Athirst is my soul for God April 30

As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. (Psalm 42:2-3)

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly (Jn 10:10)

By Beth De Cristofaro

Piety

Gentle Lord Jesus, Protector Jesus, Lifegiver Jesus, my soul thirsts for you. Yet, faithful Shepherd, there are days when I long for things other than you and I lose my way. Retrieve and guide my soul. Remind me that the living water comes from you alone. Refresh and cleanse me. Thank you for your protection and guidance in my comings and goings.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/043007.shtml

It’s hard to be a sheep. Acting sheeplike is deemed stupid, vapid and aimless. But in Jesus’ world, sheep, the source of life for so many, are precious. And, like sheep, humans need context and guidance for their lives so we build our own sheep pens. Mosaic law defined boundaries and protected identities within the divine covenant between God and the Chosen People. Jesus opened up the law so that all people would be invited in. Peter’s vision told him: But a second time a voice from heaven answered, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’ (Acts 11:9)

Jesus taught, in a familiar and beautiful image: I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. (Jn 10:9) Pope Benedict’s book, Jesus of Nazareth, will be published by Doubleday next month. John Allen, NCR Senior Correspondent from Rome, read and commented on the book recently. The following are excerpts from his column:

“Put in a nutshell, Benedict's thesis in Jesus of Nazareth is that there can be no humane social order or true moral progress apart from a right relationship with God; try as it might, a world organized etsi Deus non daretur, ‘as if God does not exist,’ will be dysfunctional and ultimately inhumane. Jesus Christ, Benedict insists, is ‘the sign of God for human beings’."

(Pope Benedict writes): "Whenever God is considered a secondary concern, which can temporarily or stably be set aside in the name of more important things, then it is precisely those things presumed to be more important which fail….History cannot be governed with merely material structures, prescinding from God. If the heart of the human person isn't good, then nothing else can be good. And goodness of heart can come only from He who is Himself goodness, who is the Good."

Jesus knew sheep. They wander. They get lost. They slide under fences in search of more tasty weeds or a more attractive stream. Does your soul thirst for the living God? Or does it stray, looking for juicy weeds and more promising roads? Where do you look for life?

Action

Check out John Allen’s Column, All Things Catholic in National Catholic Reporter online for a look at Pope Benedict’s book. An excerpt from Jesus of Nazareth will be printed in Newsweek magazine May 11. http://ncrcafe.org/node/1056

Have you visited your Ideals lately? The women of the 124^th Cursillo have just done so. Pray for them!

Do your actions at work – whether the product you produce or to the people you manage - come from the good in your soul fed by the living Good?

As you listen to the candidates for president, do you listen with your soul fed by the living Good rather than for the one or two hot buttons that are “more important”?

In your daily dealings with your family, do you proceed from and share with them the living Good which waters your soul and heart?