PRAYER MOMENT                      

Monday 25 August 2014, St Louis of France

ALL YOUR DESIRES

Pause. Be still in God’s presence.

Reading: “We pray continually that our God will, by his power, fulfil all your desires for goodness and complete all that you have been doing through faith.” (2 Thess 1:1…12)

Reflection. The letters to the Thessalonians are the first writings we have in what we know as the New Testament. Their oxygen is optimism. They breathe hope. Our quotation is typical. At the heart of all human striving is desire. It is a force and an energy that moves us in our work, our loves and in the deepest part of our heart. Desire is that human quality that drives us forward and ultimately it is satisfied in the One who gave it to us in the first place. Our task is to continually purify our desires so that there is less and less of self – pangu, pangu – and more and more seeking the Other. In loving my wife or my husband I am loving them in God and God in them. And so it is with all people and in all my activities. I find God everywhere and in evreything. Many will not explain desire in this way but  whether acknowledged or not it is the fire of creativity that is the source and goal of all.  

      

Prayer. Jesus, our Creator and Lord, you plant in our hearts the desire to succeed in all we do and to love our spouse, our family members and our friends. Open our hearts to the whole world so that we may love and desire as you do. Amen

David Harold-Barry SJ