Dear LtTony,
I tremble in my boots even *thinking *about responding
to your question. There are many devout, well-
educated Catholics on this forum whom I hope will
also try to address your question. *
There is a set of books called the Philokalia which
treats the prayer of the heart and the *workings *of
the heart. You can probably access these through
major online booksellers. These are thoroughly
Christian sources, somewhat heavy-going at times,
but well worth the effort, I think.
In my own life, I have found it salutary to look
into the recesses of my heart to see if I can
find what is my basic orientation toward God.
What I found was:
I love God with my whole heart and soul and mind.
How did I come to this realization? I’ve known it
since I was a young child. “God is the Supreme
Being Who made all things.” I was overcome by
the glory of that reality, and still am.
How might others look into their hearts? Perhaps
one way is to ask oneself: Who *is *God? When
an individual thinks of God, what attributes of His
really sing in the heart of that individual? Bountifulness, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Mercy, Goodness, Forgiveness.
God saying to Moses: I AM WHO AM, or simply
I AM.
God is *all *of these and more than we could ever
fathom. I believe that God “rejoices” when a given
human being praises Him with special reference to
those attributes which have a particularly lively significance for
that individual. Or, as I said above, those attributes
that really sing in the heart of that individual.
The Philokalia may increase the range of your gratitude
to God, because you acknowledge Jesus as Son and
Savior.
Can you imagine a God Who treasures each of us
in such a way that He also treasures our individual
praise of His attributes? Our puny little selves
“lighting up” at the thought of His Mercy, Omnipotence,
Goodness…
I hope that many others will respond to your question,
LtTony.
God love you and bless you richly,
reen12*
