Easter Tuesday

O God, you are my God, I seek you,

my soul thirsts for you . . .(Psalm 63)

Authentic desires reach into the very heart of our identies. Ignatius of Loyola said "to ask God our Lord for what I want and desire" at the beginning of every period of prayer. Thus we acknowledge our immediate need or want.

Desires are guides to what we are called to become, to live and to do. If our desires reveal who we are, then they help us to see our true self behind the masks we wear. At the same time our deepest desires reflect God's own desires, God's longing for the world as well as each of us.

Desires are God-given. Thomas Traherne, the 17th century Anglican priest and mystic wrote:

For giving me desire

An eager thirst, a burning ardent fire,

A virgin infant flame,

A love with which into the world I came,

An inward hidden heavenly love,

Which in my soul did work and move,

And ever ever me inflame,

With restless longing heavenly avarice,

That never could be satisfied,

That did incessantly a Paradise

Unknown suggest, and something undescribed

Discern, and bear me to it; be

Thy name for ever prais'd by me.

"Desire"

Today's reflection is based on notes from Sheldrake's book, "Befriending Our Desires and Traherne's poem was quoted there, too.