From the second chapter of Sirach: “Trust God and God will help you; trust in him, and he will direct your way.” The Lord wants to hear from us the deepest desires of our hearts. He wants to direct us to the fulfillment of the deepest desires of our hearts. The trouble is that there are very few persons who truly know the deepest desires of their heart! Most see only the lesser desires, smaller desires, more superficial desires. We can name them easily. It is for them that we pray. They do not satisfy. God knows that. We may crave them, dream of them, long for them, plot how to reach them, and cling to every semblance of them, but they do not arise from our truest selves. The spiritual life consists in allowing the Lord to lead us in ways that strip us of smaller desires, false gods, hurtful memories, and disordered attachments, leaving us to find and name our deepest desire. There we will find Him waiting. Loving. Longing. God is a gentle lover who will not grasp our souls with violence, no matter how ardent His longing that we come deeper with Him into ourselves. He will with tenderness unfold our fingers from those things we have clung to, and in the release of what was once so dear He will show us more of our truest selves. Patiently and gently He will lead if we but trust. The paradox of the spiritual life is that only in surrender we find freedom. “Trust God and God will help you; trust in him, and he will direct your way.” Lead me, Lord, oh so gently to the truest desires of my heart.

May 21, 2013
Msgr. William J. King