll be no threat to the devil. I'll say that again You'll be no threat to the devil. You'll be no threat to the devil But this is the hour for the church to wake up This is the hour for disciples to worship to seek God in worship to fast To be a threat to the devil You know You can work with anthrax if you're clothed properly for it. I know that's an extreme example, but it's true But if you're not clothed with it, it'll kill you If you're clothed with the praise of God in worship If you've been worshiping the living God and you are allowing that spirit to live And you know where you can be affirmed and strengthened Then you can walk into those situations and you're not looking those situations to affirm you or to build you up Because you know who's you are and who you are. You know God's power purpose of your life and you're going in there To change lives because you're on a mission from God. You're there to bring Christ into that situation So don't look for these environments these coma zones don't look for them To be a blessing into your life if they're not made to be that way or if they're not transformed You go to Jesus for that you go to your peer communities for that you go to your spiritual directors for that You go to your priests for that you go to worshiping Christian, you know Christians will gather in a community your peers You go to them for that You get built up by the community you get built up by by praising God by seeking Jesus And then you go into these places awakened So that you can be a threat to the devil amen To understand what worship involves. I want to look at the mass Because the mass gives us the most beautiful Paradigm example of what worship is the sacrifice of the mass So you might have heard the story out of Poland of a Eucharistic miracle In year 2013 during Christmas Parish church in Poland, I forget what the name of the town was they're celebrating holy mass and it's commune time and one of the hosts fell to the ground The pastor being a good and holy pastor picked up the host and he put it into a Vessel filled with water so that Eucharist could dissolve so they can be poured into this aquarium and then properly dispose of that's how we That's how we dispose of in a holy and venerable way the holy Eucharist when things like falling in the ground happens When father came back a period of time later he noticed there were blood spots on the host and something had happened it had changed in appearance So immediately he starts working with church people and science people to start looking at what is going on here What is going on here? What happened to this host? The medical community said this the final medical statement by the Department of Forensic Medicine found This is the quote in the correct me if I say this wrong histopathological image The fragments were found containing the fragmented parts of the cross-straighted muscle Guess that's part of the heart It is most similar to the heart muscle Okay, then listen to this line Tests also determined the tissue to be of human origin notice. It wasn't from a duck or a squirrel Or a sequora, whatever you call those flying bug things It's a key to that one. Yeah Test determined the tissue to be of human origin ready. This this is this is the kicker right here and found that it bore signs of distress What's one of the words for mass the way we refer to mass the holy what? sacrifice of the mass So God gives us these wonderful miracles. I think to affirm us in our faith You know what this says to me? You can show the next slide You know what this says to me that every mass Jesus gives us his heart that Eucharist that became heart tissue That was distressed Every mass God comes And he gives us his heart out of all the gifts that God could ever give us There's no greater gift to give us than his son Jesus and there's no greater gift that Jesus give us than his very heart every mass Now let's step back for a second on the cross Jesus sacrifice He offered his entire self to the father for the salvation of the world. That was the most perfect act of worship He offered his heart and in the mass that heart is made present for us sacramentally Brothers sisters to worship is to give your heart to Jesus And nothing less Does he have your heart when we come to mass? Do we give him our hearts? When we come to pray when we worship God Do we offer a gift of our hearts of our lives to Lord as he does for us? and when that heart to heart giving and receiving happens We have holy communion We have holy communion During the offertory we bring forth gifts of bread and wine bread, which is The work of human hands the wine the work of human hands, right? But the bread the wheat the wine the grape ultimately these are fruits of the earth Father Barron even talks about this and he says, you know just consider this right that you know the fruits of the earth the the wheat and the the grape The four basic elements of creation are involved in bringing those about earth ear fire water Earth ear fire water all of those are involved to help bring about fruit the grain The grape which then through the work of human hands become bread and wine So Barron says this Bishop Barron says this that at every offertory The church is bringing the cosmos all of creation to the altar as gift to the ultimate gift giver and Tightened to that is you and me our hearts our lives that Offatory is not just a warm fuzzy for you to put your money in the collection basket That offertory is symbolic of a truth that you are called to be sacrificial You're called to give your life and your heart to Jesus on the holy altar a heart to heart giving and receiving That bread and wine Represent us bringing the cosmos as an offering to the gift giver the creator of the universe. That's really true. That's really true The pagan world takes those very things and worships them And if we're honest in our own struggles We probably find fruits of those things and we probably worship them as well when you're not on your ray game as a Christian We