If you are wandering in life and looking for peace, try this advice from a 4th-century writer.
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Often we can feel restless in life, not knowing who we are or what we are supposed to be doing. It can be difficult to feel any type of hope when at work or at home.
We might spend countless hours searching the internet for answers to an ache that is deep inside our heart. Nothing seems to fill it and we continue our journey of life wandering aimlessly, without any direction.
Fourth-century writer St. Augustine knew too well this ache that many of us feel and struggled with his own identity. He tried all the popular philosophies of his time period, but nothing seems to satisfy his longing.
Through a series of events, St. Augustine encountered the Bible in a way he had not experienced before and soon after fell in love with God. He then later wrote a famous line in his Confessions that explains where our heart will find true peace.
Too late did I love You, O Beauty, so ancient, and yet so new! Too late did I love You! For behold, You were within, and I without, and there did I seek You; I, unlovely, rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty You made. You were with me, but I was not with You. Those things kept me far from You, which, unless they were in You, were not. You called, and cried aloud, and forced open my deafness. You gleamed and shine, and chase away my blindness. You exhaled odors, and I drew in my breath and do pant after You. I tasted, and do hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for Your peace….You move us to delight in praising You; for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church writes, “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.”
If you are searching and trying to find peace in your life, look inside yourself and see where your heart is. Consider placing all your trust, hope and love in God, who loves you and cares for you.
Meditate on these words God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah and rest in the peace of God.
For I know well the plans I have in mind for you … plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)
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