Hunger of the Human soul for God

[Deborah_Kloos]

The Scripture says 'I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty." John 6:30-35
The more I receive the Eucharist the more I want to receive the Eucharist and the Word of God. I thirst and hunger for more all the time and I am not sure if this is an addiction or if this is normal to want more all the time. I want and need Jesus in my life and feel such a blessing to receive Him. I was wondering how come my hunger and thirst for the Eucharist and Word of God is never satisfied and I always want more, but I also want to serve Him too, everyday. This really makes me wonder if anyone else experiences this longing for more of receiving Eucharist and the Word of God. I think about it all the time and I pray all the time. I always am thinking if I am doing right by God and how I can serve God by reaching out to the Body of Christ. I have been reading a lot about the faith and have a thirst for knowledge that is really strong. I have always had these feelings since I was a child and even when I separated myself from the church. I am really trying to understand what these feelings mean.

Deborah

 

[Nita]

Everyone’s experience is different. Altho not identical to yours, I have experienced something similar. I would have to say I experienced about three distinct “hungers”.

1. The first to hit was hunger for Scripture, especially hunger to read every word recorded in Scripture that Jesus spoke. It was a specific hunger for His words.

Am not sure anymore of the exact order of the next two, they may have overlapped.
2) Hunger for things Catholic (which actually resulted from several years of Scripture study). I went on a two to three year reading spree; lives of the saints, church doctrine, spirituality books (eg. Teresa of Avila type). When I look at the volume of reading that occurred, I’m amazed.

1. Hunger for Our Lord’s personal presence – daily Mass and visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

It is the filling of that third hunger that is the Most ____. (I don’;t know what to call it, it’s just the best.)

Now. for a long time there were pleasant or pleasurable feelings that almost always accompanied the desires as I followed them. That has changed. Not that they are never there, but it is not very often anymore. **Thank heavens **for the reading spree that God sent me on or I might have drawn some very wrong conclusions when these “feelings” ceased to be present. (Eg. I recall early on thinking those feelings were the way one knew if the Holy Spirit was present - whether it was His guidance and will!!! No good feelings, not of the Holy Spirit. Good feelings cease, maybe God doesn’t want me to be doing this anymore. etc.)

 

[Crumpy]

I’ve been reading various Jewish books, commentaries on what we call the Old Testament.

the commentaries say the the scripture shows that we are spiritual beings, every one of us. A lot of people don’t know that and certainly a lot of people deny it.

I watch Jon Stewart on his evening “Daily Show” and he takes a lot of shots at religion and government, yet he has a sense of right and wrong that seems to go beyond just his own preferences, to some objective standard of right and wrong.

I think his striving is certainly like anybody’s, to make sense of life and events and such.

We in the kingdom of God have found the pearl of great price, as Jesus said. We have found the treasure buried in the field. And, we are propelled, we are on a trajectory to throw everything aside, everything overboard, sacrifice even our lives, for what we have found and what we believe in. In Baptism we have died with Christ! And we have been** born from above**.

And, we are advised by scripture not to conform ourselves to the world. But, God has put us here for a purpose, to multiply and fill the earth (OT view) and to preach the gospel to every creature (NT, Jesus’ command), each of us in the context that we find ourselves.

And, God willing, that is what we are about, forever.