One of the great challenges facing every person is not only to find faith, but then to find how to live it. 

 

It is easy to tell ourselves that we have found God and that we believe in Him. But if that belief is nothing more than an intellectual assent, a sort of mental nod toward God, faith would be dangerously incomplete.

 

Jesus answered a question of the Scholar of the Law about which is the greatest commandment. His famous response was, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. (Mt 22:37 and see Dt 6:5).

 

Pope Benedict reminded us of the implication of Jesus’ answer. We are to give ourselves totally to God. 

 

That means that we are not merely to find a place for God in our lives. Instead we are to find a place for our lives in God.

 

When we simply try to work God into our lives, we place Him second. Then faith becomes weaker. We are willing to settle for less prayer, less sacrifice for God, and a general diminishment of who we are meant to be. 

 

In addition, we become less attentive to how present God is to us and how many opportunities there are each day to serve Him.

 

To place our life in God is to orient ourselves completely toward Him. It means that every thought and action will be considered and undertaken as a means to grow closer to God in this world and in the next.

 

One of the traditional faith practices of the Church has been to begin each day with the Morning Offering. That prayer is important because it helps us to orient our daily lives more deeply to God and to His will.

 

On the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, this version of the Morning Offering can be found:

 

“O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.”

 

By offering that prayer, and ourselves, at the beginning of each day, we recall that everything that we will do today has meaning before God. 

 

Our prayers, our efforts, our joys and sufferings are not without meaning. For that reason, by this prayer we offer to pledge to unite those parts of our day to Jesus’ Sacred Heart, exposed for us on the cross by the soldier’s lance. 

 

We also recall the great mystery of the Mass by joining ourselves to its celebration all over the world.

More specifically, we pray for souls, those living who need prayers, as well as the souls in purgatory. We pray to make reparation to God for our own sins and those sadly offered to Him throughout the world. Then we conclude by praying for Christian unity and for the Holy Father.

 

The beauty of the Morning Offering is that it sets a concrete tone, each day, for our efforts to love God fully. And as we go to bed at night, we can review our day in the light of what we committed to by our first prayer of the day.

 

Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. To do so is not easy. But it is our calling from Christ. 

 

The Morning Offering, recited each day, is a good place to start.