You have made us for Yourself, O Lord,Augustine · Confessions, Book I
and our heart is restless until it rests in You.
As a deer pants for flowing streams,Psalm 42:1
so pants my soul for you, O God.
I carried about me a cut and bleeding soul,Augustine · Confessions, Book IV
that could not bear to be carried by me,
and where I could put it, I could not discover.
Where do you feel this restlessness most acutely?
What have you tried to fill it with?
He has made everything beautiful in its time.Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has also set eternity in the human heart.
John of the Cross wrote this from a prison cell in Toledo, where he was beaten weekly and barely fed. He understood the longing as a wound—inflicted by God to draw the soul out in pursuit:
Where have you hidden,John of the Cross · Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1
Beloved, and left me moaning?
You fled like the stag
after wounding me;
I went out calling you, but you were gone.
Late have I loved You,Augustine · Confessions, Book X
Beauty ever ancient, ever new,
late have I loved You!
You were within me,
but I was outside myself,
and there I searched for You.
What if the ache is not a problem to solve
but a trail to follow?
Benedict, who spent three years alone in a cave before founding communities, offered this counsel:
Do not be daunted immediately by fearBenedict · The Rule, Prologue, 48-49
and run away from the road that leads to salvation.
It is bound to be narrow at the outset.
But as we progress in this way of life and in faith,
we shall run on the path of God's commandments,
our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.
Let nothing disturb you,Teresa of Ávila · Bookmark poem
let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.
You called and cried out loudAugustine · Confessions, Book X
and shattered my deafness.
You were radiant and resplendent,
you put to flight my blindness.
You touched me,
and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is Yours.
The restlessness is not a flaw.
It is a homing signal.
A Prayer for the Restless Heart
Lord, You have made us for Yourself,
and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
We have searched outside ourselves
for what was always within.
We have run from the narrow road
that leads to spacious love.
Through the intercession of Augustine, John,
Benedict, Teresa, and all the restless saints
who found their rest in You—
set us on fire to attain Your peace.
Amen.
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