Section 28
101. Will our prayer finally come to an end in heaven?
At the end of our earthly life and entering into heaven, our prayer life takes a new form. It begins to flourish in ways it never could in this life. Augustine makes our primary occupation in heaven to be prayer - but prayer in the form of singing God's praise with an everlasting Alleluia. "Alleluia is praise of God. To us, as we labor, it means the act of resting. For when we come to our rest after those labors, God's praise will be our sole occupation, for there our task will be Alleluia ... Some sweet odor of divine praise and that of rest reaches us, but for the greater part, it is our mortality that weighs upon us. But we grow weary of saying it and desire to exercise our limbs. And if we say Alleluia for too long, God's praise itself becomes onerous, thanks to this mass of flesh that we are. For once the labors of this life and this world itself ceases, there will be an unceasing fullness in Alleluia ... We must say it as often as we can. Let us deserve to say it forever! For there our food will be Alleluia, our drink will be Alleluia, the object of our rest will be Alleluia, all our joy will be Alleluia; that is, God's praise ... What strength there will be in the mind, what immortality and endurance in the body, that neither the mind shall tire, nor the limbs grow weary under the everlasting praise of God!"337