13 Apr 2016

Know thyself!

Knowing ourselves can seem to be a lifelong task. Yet in the Interior Castle written by Theresa of Avila it is the essential place in which we grow in our relationship with God. Sometimes, I am haunted by the word of Jesus when he echoes the words, I do not know you. There can be a feeling if I do not know myself how can I become real to God? In a world where we can pursue phantoms of appearance or mirages of success, it is easy to become lost on another person’s journey other than our own. Jesus calls us to encounter him as our true self not as the person we believe that will be acceptable to him. It means that we need to drop the masks in prayer and in our conversation with God so that we can identify who we truly are. This does not mean that we have to engage in profound self-analysis or profound quests of self-discovery. We just need to be true to what brings us life and what avoids death for us. This is not focusing solely on ourselves but it is an understanding that we cannot live in a way which has not been gifted to us from God. Our best reflection is to look at each day and see what I can give thanks for and what brought life to me and others? By discovering what brings life we can discover who we are called to be and discover the person God knows us to be. 

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