The Fullness of Life
A God-centered Life
There is no good apart from God for He alone is good. This is a fundamental truth we all need to accept. Apart from Him there is no fulfillment, nor peace. St Augustine has long ago expressed out his famous book, The Confessions, addressing God, he wrote, "You made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless, until it rest in You."
Since God is the Supreme Good and the only Source and Giver of every good things, life can never have meaning nor purpose apart from Him. A life that has turned away from God is a wasted, miserable life, no matter how outwardly successful it may seem. On the other hand, a life that is centered on God can never fail. History can present us with many examples of men and women who turned to God and centered their lives on Him - how their live had endured well. More recent to our times were people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the late Pope John Paul II.
Let us consider just a few other examples.
St. Benedict of Nurcia, as a student in Rome, was shocked by the worldliness he saw in the city. He fled into the solitude and silence of Subiaco where he spent three years of prayer and meditation until God summoned him to establish many monastic communities, most famous of these is the Abbey of Monte Cassino. St. Benedict is known today as the Patron Saint of Europe and Father of Western monasticism.
St. Francis of Assissi was a son of a wealthy merchant. As a young man he led a rather carefree lifestyle, until he experienced a spiritual conversion which made him abandon his old way of life and even his home and inheritance in order to follow Christ in His life of simplicity and poverty. Soon after, other young men and women were also leaving their families and wealth to join him in his mission to help build up the Church. One time he was seen rising up in the middle of the night and spent hours repeatedly praying, "My God and my all."
(To be continued)