The divine intimacy

I was talking to a friend the other day about how in my youth I was always craving intimacy with a woman.  When I married my late wife, I felt a great delight in being close to her both physically and in day-to-day companionship.  I had no desire for other relationships, I thought it was so precious just to live close to another human being.  But I gradually came to realise that there were insuperable barriers at a certain point to going deeper even in that so special relationship.  In my heart of hearts I was still unsatisfied, and it dawned on me that  what I had actually been craving all along was the divine intimacy (incidentally, the title of a classic work by the Carmelite Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene).  My craving could never be satisfied on this earth, it was a longing for God.  ‘He has planted eternity in the human heart’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  That was the longing that eventually brought me into Carmel, for which I will be eternally grateful.  Now I love to see that hunger in the inquirers who come to Carmel, and I feel a delight that they have come to the right place.

Intercessions:

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela, Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – multiple afflictions

RIP Philippa Hodges OCDS – funeral Thursday

S – in very urgent need of a job and income

Wojtek – massive heart attack