Apostleship of Prayer Spirituality THE INNER LONGINGS OF OUR LIVES

There is in all of us something that cries out for a beyondness, as Augustine says “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” This has been found in children and it is certainly found in adults. In every person there is this craving for something beyond themselves. We cannot rest content in ourselves, in the elements and experiences of our life, to which we give meaning, we do not find satisfying light and protective security. The experiences of our life pose questions for which we seek meaning in that intangible mystery that surrounds from the moment of conception to the day we die; all we seem to have are questions and wonderment that lead us beyond ourselves, if only we walk the way of the questions. If we surrender ourselves to the mystery that surrounds us, as we do when we are in love with someone at least then we are on the way of searching for the intangible. It is in the surrender to the intangible that we come to the greater realities that surround us.

We visit the newly found caves at Lascaux in central France. To stand in these caves is to experience something of the power of the Spirit that bloweth where it wills. They  can challenge us by the profundity of thought that they can produce in the viewer. On the walls and ceilings there are drawn and painted animals in all shapes and sizes. In the presence of these paintings visitors are overwhelmed by waves of emotions and the recorded opinion from them is that they are standing on sacred ground. There is a feeling that the men of twenty thousand years ago are standing around their shaman, imploring a mysterious and all-powerful protection to ensure that the hunt might be successful.   They depicted here a memorial showing the last moment of the dramatic encounter that cost the leader his life.

Have you ever sat on the beach and just stared at the ocean or have you sat on the top of a mountain and just gazed around? Have you ever walk on a bush path and be caught up in the mystery of where it is leading you? Have you felt drawn into a oneness with what you are experiencing?

Our primitive ancestors possessed a religious sense. There is much evidence to show that religious ceremonies were enacted in prehistoric times and it seems that a sense of the sacred has always been a part of man's consciousness from the very beginning.   When we are investigating them, we ought not try to understand by religion in these circumstances that system of rites and defined dogma imposed by a higher authority which relays God's revelation to man.   Rather we should equate it with the intimations of that deep and half-conscious anxiety that troubles the mind of what Pascal called this "thinking reed, the weakest thing in nature" when faced with the mystery of his life and destiny among the contradictions of a precarious existence exposed to countless and obscure and hostile forces.

Another tentative definition of spirituality could be given as being that response to man's awareness of God, this being also demonstrated in the life that he lives: Man sees God as present and responds to Him.   Thus in the various religions the presence of God is seen in different ways and thus the response will be different: however, because of the nature of man, these differing responses will have elements within them that seem to be similar.

Spirituality is concerned with how man receives God into his life and how he responds.   Thus to be spiritual means that we are called to know God.   One way of describing the act of knowing is to say that to be human is to be a HEARER of the Word of God.   (Here the "Word of God" means no more that God's self disclosure, whether in some divine book or in creation.)   God communicates himself to us and we can receive that communication.   How we receive that communication is another question.   The effect of all this is our growth in closer relationship with God.   All the spiritual writers say life involves a relationship between God and man and this relationship they call prayer.  Thus, to pray, is to intend to hear God and to respond to God.   Prayer does not make God present for He is absolutely present to all people.   Spirituality begins, then, with our consent to enter into a relationship to which God invites everyone.   Prayer is a consent that is grounded in the faith that God speaks to us and we can hear and respond.

At the very core of our existence there is a “transcendental neediness”. This “neediness” challenges us and supports all of our longings and desires. It challenges what are the longings and desires of our lives that lead to ultimate meaning. This “neediness” condemns us to a pilgrimage through this life in search of a final answer that ultimately gives meaning to life.
 
 

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