Pray with Augustine

The Restless Heart

Focus: Our restlessness can reveal the deeper good for which we were created.

Become quiet for a moment.

Notice what has occupied your heart today.

Perhaps you have been thinking about work, family, money, success, uncertainty, a relationship, a disappointment, or something you deeply want.

Do not try to push the desire away. Do not judge it immediately. Simply notice it. Then bring it before God.

What is my heart really searching for?

Consider whether you are asking something finite to satisfy a desire that reaches beyond it.

Augustine discovered that even good things cannot become our ultimate good. Our hearts remain restless when we expect created things to provide the peace, identity, security, or fulfillment that ultimately comes from God.

What would it mean to bring this desire to God rather than allowing it to lead me away from Him?

Remain quiet. You do not need to resolve the restlessness. Let it become prayer.

Offer your desire to God and ask Him to teach your heart what it was created to love.

Return Within

Focus: Interior silence helps us become attentive to God, who is already near.

Become still.

Notice the noise you have carried with you into this moment.

There may be conversations replaying in your mind, responsibilities waiting for you, worries about tomorrow, or the constant pull of things demanding your attention.

For a moment, do not follow them. Allow yourself to become quiet.

Augustine spent years searching outwardly for truth and fulfillment. His conversion taught him that the search for God also requires a journey into the interior life.

Return to your heart; see there what, it may be, you can perceive of God.

Tractates on John, Tractate 18

Turn your attention inward. Notice your thoughts, desires, fears, and hopes without trying to control them.

What becomes visible when I stop running from silence?

Remain there for a moment.

This inward movement is not an invitation to become absorbed in yourself. For Augustine, entering the heart ultimately leads beyond the self and toward God.

Lord, what do You want me to see within my heart?

Listen without demanding an immediate answer.

If a memory, desire, fear, gratitude, or regret comes to mind, place it before God. You do not need to hide anything from Him.

Allow the silence to become a place of encounter.

What Do You Love?

Focus: The spiritual life is shaped not only by what we believe, but by what we love.

Become quiet before God.

Think about the things that have received most of your attention recently.

Your work. Your family. Your plans. Your worries. Your possessions. Your reputation. Your comfort. Your hopes for the future.

Some of these may be very good things.

Augustine helps us ask a deeper question. Not simply, “What do I have?” but:

What do I love?

Consider where your time, energy, thoughts, and concern naturally go. What do they reveal about your heart?

What currently has the strongest claim on my heart?

Do not rush to give the answer you think you should give. Be truthful before God.

Is this love helping me love God and others more fully, or is it beginning to turn me inward toward myself?

Augustinian spirituality does not require us to stop loving the good things God has created. It asks us to love them rightly.

Bring your loves before Christ. Ask Him to strengthen what is good, purify what has become selfish, and reorder anything that has begun to occupy the place that belongs to God.

Remain quiet for a moment.

Lord, teach me to love what You love, and to love all things in You.

When Our Loves Become Disordered

Focus: Good things can become obstacles when we expect them to give us what only God can give.

Become quiet before God.

Bring to mind something you value deeply.

It might be your family, work, security, success, comfort, possessions, reputation, plans for the future, or the approval of another person.

There is no need to assume that what you love is wrong. Augustine helps us ask whether we are loving a good thing in the right way.

What am I afraid would happen if I lost this?

Notice your response. Then ask:

Am I asking something created to give me what only God can give?

Perhaps you are asking success to give you worth. Perhaps you are asking another person to give you complete security. Perhaps you are asking possessions to give you peace. Perhaps you are asking control to protect you from uncertainty.

Bring that desire honestly before God.

Augustinian spirituality does not teach us to reject creation. It teaches us to receive created things as gifts without turning those gifts into our highest good.

Lord, is there anything I love in a way that is keeping me from loving You freely?

Do not force an answer. If something comes to mind, place it before God without fear.

Ask Him not necessarily to take it away, but to teach you to love it rightly. Let your prayer become an act of surrender.

Lord, order my loves so that everything I love may lead me closer to You.

God Is Nearer Than You Think

Focus: We can spend our lives searching for the God who is already near.

Become quiet.

Think about the places where you have been looking for God.

Perhaps you have been waiting for a clear answer, a change in circumstances, a powerful spiritual experience, or some unmistakable sign that God is listening.

Notice that desire without judging it. Then allow yourself to become still.

Augustine came to recognize that his search for God had often carried him outward while God was already intimately present to him.

Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the Truth itself.

Confessions, Book X, Chapter 24

Where might God already be present in my life?

Consider the ordinary places you may overlook.

• Scripture
• The sacraments
• A person who loves you
• An unexpected moment of peace
• A difficult truth you know you need to face
• A desire for goodness that continues to return
• The quiet movement of conscience

Have I been waiting for God to arrive when He is already here?

Remain silent for a moment.

You do not need to manufacture a feeling of God's presence. Simply become attentive.

Ask God for the grace to recognize Him more readily in prayer, in other people, and in the ordinary circumstances of your life.

Lord, quiet my searching heart and teach me to recognize how near You are.

Rest in God

Focus: The restless heart finds its deepest peace not in possessing more, but in resting in God.

Become still.

You do not need to solve anything in this moment.

You do not need to understand everything that has happened.

You do not need to prove your worth, secure the future, or find the perfect words for prayer.

Simply place yourself before God.

Notice what remains restless within you.

Perhaps there is a decision you cannot make, a situation you cannot control, a wound you cannot repair, or a future you cannot see clearly.

Do not push it away. Bring it into God's presence.

What am I still afraid to entrust to God?

Remain with the question. If something comes to mind, offer it to Him.

Augustine's restless heart did not find peace because every question disappeared. His peace came from discovering the One in whom every human longing ultimately finds its end.

Am I willing to let God be God, even when I do not yet understand what He is doing?

Release what you can. Ask for grace with what you cannot.

Then allow the words of your prayer to become fewer. Be still. Rest in God's presence.

Lord, my heart is restless. Draw me closer to You, order my desires, and teach me to rest in You.