Meditation for February 18, The Constant Nearness of God

Oh, what a sad illusion it is to imagine God far away, when He is so near, when He is within us, when He dwells in our soul!

It may be that due to circumstances or my interior dispositions I do not always experience facility in uniting myself with Him. If, however, my faith were sufficiently ardent I would never engage in any occupation whatsoever without an effective and lively assurance of the Divine Proximity. "I am beginning to understand," some­one wrote, "that I can belong to Him everywhere. What does it matter if I am not alone with Him in silence. He lives in me. I carry Him with me."

That is genuine, simple piety. Genuine since it is founded on a most certain doctrine. Simple because it is not depressing, be­cause it does not consist in the recitation of long formal prayers but involves only a warm and habitual consciousness of the great mystery of supernatural life, the presence in us of the Divine Guest, the indwelling of love, of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

Can I also say: "I am beginning to understand"? In reality, I should have begun to understand long ago. I ought to have at­tained by now to a complete understanding of this consoling doc­trine. I have benefited so long by the Divine Presence and yet realize It so little. I am so rarely attentive to the Interior Guest, so often distracted, not only by my duties which are a legitimate distraction, but by my levity, my little care for recollection, my sustained indulgence in useless dreaming. My consciousness of God's Presence does not correspond to God's constant nearness to me. I live distractedly, absorbed by the exterior, forgetful of my interior Guest.

"O my God, Divine Guest of my soul, grant that I may begin to understand. I need not grasp many things to become a saint. One truth as essential, as fruitful as that of Your presence in my soul, ought to be enough to change my life. Lord, grant that I may begin to grasp this great reality."_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)