The Psalmist said: “In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud.” What is that inner groan?   It is the desire of the heart. Again the Psalmist says: “All my desire is before you.” What is the central desire of the heart? Is it not to fulfill our purpose for existence? We were created out of love by God that we might share in his eternal life. The deepest desire of our heart is to see and be with God. St Augustine captured this when he said: “Lord, our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

 

St Augustine says in another place: “Yet there is an interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely, the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you but fix your desire on God’s Sabbath rest, your prayer will be ceaseless. Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not cease to desire.”

 

Don’t let that desire diminish. Don’t let the lure of sin extinguish the flame of desire for God. Become more conscious of this desire and cry out interiorly more loudly: “Lord, I want to see you and be with you more than anything else.”