February 27, 2019
God and Me - 1
Dear Friends,
Deep down, all of us are seeking God.
All human beings have a desire to seek and find God.
There is a radical or existential incompleteness in each of us.
We desire something, Someone beyond ourselves.
Philosophers and theologians say that we seek the transcendent.
We have this hunger built right into us – we are “hard-wired” in this way.
Saint Paul says that God created us “so that [we] might seek God… and find God, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:27)
Saint Augustine says it beautifully in his memorable prayer:
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” (Confessions)
Of course, for a long time Augustine looked for God in the wrong places.
We can do the same thing and next week I will focus on that.
“Though we seldom recognize it, our senses seek the beauty, the sweetness, the good feelings of God. Our mind seeks the truth and wisdom of God. Our will seeks to live out the goodness, the righteousness of God. Our memory and imagination seek the justice and peace of God. In other words, we yearn for the attributes of God with every part of ourselves. Human beings are two-legged, walking, talking desires for God.”
From The Dark Night of the Soul by Gerald G. May, M.D. (1940-2005. Medical doctor, psychiatrist, author, staff member of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.)
For more reflections on God and Me, see the Inbox Inspirations for the next three weeks, March 6, 13 and 20.
Gracious God, move us to seek you and to be restless until we rest in you. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner
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March 6, 2019
God and Me - 2
Dear Friends,
Last week I said that deep down, we all seek God.
All human beings have a desire to seek and find God.
The problem is that sometimes we mistakenly look for God in the wrong places.
Sometimes we get tripped up into thinking that being able to buy and own what we want, or having more money or more recognition by others, or having physical comfort and pleasure will bring us happiness.
Sooner or later, maybe in mid-life, maybe later, we sense that we have been seeking things, maybe perfectly good in themselves, but things that are limited.
We sense that they still leave us unsatisfied, unfulfilled, maybe even unhappy.
Maybe we have been seeking goods instead of the Creator of all good things.
When we become aware of this, we get in touch with who we really are as persons.
We get in touch with our deep, undeniable desire for God.
And then we start seeking God, consciously and intentionally.
Next week I will pick up on this desiring and searching for God.
“Because we can’t encounter God directly through our senses and concepts, we are naturally drawn to the things we can feel and see and grasp. We gravitate to the things of God, to things that we sense are good, true, beautiful, and loving. We expect these good things to satisfy us. We do not realize that we love them not for themselves, but because they whisper to us of their Creator, the One we really long for.”
From The Dark Night of the Soul by Gerald G. May, M.D. (1940-2005. Medical doctor, psychiatrist, author, staff member of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.)
For more reflections on God and Me, see the Inbox Inspirations from last week, February 27, and for the next two weeks, March 13 and 20.
Gracious God, move us to seek you and to be restless until we rest in you. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner
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March 13, 2019
God and Me - 3
Dear Friends,
We can seek God and maybe even feel God’s closeness to us in various places:
the ocean, the mountains, a piece of music, a painting,
the gospels, the crucifix or tabernacle in a church…
These are some of the places where we can seek God.
One place that we may easily forget is within ourselves.
God is within us.
Some of our great spiritual writers have said that union with God or closeness with God is not something that can be achieved.
It already exists.
We just need to awaken to God’s presence within us.
Our hunger for something or Someone more,
our desire for the Light that will help us to see,
our desire for the Love that both grounds and moves us,
and our desire for the Life that is a fullness for us even now –
these are signs of God within us.
In fact, these desires are God, acting within us.
Let’s make room to be silent and still enough to seek and find God right there.
“…God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. We are born in union with God and we ‘live and move and have our being’ in God throughout our lives (Acts 17:28). In keeping with the root meaning of ‘nature’ (‘natura,’ birth), this union with the Divine is our human nature. It is so essential to our being that John [Saint John of the Cross] says we could not exist without it.”
From The Dark Night of the Soul by Gerald G. May, M.D. (1940-2005. Medical doctor, psychiatrist, author, staff member of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.)
For more reflections on God and Me, see the Inbox Inspirations from the last two weeks, February 27 and March 6, and for next week, March 20.
Gracious God, move us to seek you and to be restless until we rest in you. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner
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