Spirituality for Beginners

Fr. Bede's almost-daily reflections. When it comes to the spiritual life, we're all beginners. I also send these out by email. Contact me at bcamera@anselm.edu. God bless!





Friday, September 25, 2015

Written in the heart

Last time I offered for your consideration paragraph 27 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church. If you need to look back, go to http:// spiritualityforbeginners.blogspot.com.

Today, let’s take a closer look at the opening phrase: The desire for God is written in the human heart . . .

Are you aware of this? Do you feel within yourself a strong desire to be united with God? Are your choices and decisions based on what will move you closer to God rather than farther away from God?

Maybe you’re not. I certainly know that there have been times in my life, and actually still are, when this desire is not what overrules everything else. And I know for sure that many people are not consciously aware that they have such a desire within them.

Could it be that there is a connection between this desire for God and the fact that we are created in God’s image (see my post from June 26)? Pope Francis hints at the connection in The Joy of the Gospel:

“ . . . we become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being.

So, if all this be true, we benefit from knowing how we are ”knit together in our mother’s womb” (Psalm 139).

Contemplative prayer: Just sit in the quiet, calm yourself with your breathing, and then just reflect on how God, in creating you, put within you this wonderful desire, far greater and more appealing than any other desire we might have, even when we forget it, even when we sometimes might be oblivious to it. It is there. He gave it to you. It is yours. It is your destiny.

more next time.



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