Our hearts are restless, unless they rest in God

Apr 8, 2019 | Guest Author

In the first step of the Way of the Heart, we were invited to realize the immense love with which God loves us on his own initiative. Even in times when it is not easy to experience his presence, we know in faith that he never abandons us.

Now in the second step of the Way of the Heart, the proposal leads us to look into our heart and recognize in it the reality that we often feel restless and needy. In his autobiographical work, Confessions, St. Augustine makes this statement: ” You have made us for yourself [O Lord], and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Human reality is characterized by an ongoing dissatisfaction within our soul, which only God can fill.

In fact, our whole life can be summed up in essence, by an unceasing pursuit of happiness. It is not surprising that society today proposes attractive models of happiness: a nice car, a good house, making yourself beautiful, or work with a large salary.

Sometimes it can appear that being happy is easy, because we have everything within our reach. Yet, while we may feel happy during brief moments, in which we feel we do not need anything else to be happy, the unforeseen occurs, and sickness or evil invade our life. Then it seems that the happiness we tried to acquire can never happen at all and we will live forever in this desolation.

This experience should not let us be closed in discouragement and pessimism. The search for inner peace and the discovery that love always has the first and last words in our lives, can lead to a true con-version of our hearts. Our fragility, our heart restless and needy, is not an obstacle to the experience of God’s love, but rather the best avenue we have for the grace of God to touch and transform us. Through God’s forgiveness, we purify our actions and intentions and through God’s friendship, we find a new way of living our relationships. By accepting the poverty of our heart, we discover that we should turn to God to satisfy our deepest longings.

  • Fr. António Valério, SJ
    Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Portugal)

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