call that idolatry We call that idolatry. We're called to make an offering We'll call to make an offering. I want to show this quote from the Catechism in the catacombs The church is often represented as a woman in prayer Arms outstretched in the praying position. Is that not an offering position or what? How about this like when little children come running to the to the arms of mommy and daddy, right mama daddy? Surrender offering or stick them up or I'll shoot or praise and worship offering ridden into our earliest days is this reality of an offering of ourselves Like Christ who stretched out his arms on the cross threw him with him and in him She offers herself and intercedes for all. Do you know how you catch a monkey? Like what what's where did that come from? What's that? So the story and how you catch a monkey you do this You take a coconut and You put a hole in it and you affix it to like a tree or something So it's like permanently fixed there and you put a banana inside But the banana is you put it in there yet the hole is is small enough So you get the banana in and so the monkey get its hand in but when the monkey grabs the banana it can't get its fist out or the banana out and They say I've never done this at home. So I don't have like personal accounts for you, but they say That the monkey won't let go of the banana. And so you catch a monkey Get it You're not following me people. Hello Bananas, what are you holding on to? What are you worshiping? What am I worshiping? What are we holding on to when you come to mass you lay down your idols to Worship the true God you sacrifice your idols to the true God We give him our idols our fear our shame our sin Those things that we're holding on to anger pride anger lust envy gluttony avrasloth You name it. We give him our idols. We give them our sin We offer it the things were attached to because ultimately when we worship God and we offer We're supposed to like it's becoming detached of those idols the bananas, baby Let go of the banana So I want to read I love catechism quote 2097 It says this the worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on himself from the slavery of sin and the Idolatry of the world I'll say it again the worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on himself from the slavery of sin and that idolatry of the world Brothers sisters worship is so important. It brings us out of ourselves that there is a God and it's not me case you didn't know Right, but it orders our right Bishop Banner talks about right praise When we're not when we're not worshiping God and putting him first our worship gets off our praise gets off But when we start worshiping God We put him forth as our spiritual compass our north star and order everything else accordingly We come out of ourselves. God starts to shake us up if you will or our worship aligns ourselves with heaven and those the chains fall off Worship helps us to order and set ourselves on what is true Good beautiful It helps us to set our focus on on ourselves, but on God and his purposes. I Couldn't help but think of acts 16 verse 25 and 26 So Paul and Silas they're in prison and they're they're out their feet are in stocks And it says this it says but about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and they were singing hymns to God So they were worshiping They're worshiping get it. They were worshiping They weren't allowing the facts to dictate their circumstances They were trusting in truth and they were worshiping God and praying for God to do something So in the midst of their imprisonment in the midst of their chaos and pain and disappointment and confusion and frustration And maybe despair, I don't know Or the temptation to it They stopped praying and worshiping God And the other prisoners looked on they're like what? So as they're praying and singing hymns to Lord, so they're worshiping God. What happens and suddenly? There was a great earthquake So that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were Unfastened you get it when you worship God you get out of yourself You break away from the things that bind you and hold you down We break away from the lies that you're not good enough. You're not smart enough. You're too fat You're too thin you're this you're that you're not worthy. You're not honorable. You're not beautiful You're not worth fighting for you don't know where it takes to be a man all those lies all that junk all that Sin it weighs us down and we we just we start to think this is our identity and we don't live we live We fall asleep entering into the coma zone. I'm gonna use that in the future by the way It really happens, but what does worship do it starts to wake us up to the truth of who God is Who we so worship? Thank you. It's so important You got to make time for worship every day every day Every day because it shakes the chains of slavery in the old man away And helps us to live in the new light of Christ Amen, that's what we need to seek. It helps us to awake Helps us to awake Okay now I Want to shift a little bit to another aspect of worship Not only does worship Shake the chains away and awakens us Now that we're awake Now that we're awake We can enter into the inner room And make a true sincere gift of love to ourselves of ourselves to our Savior We are at a power and purpose conference number people went through the life in the spirit seminar today, which is wonderful How many people went through the life spirit of today? That awesome. All right. Good job That's wonderful And for those who have been in the who have been involved in in the life and spirit ministries and charismatic renewal and all Stuff like so like we're all familiar with being in the upper room, right? The upper room is that place where we're all there We're praising God and we're asking for his gifts Lord. Just give me the gifts that I need Lord, just give me the gifts that I need Lord. Just give if I just have this Jesus I could do this if I could just have this I could do this if I just have