aiming to please him
"Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, You are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak." —Psalm 104:1-2
Because we love the Lord, we want to please Him. Therefore, we must find out what pleases Him. "Blessed are we...for what pleases God" can be known to us (Bar 4:4). We find out what pleases the Lord by knowing Him through His creation and other revelations.
When the Lord created the world, He changed "a formless wasteland" into a well-ordered, beautiful paradise (see Gn 1:1ff). God is a God of order (see 1 Cor 14:33). Therefore, He is pleased with order in our lives.
The first thing the Lord created was light (Gn 1:3). Moreover, on the fourth day of creation, the Lord created the "lights in the dome of the sky" (Gn 1:14). The Lord is our Light (Ps 27:1; Jn 8:12). He is pleased when we reflect His light and become the light of the world (Mt 5:14).
On the third day of creation, the Lord created "every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it" (Gn 1:12). The Lord's first words to newly-created man were: "Be fertile and multiply" (Gn 1:28). God is a God of fruitfulness. To please Him, we must bear the fruit of holiness (see Gal 5:22) and evangelization.
"Put your house in order" (Is 38:1). Let your light shine. "Bear fruit abundantly" (Jn 15:5, our transl). Be pleasing to God (Ps 104:34).
Prayer: Father, by Your grace may I perfectly please You.
Promise: "They laid the sick in the market places and begged Him to let them touch just the tassel of His cloak. All who touched Him got well." —Mk 6:56
Praise: St. Scholastica's soul appeared as a dove to her brother Benedict, a dove flying home to heaven.
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, August 1, 2002
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, August 7, 2002