“Nothing in life has any meaning, except as it draws us further into God, and presses us more closely to Him. The eternal God is blessedly the last and only end of every soul of man. Life as it runs out is daily letting us down into His Bosom; and thus each day and hour is a step homeward, a danger over, a good secured. Hence it is, because God alone is our last end, that He alone never fails us.

The value of everything in life depends on its power to lead us to God by the shortest road. But as the service of God is the creature’s real work, so also is it his true dignity. The rank and pageantry of the world cannot clothe us with real dignity. To serve God is the only honor which it is worth our while to strive after.

So many men die all over the world in the span of just one minute. And what is the last lesson of every one of them: that the service of God is the highest happiness of man. What earthly wisdom will compare with the wisdom of serving God?

The service of the Creator is the creature’s sole end…and he who seeks any other will never find them. It is a miserable thing to build on sand, or to give our money for that which is not bread. Yet it is what we are all of us doing all our lives long, except when we are loving God.”

(adapted with slight paraphrasing from pages 78-84 of The Creator and the Creature: The Wonders of Divine Love, Father F.W. Faber)

Tom Mulcahy, ed.

P.S. Personally, this is one of the most powerful quotes I have ever read. It really summarizes in a concise way the true meaning of life. I pray through the Immaculata that these words of Father Faber will touch your heart in a very powerful way. Frederick William Faber engraving by Joseph Brown, BBC Hulton Picture Library (a Public Domain work of art, U.S.A.)