Acts 17:22-31 Sunday 17 May 2020

​'In God we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28a) 
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What do we really need in our lives? Where are we searching for these things?
What is the cost to our life and to the lives of those around us as we try to have these things?  
​
John O’Donohue in his book Anam Cara says, ‘The deepest things that you need are not elsewhere.
They are here and now in that circle of your own soul’  

While Paul was in Athens he stood up on the steps of the Areopagus and commented
that he had noticed how religious the Athenians were. Amongst all the idols and
objects of worship in Athens, Paul said he had seen an altar with the words inscribed upon
t To an unknown God’. Paul went on to suggest that this unknown God is the
God who made the world and everything in it, who needs nothing because it is this
God who gives life and breath to all people and all things.
This God wants people to search and seek and find this God. 
But Paul says that this God, whom we grope around in the dark looking for, 
is all the time not far from each one of us. This God is
the one in whom we live and move and have our being.
We are all children of this God, for this God is our very life. The God whose breath raised Jesus from the dead is the same God who lives and breathes in us.  

We have no need to go elsewhere or to beyond ourselves. There is a vast ocean of life teeming within us. There is an endless universe to explore and discover in the circle of our soul. Many of us think very little of ourselves and perhaps many of us have not allowed ourselves to live because we have been tricked into thinking that we have nothing of value to offer the world. John O’Donohue says, ‘If you expect to find nothing within yourself except the repressed, abandoned and shameful elements of your past, or a haunted hunger, all you will find is emptiness and desperation. If you do not bring the kind eye of creative expectation to your inner world, you will never find anything there. The way you look at things is the most powerful force in shaping your life. - The soul creates, shapes and peoples our inner life. The gateway to our deepest identity is not through mechanical analysis. We need to listen to our soul and articulate its wisdom in a poetic and mystical form.’ 

For further reflection - Spend some time with these words. Read them a few times, sit with them in silence, let them sink in, explore them. How will you respond to them? 

'In God we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28a) 

‘The deepest things that you need are not elsewhere.
They are here and now in that circle of your own soul’ (Anam Cara) 

A Blessing (from Anam Cara) 

May the light of your soul guide you.  
May the light of your soul bless the work you do  
with the secret love and warmth of your heart. 
May you see in what you do the beauty of your
own soul. 
May the sacredness of your work bring
healing, light and renewal 
to those who work with you and to those who see
and receive your work. 
May your work never weary you. 
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment,
inspiration and excitement. 
May you be present in what you do. 
May you never become lost in the bland absences. 
May the day never burden. 
May dawn find you awake and alert, 
approaching your new day with dreams, 
​possibilities and promises. 
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled. 
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected. 
May your soul calm, console and renew you. 
 
 ​Photo: Kilmartin, Scotland

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