A Restless Heart

Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.

Saint Augustine

A restless heart is a heart that thirsts for love, hungers for meaning, longs for real relationships, and yearns to give and to serve. We all have restless hearts until we encounter the living God. Only in him can our hearts be satisfied in his unconditional love, purpose and meaning given to our ordinary lives, Christ-centered relationships found, and service released through unselfish love.

The restless heart, . . . echoing St. Augustine, is the heart that is ultimately satisfied with nothing less than God, and in this way becomes a loving heart. Our heart is restless for God and remains so, even if every effort is made today, by means of more effective anaesthetizing methods, to deliver people from this unrest.

But not only are we restless for God; God’s heart is restless for us. God is waiting for us. He is looking for us. He knows no rest either, until he finds us. God’s heart is restless, and this is why he set out on the path towards us—to Bethlehem, to Calvary, from Jerusalem to Galilee and on to the very ends of the earth.

Pope Benedict XVI, “Solemnity of the Epiphany 2012″ ( L’Osservatore Romano, January 11, 2012)

HT: Ignatius Press