This week I have come across this beautiful prayer from St. Nicholas of Flue:
“My Lord and My God, take from me everything that distance me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you”.
St. Nicholas of Flue
It helped me to put things into perspective. What is it that we really want and why is it that even if we feel content by our material possessions, achievement our hearts remain restless?
I believe that deep inside any sane person wants happiness. Many people have different definitions of what happiness is and many different ways to find it. The problem is that we often confuse what happiness is and look for it in all the wrong places. I rather have a very simple definition of what happiness is. Happiness is a state of fulfillment. The question is what is fulfillment? I think that St. Augustine of Hippo, in the fourth century, had the answer when he wrote in the Confessions:
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”.
We are truly happy when all our desires and actions rest upon the Lord. Think about it… as Fr. Vincent Serpa, chaplain of the Catholic Answers apostolate, says: “He loves you with such a love that keeps your heart beating and with such a love that cause his heart to stop”. He loves you with such a Love that he only wants what is best for you. Period.
So when I found St. Nicholas of Flue prayer it all made sense. Why want anything that will keep me away from such Love? Why not seek anything that will bring me closer to such Love? Why not give myself completely to His love? Even if we keep falling and hitting our heads against the wall every time we sin, it is totally worth it!
God Bless.
Intrepid Muses 