Without necessarily realizing it, every person is seeking God on a daily basis. If we stop to honestly consider the level of our heart’s satisfaction, we will find that we are not quite fulfilled. Each of us would admit that there is something else that we long for, though maybe we are not sure what it is. The void in our hearts tells us that we are meant for more.
When God created us, He fashioned us with an innate desire that can only be fulfilled by Him. We can try to satisfy that yearning with something else, but such endeavors eventually prove useless and vain. It is the same as attempting to use a machine in a different capacity than what the manufacturer made it for. In the end, the machine will break.
God is all-wise and all-loving, though, and He arranged that we could find this ultimate fulfillment in Him, beginning even on this earth. He accomplishes this through His divine indwelling in our souls.
At the moment of our baptism, we begin sharing in the life of the Blessed Trinity, and the only way to permanently separate our souls from this relationship is through unrepented mortal sin (Catechism of the Catholic Church 265 and 1864).
So many times in Sacred Scripture, Jesus referred to this indwelling of the Blessed Trinity within the creature. “If a man loves Me,” says the Lord, “he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23). “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth ... you know Him, for He dwells with you, and will be in you” (Jn 14:16-17).
St. Paul also reiterated this truth to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16). Then to the Ephesians he wrote, “For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2:18).
Through the course of growth in the spiritual life, we can cultivate a deeper awareness of God’s presence in our souls. At first it takes concerted efforts throughout the day to reflect upon this Divine indwelling. “Most Holy Trinity, I believe in Your Presence in my soul. Reign in me as You desire.”
Dressing in a modest, dignified manner reminds us and others that our bodies are temples of God, thus promoting respect for Him in us and a healthy respect for ourselves.
The practice of exterior, as well as interior, silence allows us to enter into those secret recesses of our hearts to communicate with the Holy Trinity at any time of the day or night.
As we continually practice awareness of the presence of God in our souls, then we will come to grow in our union with Him so as to eventually receive the gift of contemplating Him perpetually.
This does not mean that we become unaware of other persons and events around us. Rather, everything we do flows from our communion with God, as
St. Paul stated, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
We will rejoice with the joy of God, weep with His sorrow for the sins of mankind and work in union with His work of creation, redemption and salvation.
Sometimes the situations in our lives seem so burdensome and overwhelming. Yet if we can confidently remind ourselves “God dwells in me,” we can face the trials and challenges of each day – not alone, but with Him. We will not run away from the circumstances surrounding us anymore, because then we will realize that God is actually present in that event or encounter.
Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity grasped this beautiful reality and told her acquaintances, “I leave you my faith in the Presence of God, of the God who is all Love dwelling in our souls. I confide to you: it is this intimacy with Him ‘within’ that has been the beautiful sun illuminating my life, making it already an anticipated heaven.”
Let us begin our heaven on earth, eagerly looking forward to finally seeing God face to face in a relationship of eternal union.
Sister Mary Raphael is a member of the Daughters of the Virgin Mother, a community dedicated to serving the spiritual and practical needs of the priesthood and of seminarians in the Diocese of Charlotte.