Do Gods really enjoy flattery?

I have my own reasons to believe that we are slightly off track when it comes to real worship.

Many seasons ago, ah, I lost count of the years, yet not lost count of the words that came from the piercing bray of one of my mum’s friends. This was somewhere during my growing up years, she bickered and brattled about the edges their kids could stand on and bray and sneeze and fly. Among the brags she flew a dart, ‘Kids not knowing the Litany of our Rosary shows poor mothering ha ha, ha ha ha’. It straight shot at the center of my stability. However, my silly mum, although she heard the words, brushed aside its intent and laughed aloud, conjoining acceptance of the many other laughable topics released by the tall, short, fat, thin, and other size aunts that Diwali night. The proud kids walked in loom light, but I stood in dim light on a winter evening when the party ended with a fountain of fire ( bonfire of old coconut husks) and frothy glasses.

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May this friend rest in peace; she is still a beloved aunt, but her words weren’t much loved all the time. Well, for Ms. Aunt, her kids did donkey-heavy things, they scored well in exams, got teachers to create congratulatory certificates for them, and excelled even in Sunday school exams.

I am a catholic and the rosary is my mother’s and Our Mother’s (Our Lady’s) favorite chant piece. I love it too, the rosary, the canticles, the stories, oh, and the mysteries that remain as mysteries, the questions that lead to more questions and still find no respite, for we must go as far as human civilization was only an embryo. Along with mystery hunting, we are busy humans, our hearts can relish the basics from Sunday school class 1 to class 12 and yap into general academics rest of the time. When it came to reciting the rosary, it was into the prayer book that we dug our eyes until we crammed it.

Holy Mother of God, pray for us.

Holy Virgin of Virgins, pray for us.

The litany! Similar 40+ lines!!!

I have memorized them now; it was challenging!! 😊

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A few months ago, I met a laywoman who thought that the litany needs a transformation. She thinks that the faithful must know that Our Lady continues to show her existence through apparitions at multiple locations. These apparitions she thinks should be stitched into the existing Litany. Read here for Marian apparitions **List of Marian apparitions — Wikipedia .** Wikipedia is for readers, she fiercely believes, so having an entry of each apparition in the Litany could reorganize and renew faith! Phew! I thought I might need a memory booster supplement if this ever happens! The seeking minds can go on a high and flow.

Here’s my view — Litany is a great method to renew faith, revive memories of biblical events, get a community united in prayer, and these are some of the best treatises for nurturing spirituality, flavoring it with evidence of supernatural events from history and thereby hinting that calamities may repeat but divine interventions are there to protect; yea one could argue that they are instruments of hope! Sounds good! So be it! So, if this is true, it is true in every praying soul. However, this is not the case. Normally the litany is recited as a ritual with closed brain and mind; it is stitched to the events of the rosary at the tail end and said and done with the discipline of a ritualistic attribution to the godly. It’s a shower of praise, just like the Kings and Emperors enjoyed in the past. And this is exactly what I question. Knowing the life of Our Mother from Her characteristic description in the bible pages, she is a woman of humility and simplicity; the Angel addresses her as ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’, that one shower of praise by the angel puts her high above praises and flatteries. If the litany is chanted as a ritual to please Her, we have stooped low in claiming her personality, so let it not be thus. The Quran refers to this same Mary (known as Maryam) about 70 times, emphasizing her piety, miraculous experiences, and ultimate devotion to God. Notably, she is the only woman explicitly named in the Quran, and the 19th chapter (Surah Maryam) is named in her honor (taken from wiki. I have not read the Quaran, although I want to read it someday.) All texts particularly point to her humility and grace.

Showering praises on Gods and including them in prayer is not any different even in other religions. The next-door religion I closely know is Hinduism. Also Sanskrit is one of my proficient languages. There is litany in here too. Vishnu Sahasranamam is a sacred Sanskrit hymn comprising exactly 1,000 divine names of Lord Vishnu, one of the principal deities in Hinduism. Sahasra meaning 1000 in Sanskrit. Found in the Mahabharata, it is a meditative prayer that praises Vishnu’s endless cosmic attributes, including his role as the preserver of the universe. Similarly, we have Lalita Sahasranamam and Shiva Sahasranamam chanted in praises to the Lords — Goddess Lalita and Lord Shiva, respectively. These are supreme beings beyond praises, at least I would think so. I have limited knowledge of similar praises and litanies in other religions, but I am sure there must exist.

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What may Gods really want to hear? Let me try to think like Him for a while. If God is akin to an ocean, our litanies are like tiny drops (He ignores)! If God is akin to a big light, our litanies are like tiny candle flicker (He ignores)! If God is a wall like powerful force, our litanies will make no difference (He ignores)! if God is human, our litanies can bring joy (obsession for fame, human trait, humans mere mortals ?! If God is human, our litanies and praises can give him a psychological high (obsession for fame, human trait, humans mere mortals ?)!

As we know, all our faith hails a God that is not human, not mortal but an omnipotent powerful being, immortal, without alpha and omega in time ! So, who are these spiritual founding fathers who suggested that the ritual of praising God is necessary 😊

A personal choice — Only last month, when I made my confession (Penance in the Catholic Church — Wikipedia), the priest gave me a very strange act of penance, he asked of me to do ten good deeds in the next two months. It was a difficult deal for a person like me who leads a fairly run-of-the-mill kind of life!! This penance was much unlike all of the earlier penance requests by priests wherein they usually ask of us to do few prayer recitals. Nonetheless I managed to find avenues to do the ten good actions, and I recounted these ten during my prayers in the recent past. A fresh perspective dropped into my thoughts after this experience. I realized that this recounting of our good deeds to Him is more profound than the litany that I offer in prayer!! Therefore, this article 😊

To me, God is love; there is God in true love, there is love in every creation, the twining creepers, the blooming flowers, the squeak of the skies and the mumbling of the water world, it is love that keeps it going!! I think the Gods would want a litany of our good works, the charity we did without expecting, the little acts of kindness and love we knit together; as He knows that only love can keep His world growing and happy, sans war sans hatred sans divisions sans poverty.

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