this Jesus. Just give me the gifts, okay? Stop stop stop so once you've been in the life in the spirit. Guess what you got the gifts What you need to do Is go from the upper room To the inner room because it's in the inner room where the week I made strong It's in the inner room where the gifts are fortified. It's in the inner room That you become one with the Savior and you live this reality that is no longer he I that lives But it is Christ who lives in me So if you've been prayed with for the baptism the spirit all that stuff Don't get me wrong. Please ask for God gifts. God's a generous giver But I want to balance it Just maybe you've got the gifts but now you got to focus on the inner room You need to worship God and seek his face and really give your life over to him in prayer every day And it's in that worship of God that we are strengthened We are strengthened. He empowers us so that we can walk boldly in the gifts. He already gave us a pentecost It's really true upper room to the inner room Upper room to the inner room It's all about becoming a gift of self. So I so I've been a priest 13 years And uh, as you know, I said earlier, right? We make promises to pray the liturgy hours and and uh, and I take that promise very seriously But I'm gonna tell you something for uh, so I'm ordained 13 years I'm gonna say for the for the first 10 years of my life. Okay. I Struggled to pray the liturgy the hours. So like in my holy hour in the mornings, right? I would always make it the last thing that I do because I because like I have my prayers that I want I I love just kind of sitting in God's word and all that kind of stuff And I just love doing that right and and then I so I would like spend, you know So much time in that and then oh, I gotta do the hours now. Okay. Yeah, and it's just like, you know Starting with dessert, right and then and then eat your broccoli, right? You know that kind of thing You know, I mean not that I didn't try. I mean I I prayed with sincerity, but I just my approach was The scripture really feeds me that personal reflection That other stuff doesn't really feed me and so I just put you off to the end and then just just get it done Faithfully, but just get it done The lord god, he's so so merciful so merciful so merciful He gave me this profound insight into praying the brievery and uh, and I want to share it with you And that's because it's and this is why this is where this talk comes out of and it's this it's like Matt, maybe the liturgy hours isn't really about You but it's really about an opportunity to give yourself as a gift of love to me Because like the psalms the hymns right and and so many of them are are hymns of love and of praise And so like it's just this whole thing that like the liturgy of the hours Like it's an opportunity for me to give god a gift And I'll be honest so so then like just flip that then maybe sometimes my prayer can be a little self-serving now granted I don't want to go to extremes here and I don't over generalize, okay Like if the prayer is always about me me me me me right and and reflecting on the scriptures that Touch me not negative. That's lexative. You know, it's all wonderful things right but A relationship is two way There's a giving and receiving it's both and it's not just about receiving it's about giving offering a gift Jesus loves to be loved He really does God loves to be loved and I would add this If we think about this life in the holy spirit right life in the holy spirit We say god the trinity is an eternal communion of love an eternal exchange of love, right? And as we heard earlier right the holy spirit the love Shared between father and son eternally shared right so really if if we're called to a life in the spirit God's an eternal exchange of love and the spirit is love between then you and I a life in the spirit Is a life in the heart of the trinity? It's a life in the heart of the blessed trinity Like we're like getting tossed around like the father's like oh, I love you so much And she's like no no send him back here. Send him back here like oh, I love so much. No, send him back Right, and they're sharing this. I'm in there. You're in there Like we're getting cheap. We're on Jesus's lap right now and the father's like no no I want mad over here like okay. I'll let him share over here But think about this a life in the spirit, right? If the spirit is the love between father and son my life I need to spend more time in heaven And so prayer is receiving and giving Right, it's receiving and giving it's a because the eternal The the trinity is the eternal gift and reception of gift right the father loves the son the son receives and Loves the father back. It's it's gift given and received. That's what our prayer ought to be That's what worship is gift given gift received gift given gift received So worship is about gift given and Jesus is so generous. He never gets outdone in generosity when you give gifts Jesus gives you back more than you could ever imagine Upper room to inner room power purpose identity who you are who god is holy spirit come It's like you now enter into the song of songs You enter into the song of songs Do you know that like for the mystics the mystics like they write most about the song of songs They live in the song of songs Have you even you even know if no there was a song of songs You know the our song of Solomon right the mystics they live there because this is beautiful romantic love story The lord loves us like a lover. He's the bridegroom He's the bridegroom the ultimate gift of himself on the cross Do we receive that gift and we're invited in many ways to enter into that Into that intimate union with christ I love the word the the The anecdote of breaking open the word defining the word intimacy right intimacy into me see Into me see that's intimacy right if you think about it right intimacy with god is We're allowing god into me see i'm allowing him to see now. He's the god of the university does that anyways, right? But i'm i'm opening that