Our desire is to encounter our GodSeptember 08, 2025

Our desire is to encounter our God

We go to churches. We travel to monasteries. We look for places outside of nature. We look for places inside nature. We travel miles to make retreats. We take long walks to distant lands sacred shrines, we say our prayers, and recite our novenas, and are forever searching. Sometimes we just give it all up and involve ourselves in this space/time, realm only to end up disappointed again, and empty, but at least distracted.

We know this God is not in some place in the heavens because we’ve been up in space. So where does one look for the One who alone satisfies all our hungers, all our yearning for deep peace and fulfillment.

The mystics tell us where they found the One. Go where you do not know! That is, go out of your mind. They all say the mind does not help us because the God who they experience abiding in the heart. In the Western world, we have, perhaps, glorified the mind, gone into technology, and are going into AI – all mind stuff. This is all part of the condition of being human. We have jumped into the marvelous brain and so, mistakenly expect it to contain the abiding presence of God. Jesus always talked about heart being where he connects with us, the place where the Spirit abides in us and pervades all things.

Maybe try opening your heart to one leaf of a flower and listen to the softness of God. The One is also found in the movement of trees. The blowing wind, his breath. In the gentle flow of the stream is the energy of Spirit. The bird, flying or coasting on the breeze is God’s movement in joy. The subtle opening of every flower, fruit, vegetable etc. is the movement of God. Are you listening? The power and energy of the One is not nature but the source, the energy, the mobility in all movement. In the Spiritual journey the Spirit is in your Heart. Perhaps there is a whole realm where the heart is one with the One who is All. We just need to open the heart, see with the eyes of the heart, be still, and connect to the Presence. The human condition often imagines that God is removed or absent, but the real people walk in the mode of Presence. We call this prayer, a better way of living.

Just pondering,

Sister Mary Joan Grisez