Part 2: Every Symphony Unfinished

Transformation of Desire

But, our hungers and our desires can lead us down troubled paths. Our God-given spiritual longing, which may be expressed in many ways, including creative, erotic energy is dangerous for us if not carefully tended. We need to be realistic, and have a reverence for that energy within us. One contemporary spriritual writer comments: "Spirituality is about finding the proper ways, disciplines, by which to both access that energy and contain it." The goal is not the annihilation of desire, but the transformation of desire.

Over a lifetime, our desires, which often dissipate and fragment us, are gradually shaped through discipline and grace. We are not getting tougher. Our desires are changing. The desires of our hearts are more and more in accord with God's desire for us and the world. We begin living in a consonance of desire. Or, as Saint Teresa of Avila said simply, "And now, I want what you want."

Every Symphony is Unfinished

As a Lay Carmelite, I read the Carmelite Review periodically. This article, I thought, was worth posting.

...an excerpt from the Carmelite Review by Father John Welch, O.Carm. - Prior Provincial, Part 1:

God is the first contemplative.
Christians believe that the true story of our lives is a love story. One telling of the story says that God, the first contemplative, gazed on us, and made us alluring. Attracted by one hair of our head, God had to fall in love with us. It is not we who first loved, but God who first loved us. We are born loved. And that love wounded our heart, making it ache for love's fulfillment.

Our pilgrimage through life is to find the One who made us this way. We want that One to come back and finish the love affair. Our search takes us through God's creation. And we ask that creation to tell us something about the One who wounded us. Creatures do speak of their Creator, but then point down the road, urging us to continue the quest.

It is natural to be restless, unfulfilled, ill-at-ease, never finally settled. Certainly, there can be a neurotic restlessness, but a low-grade ache for more tugs at most of us. One theologian observed: "Every symphony is unfinished." In every possession, in every relationship, in every accomplishment, there is an incompleteness.

We are made to yearn, to desire, to ache, to hunger and thirst until we find something or someone that meets the depths of our yearning. The Christian story tells us that only God is sufficiant food for the hungers of our heart.

"We were made for you, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." - St. Augustine.