One should not, therefore, regard the worship of God as an external occupation for man, as if God wanted to be praised or if he needed to be flattered. That would of course be childish and, as a matter of fact, irritating and ridiculous.

Well, what, then?

Worship, understood in the correct sense, means that I am truly myself only when I form relationships, that only then am I true to the inner ideal of my being. And my life is then tending toward the will of God, that is to say, toward a life more closely in agreement with truth and with love. It’s not a matter of doing something to please God. Worship means accepting that our life is like an arrow in flight. Accepting that nothing finite can be my goal or determine the direction of my life, but that I myself must pass beyond all possible goals. That is, pass beyond them into being inwardly at one with him who wished me to exist as a partner in a relationship with him and who has given me freedom precisely in this.

And this is what God really wants with us?
Yes.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World.