Living to Praise God, Being Who we Are Called to Be

[[ Hi Sister Laurel, what does the Catechism of the Catholic Church mean when it describes a hermit as one who lives to praise God (I know that's a kind of paraphrase, but I'm sure you know what I mean.)]]

Hi there! Yes, in speaking of hermits, the CCC says hermits live their eremitic lives for the praise of God and the salvation of the world. Everything c 603 outlines, demands, and calls for from such hermits is meant to lead them to become someone whose entire life praises God and witnesses to him in a way that can effectively lead others to life in, with, and through God. The life laid out in c 603 is meant to be redemptive for the hermit (this is a central quality that must be evident when dioceses discern such vocations), and to the extent this is so, it will be a life that praises God and leads others to praise him similarly (though likely not as hermits!). What I want to emphasize is that praise is not only something the hermit does (a specific form of prayer she expresses, for instance), but something (or, better, someone) she is. We are made to be truly human, to be truly and abundantly alive, and when we do that through the grace and Spirit of God, we become the very embodiment of Divine praise.

Augustine said it this way (you'll definitely recognize the last sentence): [[Nevertheless, to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.]] In this passage, Augustine identifies the deepest desire of our hearts (not a desire, but the desire, of the human person), as praising God. He then identifies this activity, this way of being, with being at rest in God. It is not a huge step from the realization that we are made to rest in God, to the realization that whenever we come to truly rest in God, we also become an act of praise for that One who is the very source and ground of our life and its telos or goal.

We desire one thing which we may describe in different ways. We desire God, above and before all else. We may recognize this as a yearning for abundant life, for meaning, for love and relationships, or belonging. We may identify this hunger as one for creativity, significant work, and the ability to assist and serve our brothers and sisters in this world. Or we may recognize a deep desire for happiness, for joy, for satisfaction, and the ability to give ourselves totally in spending ourselves for that which is truly meaningful. All of these are signs of our desire for God and the abundant life God gives us whenever God gives us (and we receive) Godself. To live out what God gives us is an act of praise.

We can see that when we do something well with a gift or talent, we recognize as God-given. If someone plays a Bach unaccompanied partita as well as one can, no matter how much work or time it has taken me to prepare such a performance, it is an act of praise to God --- and so is the work it took to get there! If a young child manages to tie her shoes for the first time, it is an act of praise. If an older person manages to walk up and down the hallway a few times despite painful arthritis, it is an act of Divine praise, especially if accompanied by a commitment to be oneself fully or by a feeling of gratitude for the gift of life, even life with significant limitations. So, in an even greater way, the act of living our lives well and being the persons we are called to be, is an act of praise. 

For the hermit, we certainly do spend time praising God in the sense of saying prayers of praise, but more importantly, the hermit chooses to live her life with God, toward union with God, and for the sake of all that is precious to God, for his Church, his kingdom, and the whole of his creation. She chooses to be God's own, as she and all of us are meant to be. She chooses to live as clearly and simply as she possibly can the truth of the Gospel, which means to be fully herself, here and now, at rest in God in Christ. In other words, she chooses to become the imago Christi she has been made to be and that makes of her life an act of great praise. Every person is called to this same vocation; hermits do it in a way that makes this plain because it is unobscured by active ministry or anything except a life of prayer, and the silence of solitude with, in, and through God alone.