Lectio
“What makes the Gospel news? The faith, which is created in us by God and with which we hear it as news. This acceptance of the faith, this new birth in the Spirit, opens up a new dimension in which time and eternity meet, in which all things are made new: eternity, time, our own self, the world around us.”
— Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
Meditatio
The good news is that we cannot do it alone. We cannot be good enough. We cannot be holy enough. We cannot be righteous enough. We cannot follow God’s law, and we cannot save ourselves from the sin that tempts us away from Him or the desolation we experience when we follow our sinfulness instead of following Him.
The good news is that we need God. The good news is that, without Him, we are powerless to create within ourselves the lasting joy and fulfillment for which we most deeply and desperately long. The good news is that, without Him, though we may side with the good for a time, we will inevitably fall into the trap of pride and lust and greed and envy and all other manner of sin, no matter how deeply we desire not to or how hard we try. And the good news is that, without God, without His Spirit dwelling inside us, we cannot even seek Him.
But God’s Spirit does dwell inside us. We were created in His image and likeness, and we were created for total and lasting communion with Him. And He does not wait for us to find our way to Him. He has already offered Himself to us, not as one more thing among the things of the world, but as the silent ground and horizon of our very existence. His Spirit, which quietly calls to us from deep beneath the noise and distraction of world and self, is the source of the very longing we have for Him, which draws us nearer to Him.
We often do not hear His divine whisper in our hearts, however, or at least we do not recognize it for what it is until we hear His Word spoken from without or witness that same Word in others. And this, too, is the good news: we need not, nor should we, be alone on this journey. Every moment, every relationship, every experience and interaction, even every suffering, is either filled with His love or, where it is not, can be transformed by Him, for His purpose, which is to draw us into communion with Him.
This is what makes the Gospel news. Not that we have finally found our way to God, but that the faith He creates in us lets us hear what has been true in us all along, and in that hearing, all things are made new.
Oratio
Nothing Without You
to be nothing
without You
to be nothing
besides You
for this
my heart yearns
because of You
for this
I have longed
since before
I knew You
by this
I cannot rest
until I rest
in You
yet even this
I cannot do
without You
in my nothingness
without You
Contemplatio
Notice the longing beneath your thoughts, the quiet ache for something you cannot name. It is not yours alone; it is His Spirit calling you home. Sit in silence with that longing, and consent to be found.
Related Scripture
“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Before We Cry Out: Julian of Norwich and the Prayer God Prays in Us, which finds the same divine initiative at work in prayer: a goodness already reaching for us before we know how to ask.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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