Ezekiel 36: 23-28
Thus says the Lord:
I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Let God Find You
God, through the prophet Ezekiel, speaks to the Israelites, and to us, who have been lost like sheep. Many of us have been lost before–perhaps physically, but more significantly, interiorly. We don’t quite know where we are going or even where we are.
This can come during times of transition, growth, or when we find ourselves in a new stage of life, realizing our old ways of thinking and doing don’t quite fit the season we are in. Where do we go from here?
And that is often the question: where do we go?
With God, however, we are invited not to find, but to be found—to let God find us wherever we are, to let God be the one whose eyes settle on us. In God’s gaze, no matter where we actually are or feel we are, we will not be lost.
Even for just a few minutes, try to let God find you today without any defenses–wherever you are.
—Billy Critchley-Menor, SJ, is a Jesuit of the Midwest Province; he writes on Substack at From Every Side and is the author of As It Is: Poems. He currently studies at Boston College.
Prayer
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
—Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude