_1st Prelude._ Imagine your Blessed Saviour appears before you, looking lovingly on you and saying: “My son, I am now going to teach you the first truth in the spiritual life.” _2nd Prelude._ Beg that you may understand this truth as the Saints have understood it. _POINT I._ Consider the words, “_Man was created._” 1. “_Man._” What is man? Compared to God, man is a mere nothing, like a little gnat flitting in the sunshine; yet among material things man is a masterpiece, endowed with the most wonderful powers and potentialities. Man is like a musical instrument, from which the Divine Spirit can draw the most exquisite harmony, as He has done from millions of saintly souls. But if not responsive to His touch, it gives out harsh and false sounds, marring the harmony of God’s world. A man may live like an Angel, or like a demon or like a brute animal. 2. Man was “_created_,” that is, made out of nothing, for so was the world; now even a savage understands that the thing made belongs to the maker. Therefore I belong to God; He can do with me and require of me what He pleases. _POINT II._ Consider what God requires of man. If God has made man for a purpose, He certainly requires of him to work for that purpose. But God can do nothing without a purpose, a purpose worthy of Himself; His wisdom requires that. Now He alone is worthy of Himself; therefore He directed all things to Himself, as the Book of Proverbs says: “The Lord hath made all things for Himself” (xvi, 4). It is not that God needs any creature; for being all perfect He is self-sufficient; but right order requires that He make all His creatures tend to Him. How then must all creatures tend to God? By glorifying Him; that is by _praising, reverencing and serving God_. 1. _Praising God._ To praise God is to show forth and proclaim His excellence. The Psalms are full of such praises; for instance Psalm 116: “Praise the Lord, all ye nations, praise Him all ye people.” We must not live then to exalt ourselves, or to get others to praise us, but render all honor to God, to whom it all belongs. 2. _Reverencing God_, worshipping Him, as we do when we pray. Thus the Angels in Heaven ever do, crying out; “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty” (Ap. iv, 8). Thus we put statues of Angels on the altar to express our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. Thus we should express our reverence for God whenever we speak to Him in prayer. How do I pray habitually? With what reverence of bodily posture and of mental attitude? We should thus make our meditations practical. 3. _Serving God._ To serve another is to do his bidding; we are then created to be ever at the disposal of God, to obey Him whenever He makes known His will: “If you love me, keep my commandments,” He says. _POINT III._ Consider the further consequences of our praise, reverence and service of God; “_And by these means to save his soul_,” that is to attain eternal happiness.