Today’s Theme for Prayer – Jesus Calls Me Beyond Myself
How Generous is My Response to the Lord?
Dispassion engenders love, hope in God engenders dispassion, and patience and forbearance engender hope in God; these in turn are the product of complete self- control, which itself springs from fear of God. Fear of God is the result of faith in God. St. Maximus the Confessor
“Thirsting for the Living God: Drawn into the Trinity”
Ps 42:1-8
As the deer longs for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, the living God.
When can I enter and see the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all the day, “Where is your God?”
Those times I recall as I pour out my soul,
how I would go with the throng,
and lead them in procession to the house of God,
With glad shouts and songs of praise,
the multitude keeping festival.
Why are you so downcast, O my soul?
Why do you groan within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of the Jordan and Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents,
all your waves and breakers sweep over me.
By day the LORD bestows his love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
Grace Prayed For
The grace to cultivate a deep and unquenchable thirst for God, a longing that permeates our being and draws us into the loving embrace of the Trinity. To be made vulnerable enough to express the downcast and longing nature of the soul while remaining confident in God’s salvation.
Reflection
In the depths of our being, there is a wellspring, a longing so profound that only God can satisfy it. This Psalm, like a wounded deer searching for water, lays bare our deepest thirst. It is a thirst not for worldly things, but for the living God, the source of all life, the origin of love.
Imagine the dry, cracked earth beneath the deer’s hooves, each step desperate, driven by an inner imperative for survival. This is how our souls often feel, parched and weary from the world’s distractions, the constant chatter of doubt and loneliness. We may be tempted to seek fulfillment elsewhere—in fleeting pleasures, empty accolades, or shallow relationships. Yet, these attempts ultimately leave us feeling hollow, the thirst only growing more intense.
But the psalm doesn’t leave us in despair. There’s an image of a time past, a procession toward God’s house, full of glad shouts and songs of praise. The psalmist remembers joy in the communal journey towards God. Can you recall times when you felt this deep belonging? Can you recapture that joy?
Then, the psalmist’s heart echoes with a profound conversation. “Why are you so downcast, O my soul?” It’s a tender question, born not from judgment but from a loving understanding of the heart’s capacity for both joy and sorrow. There’s a recognition that our spiritual struggles are a call to hope, to place our trust not in ourselves, but in the unwavering love of God. This hope calls forth the memory of God’s presence in the past, an act of remembering, that reminds us that even when our spirits are low, God remains our salvation.
The deep, echoing call reminds us that the heart is not meant to be contained. The waters of God’s love flow like torrential rivers, vast, powerful, and overflowing, they wash over us, inviting us to let go and surrender to the embrace of God. The Trinity is revealed here – the loving God who is sought, the grace poured out upon the soul, and the prayer of longing that connects us to the divine current of love. We are swept away not into chaos, but into the very heart of God, the source and goal of our deepest desires.
We are not merely seeking God as an external entity. We are being drawn into the divine dance, a union so profound that it becomes the breath of our being. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united as one, invite us into this communion, this unending flow of love and grace. Let this psalm resonate with the deepest part of you, and allow yourself to be drawn into the heart of the Trinity.
Growing in Intimacy/Union with Jesus
This psalm leads to greater intimacy with Jesus by mirroring his own longing for the Father. Just as Jesus often withdrew to pray, seeking communion with the Father, so too does the psalmist express this deep desire. We can see in Jesus’ life this same struggle with doubt and loneliness. This psalm shows us a path to connect with Jesus through the same longing and need that he had. By entering into our own experiences of longing, we identify more deeply with Jesus and allow him to become the balm and sustenance for our spiritual thirst.
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Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post