The Immensity of God

Contemplating the immensity of the universe, the extraordinary beauty of nature, its power, I was spontaneously turned to the Creator of all things and I seemed to understand something new of God’s immensity.

The impression it made on me was so strong and so new that I would have knelt down to worship, praise, and glorify God. I felt the need to do it, as if it were actually my vocation. And, now as my eyes seemed to be opening for the first time, I understood as never before, who it is that we’ve chosen as our Ideal; or rather, who it is who has chosen us.

I saw him so great, that it seemed impossible to me that he should think of us. And this impression of his greatness remained in my heart for some days. Now it’s a whole new thing for me when I pray: “Holy be your name” or “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”: it has become a necessity of the heart (. . .)

We are on the way. And when someone travels, they already think about the place where they will be welcomed when they arrive. We should do the same.

Won’t we praise God when we are there? Then let us praise him starting from now. Let us allow our hearts to cry out our love, to proclaim it, together with angels and saints: “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

Let us express our praise with our lips and with our hearts. Let us take advantage of this opportunity to revive those daily prayers that have this as their object. And let us also give glory to him with our entire being. (. . . )

Let us praise him beyond nature or in the depths of our hearts. Above all, let us live dead to ourselves and alive to the will of God, to love toward our neighbors. As Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity said, we are also a “praise of his glory”. In this way we’ll anticipate Heaven a bit, and God will be repaid for the indifference of so many hearts who live in today’s world.

Chiara Lubich, Rocca di Papa (Rome)
22 January 1987