I thirst.
“O God, you are my God. For you I long. For you my soul is thirsting.”
Psalm 63:1
Jesus thirsts to be in relationship with us and satisfy the deepest, most authentic desires of our hearts. At Sacred Beauty, we want to walk with you in sharing those desires with Jesus, and to help you hear and respond to Jesus’ desires for you too.
“I have tasted you, now I
hunger and thirst for more…
-St. Augustine
“Our deepest hungers…
are not for food and drink, not for amusements and recreations, not for property and wardrobes, not for notoriety and gossip. We hunger for truth, we thirst to drink beauty, we yearn to celebrate, we stretch out to love and be loved. This is why anything less than everything is not enough.”
Fr. Thomas Dubay
Prayer is where our thirst meets God’s thirst for us.
When we go to pray, it’s important to pay attention to our desires. What do you hunger for? What do you thirst for? Do you hunger to be seen, known, and loved authentically? Do you thirst to be in deeper relationship with your friends and community with other disciples? Do you ache for others to encounter Jesus and experience the abiding peace you have? Jesus wants to meet you there. St. Therese teaches that when God wants to give you something, He places a desire on your heart. So, when you go to pray, notice the thoughts, feelings, and desires that surface and lean into the ache. Share what you hope for with Jesus, especially during times of mental prayer. He longs for you to long for Him and the treasures of heaven. He wants to bestow good gifts and blessings to you especially as you come to Him with such openness and share the treasures of your heart.
…You touched me, and I burned
for your peace.”
— Saint Augustine
“Our lives change, when our habits change.”
-Matthew Kelly
Good habits, or virtues, free us to live a life with more love, joy, and freedom.
Virtue conforms us to the character of Christ and frees us from the tyranny of our base passions so that we can love magnanimously. When we learn about virtue and resolve to put it into practice, we grow in goodness.
Holy habits of love.
Pray. Christian prayer is all about filling your mind and heart with Christ. In order to facilitate a space of encounter with Jesus, during prayer, it can be very helpful to prepare for your time of prayer before you get there by choosing a scripture passage to pray with that complements a grace you’re hoping to receive.
Journal. When we take time to write down what happened in prayer, it helps us to solidify the graces and become more aware of how Christ is speaking over time.
Read Scripture and Spiritual Books. Read the bible every day. This habit will fill your mind with Truth to refute the enemy, help you grow in your knowledge of Jesus, and move you to love as He calls us to love. In Romans 12, St. Paul exhorts us to be conformed by the renewal of our minds. Our intellects are clouded by original sin, and it is God’s grace coupled with truth that liberates us to think and see as our minds were made to. Reading the Catechism, lives of the saints, books on prayer, and other holy writings expands our minds to think with Christ and the Church. This nourishes our hunger for Truth and deepens our faith.
Examen. Begin to pray a daily examen. This is different from examining your conscience before confession. Towards the end of the day, take 5-10 minutes to review your day with Jesus. Write down a few areas of encounter with Jesus and other things you’re grateful for. Then, briefly ask Jesus if there were any places you offended Him. Note that and ask Him for forgiveness. Afterwards, make a simple practical resolution to grow and ask Christ for the grace to follow through. Close in an Our Father.
Help! I never know what to bring up in spiritual direction.
Don’t worry, the Holy Spirit will take care of you. But, a little preparation can go a long way.
Tips to prep for direction.
Before coming to direction, it can be helpful to look over your prayer journal with Jesus a day or two before, and just notice the general movements of you heart.
The following questions can help you review and prepare. What scriptures have you been praying with? What happened during those prayer periods? Is there a virtue that you’ve been trying to grow in? What has that effort looked like? How have you seen Jesus moving? Have there been patterns of grace and promptings of the Holy Spirit that you’ve noticed? Are there lies or sins that have been surfacing?
If any of those questions move your heart, Jesus might want to use that as a launching place for spiritual direction. Usually if there’s something you don’t want to talk about, it’s the best thing to talk about first.
Holiness is a marathon and not a sprint.
“Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things.”
St. Teresa of Avila
God didn’t invent microwaves.
Have you ever noticed how the beauty of the seasons change in silence? So often, we don’t notice the rhythm of transformation taking place all around us because we move too quickly. The spiritual life is often like this as well. God speaks to us in the classroom of silence and transforms us over time. He is constantly laboring much more than we are to bring about the deepest desires of our hearts. As Teresa of Avila says, patience obtains all things. As we journey in the Christian life, it’s so important to keep this perspective in mind. It’s all too easy to become impatient and hasty with our Lord and ourselves when we don’t feel like anything’s happening. In times where you’re tempted to move too fast or give up, remember St. Paul’s words in Romans 8:28 and claim it as a banner of blessing over your life, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”