The Praying Francis

(Part 3)

Let us praise and glorify God forever!

(The Praises Before the Office)

Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God Almighty,
who was, who is and who is coming.
R. Let us praise and glorify Him forever.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive
power and divinity and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing.
R. Let us praise and glorify Him forever.

Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.
R. Let us praise and glorify Him forever.

Praise our God, all you His servants, and you
     who fear Him, the small and the great.
R. Let us praise and glorify Him forever.

Praise Him in His glory, heaven and earth, and
every creature that is in heaven and on the
earth and under the earth, and such as are
on the seas and all that are in them.
R. Let us praise and glorify Him forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
R. Let us praise and glorify Him forever.

As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.  Amen.
R. Let us praise and glorify Him forever.

All-powerful, all-holy, most high and supreme God,
sovereign good, all good, every good,
You who alone are good, it is to You that we must give all praise,
all glory, all thanks, all honor, all blessing;
to You who must refer all good always.    Amen.   

St. Francis was a man who was always ready to praise the Lord.  He praised God in health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, in pain and in gratitude.

Praise was the fruit of his love, the lifting of his soul to God, the focusing of his mind, his heart, his very life on the things that are above.
      
A Christian, and even more so, a Franciscan, should always be ready to praise God.  St. Francis composed THE PRAISES BEFORE THE OFFICE to help himself and his followers to prepare their hearts to pray the Divine Office.  These PRAISES are rooted in Holy Scripture.  They flow out of the Seraphic Father’s exuberant penetration of the mysteries of God.  They can serve as a model for the praising prayer of every Franciscan.

THE PRAISES remind us that we are called even here on earth to sing the hymn of praise which resounds eternally in heaven before the throne of God and of the Lamb: