Reflection
To be centered in God alone does not mean to have no interests but God. It means to realize that all other interests are meant to bring us closer to God. They are not meant to take God’s place in our lives but to enable God’s spirit to enhance the meaning of everything else. The point at which we look beyond ourselves is the point at which we find God in the rest of the world. Then life spills over with the wonder of God. Then we find the fullness of the Spirit for which we have been searching. Once we begin to realize God at work in us, everything becomes holy, becomes life-giving. Then God is not an occasional find in life- in church, maybe, or at a sunset. God is a sense of life now and if life beyond life. God is what calls me to live into the heart of the universe.
Joan Chittister, OSB
Prayer
Send me your Spirit, O God.
Action
Try to practice the awareness of the presence of the sacred in everything. What do you think it means to ive into the heart of the universe?
Suggested Reading
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:12
God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us.
Thomas Merton
Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense.
Teresa of Avila
We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.
C.S. Lewis
The most holy and important practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God – that is, every moment to take great pleasure that God is with you
Brother Lawrence
Joy and laughter are the gifts of living in the presence of God and trusting that tomorrow is not worth worrying about.
Henri Nouwen
The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
So, you pay attention to what is in every moment. And when you do that, then you realize that the presence of God is everywhere.
Deepak Chopra
The knowledge of the omnipresence of God also means respect for the lives even of those who may be called opponents.
Mahatma Gandhi