up to him And he does the same His pierced heart open wide for all of us In to me The worship of god So it's like the story of of that that couple that's been married, you know 60 years 50 years say 50 years And then take him along drive and she's all the way by the door and he's driving He's all by the other door and she's saying oh do you remember the days we used to take the drives and they were so wonderful He's like oh, yeah, he's like remember how we used to be so close and i used to hold you and he's like Yeah, she's like what happened to those days. He's like honey. I never moved So all the married folks laughed and all the like the single people like, huh? But that's what sin does right that's what shame and guilt and our stuff Does it moves us away from the god never moves? It moves us away from him right worship Brings us back shakes that stuff down and then brings us into that embrace with our god I want to show you a video so I just just a little quick video So we you know marriage right this beautiful sacrament of marriage is is meant to point us to the ultimate marriage feast of heaven It points us to to christ's love for his church and that that embrace that we're invited to with our god, right? It's a sacramental sign pointing us to this reality of becoming one with our god So I celebrated a wedding a couple of years ago and uh at the wedding reception Collin gets up there and gets his guitar and sings this song to his bride. I just want you to just want you to uh Watch this video If you need me So after he's sang that song we were probably halfway through I was like, can we just leave and let them be alone like let's just get out of here, you know It was really funny was this kind of like, you know all the women are like and all the guys like i'm in trouble So this is a really another true story. Okay, really true story I was on my uh, my annual priest retreat. This is about two years ago And uh, it was a silent directive retreat and the silent directed Ignatian style You get priest, you know, your spirit director gives you scriptures to reflect on until you go off and you have so many prayer hours And then you report back the next day, right? So um, and you're supposed to like you pray the scriptures you just imagine a prayer contemplation Um, black suit divina, you know, however, the holy spirit moves you to to pray with the scriptures So I kid you not at some point during the week. I start praying And uh, I pray it all week. Don't get me wrong. But some week I as I open my holy hour and I'm entering in And I hear callan singing And i'm like calling Get out of my retreat It's like leave me alone, right and he keeps singing and singing and over and it won't stop And i'm like, all right, stop it. Stop it. Be quiet. Stop it. You know, i'm trying to pray, you know So then holy spirit kicks in Jesus is singing that to me and I listened to it probably about a hundred times The longer version the longer mat. Well, I had him but I went quick over the the longer version Because he only got a minute there and people going by in the video is kind of annoying, you know um But it was just this profound reality of how much jesus loves me desires me to be Best friends wants to be my everything And that's worship That brings us into holy communion And if you think of the mass We go from the sacrifice of the mass to holy communion And these outline these two things the sacrifice and communion Really kind of shape what worship is all about We sacrifice we give him our hearts and our worlds because it's hard to do that. That's hard. That's hard stuff But it's so important We're set free like the the change break we start to awake And then he brings us into his heart and you know what the again He never moves the reason why we're afraid to go to that heart is because we're looking in the mirror And we're like I can't go there. I'm not worthy And guess what you know one is He makes you worthy. He desires you He desires us even in my unloveliness if I were to use that He desires all of us when he says come to me all of you Think about that in the singular all of you in other words. Don't just bring your good stuff bring all of you to me That's what he's inviting us to He desires you He desires you And when you can I and I can enter into that embrace and that worship We get a whole new perspective We are awakened And then we can go into those comasomes As a new creation in christ That's the power of worship. That's what our god is inviting us to We begin to drink deeply of the holy spirit the new wine of the holy spirit We start to experience what I has not seen and ear has not heard and is neither entered into the human heart What god has prepared for those who love him. We start to drink deeply of the spirit We start to experience the things of heaven. We enter into self-forgetfulness Self-forgetfulness. It's not about me. It's not about me self-forgetfulness So brothers and sisters The father desires worshipers He desires worshipers the father desires worshipers Will you make a commitment to worship god every day? To give him your heart in prayer to offer him your life To go there The movements of the mass provide wonderful ways for worship every single day First and foremost is the sacrificial gift of self hymns of praise spiritual songs repentance scripture abiding in the scripture Contemplation becoming one with god the components of the mass Become wonderful ways by which we can worship god every single day Certainly going to mass every day is a wonderful thing, but not everybody can get there We're created for worship We're created for worship And now is the time for the church to awake brothers and sisters god is creating you for such a time as these amen He's creating you for such a time of these as these and it's time to awake It's time to awake to the theodrama time to awake to the truth of who god is and who you are It's time to wake to the truth of god's purposes and power for your life And it begins with worship Let's stand and worship god