In light of this month’s (July) intention, it is good to meditate on the reality that our hearts are restless until we find the happiness that will satisfy our hearts. As the Psalmist writes, “O God, you are my God—it is you I seek! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, In a land parched, lifeless, and without water” (Psalm 63:2).

Often we may seek after many selfish pleasures in life and desire to always be “happy.” This leads us to search for happiness in created things, hoping that they will provide some sort of comfort in a world full of disappointment.

Yet, in seeking after these many created things to make us “happy,” our hearts are really searching for God. As is often pointed out, we have a God-shaped hole in our heart and we try to endlessly fill it with various “things,” but find that they do not fit. It is only after we realize that God alone fills that void that we find the happiness we desire.

Sometimes we may stray away from the practice of the Christian faith and we do so believing that God or our religion can not satisfy the longing within our hearts. Yet, when we wander aimlessly in the world, our hearts are downcast, worried about many things. We seek to create happiness, when in fact it is a pure gift given by God.

We may try to wander far from God, but we can never escape that longing within our hearts. It was created within us and constantly beckons us to return to him.

What we must do, as Pope Francis recently said in a homily, is ” open the doors of our hearts even only just a little bit.” If we “leave it ajar,” Pope Francis said, “God will find a way in.” If we leave that tiny bit of our heart open he will burst through and show us the happiness we truly desire.