Almighty ever-living God, Whose will is to restore all things in Your beloved Son, the King of the universe, grant, we pray, that the whole creation, set free from slavery, may render Your Majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim Your praise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Whose will is to restore all things in Your beloved Son – You are already being restored in Christ. When you were baptized, you sacramentally entered into His death and rose with Him in His resurrection. You received His sanctifying grace, God's indwelling presence in your very soul. Even when you sin and weaken or even destroy your relationship with God, He restores that relationship when you turn back to Him, repenting and confessing your sins. Someday, at the end of time, God will fully restore all things in Christ. He will raise up our bodies and join them to our resurrected souls, and He will recreate a new Heaven and a new earth to be our home forever.
the King of the universe – Jesus Christ is King of all, of every time and every place, of all peoples, of the entire universe. What's more, He wants to be the King of your heart. Will you let Him?
the whole creation, set free from slavery – In Romans 8:19-23, St. Paul writes, “For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” When the first human beings sinned, creation fell along with them. This is why there are things like natural disasters and diseases. Now creation awaits its own restoration to freedom at the Second Coming of Christ, groaning with us as we wait for the final incorporation of all things into God. Of course, we have already been set free from slavery to sin and death, but we must choose to accept and live out our freedom.
may render Your Majesty service – We are called to serve God, to place our lives in His hands and obey His will, to love Him with all our hearts and to love our neighbor in Him. How well do we serve our loving Lord?
ceaselessly proclaim Your praise – We are also called to worship God. Indeed, this is part of our service to Him. We must proclaim how wonderful, how amazing, how utterly marvelous He is, and we must mean it with our whole hearts. We must break out in streams of gratitude for what God has done for us and of adoration simply for Who He is. We limited, weak human beings can never love God as much as He loves us (for He loves us infinitely), but we must at least make the effort to love Him as much as we can and to praise Him without end, for when we do that, we begin to live Heaven right now.
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