St. Michael's Lent 2026 - Reading #21 - Worship
Reading
What service do we owe God alone? Augustine names it latreia — and then maps altar, priest, and incense onto the baptized heart.
"To Him we owe the service which is called in Greek λατρεία, whether we render it outwardly or inwardly; for we are all His temple, each of us severally and all of us together, because He condescends to inhabit each individually and the whole harmonious body, being no greater in all than in each, since He is neither expanded nor divided. Our heart when it rises to Him is His altar; the priest who intercedes for us is His Only-begotten; we sacrifice to Him bleeding victims when we contend for His truth even unto blood; to Him we offer the sweetest incense when we come before Him burning with holy and pious love; to Him we devote and surrender ourselves and His gifts in us; to Him, by solemn feasts and on appointed days, we consecrate the memory of His benefits, lest through the lapse of time ungrateful oblivion should steal upon us; to Him we offer on the altar of our heart the sacrifice of humility and praise, kindled by the fire of burning love."
The grammar of temple worship becomes the grammar of a life.
Augustine continues, "It is that we may see Him, so far as He can be seen; it is that we may cleave to Him, that we are cleansed from all stain of sins and evil passions, and are consecrated in His name. For He is the fountain of our happiness, He the end of all our desires. Being attached to Him, or rather let me say, re-attached,--for we had detached ourselves and lost hold of Him,--being, I say, re-attached to Him, we tend towards Him by love, that we may rest in Him, and find our blessedness by attaining that end. For our good, about which philosophers have so keenly contended, is nothing else than to be united to God. It is, if I may say so, by spiritually embracing Him that the intellectual soul is filled and impregnated with true virtues. We are enjoined to love this good with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength. To this good we ought to be led by those who love us, and to lead those we love."
Lead those you love to this good.
Reflection
Today, on the feast of Our Lady's Nativity, notice where the charter lands: your house holds as many altars as it holds baptized hearts, and Sunday's church and Tuesday's dinner table are on the same continuum of worship. "To this good we ought to be led by those who love us, and to lead those we love." Loving your neighbor as yourself means doing all in your power to commend to him the love of God — and no neighbor stands nearer than the woman beside you and the children down the hall.
That is the father's priesthood of the home — real, though different in kind from the ordained. You cannot consecrate the Host. You can consecrate the evening.
Lead the prayer tonight, out loud, unembarrassed. Mary's whole life began, as yours did, in a small house where somebody prayed first.