Self-gratification is the religion most people believe in, and it tends to cost a lot of money practicing it.
The purpose of true religion is to break free with this self-centeredness wich never delivers what it promises. Self-gratification gratifies the self in smaller and smaller drops as we follow it. True religion is an invitation to break free out of ourselves. It is an invitation to gravitate around the Holy Trinity, where love and communion and other-centeredness has its root.