Contrast between daily life, so often tedious, and the experience of God discovered in solitude
① 1* 2O God, you are my God, it is you I seek;
for you my body longs and my soul thirsts,
as a dry and weary land without water.
3Thus have I gazed upon you in the sanctuary,
to see your power and your glory.
4Your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
5I will bless you as long as I live,
lift up my hands and call on your name.
6As with the richest food my soul will feast;
my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
7When I remember you on my bed
I think of you all through the night,
8for you have been my help;
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
9My soul clings to you,
your right hand upholds me.
10In vain they are after my life,
they will go down to the depths of the earth;
11they will be delivered to the sword,
and become the prey of jackals.
12The king will rejoice in God.
All who swear by God’s name will boast:
“At last slanderers’ tongues have been silenced.”
- We become weary of everything. No human love is entirely satisfying, for the shadow of separation or of death is over it. Only the one who is source of living water and not a cracked cistern can satisfy human thirst. Saint Augustine has expressed it in a celebrated phrase: “You have created us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Our works, of course, count more for God than do our words, but in some way our desires are still more important. They mark an available space for God in us, the day he would wish to make us rich. Jesus and Mary in her Magnificat declare blessed those who hunger and thirst for God, and unhappy those who are satisfied.
Happy are we if at certain moments of our life, while meditating on the word of God, praying, or responding generously to God’s call, we have had an experience of God through the feelings which manifest him: peace, joy, security, inner conviction, fullness... Then we can kindle in others the love and thirst for God.
