Meister Eckhart, a 13th century mystic, said that in order to find Jesus we “need not seek him here or there, he is no further than the door of your heart”. This matches Jesus’ own words that the Holy Spirit “lives with you, and will be in you.” (John 14:17). 

When I was growing up, my mother regularly reminded me that my body, my physical body, was a temple. At the time, I thought this meant that she didn’t want me to get tattoos. However, I’ve come to understand that my body is a temple because God dwells within. This means that I must not only be concerned with keeping the outside of the temple pure, but also make sure the inside is honored as well. As I set time aside to workout my physical heart, I must set more time away for my spiritual heart. 

Do we clean the inner dwelling place where God resides within us? Do we sit in silence to let God get comfortable? Do we remove clutter like hatred and fear? 

We must come to understand that each of us are born with this divine dwelling place in our hearts. Therefore we each have threads of the same cloth, sparkling with the divine, that is hungry to connect to the threads in our neighbors. 

The minute that I heard the call to religious life, I looked around and saw parishioners praying in the Church, and my mind instantly went to a Thomas Merton quote where he wrote “Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.”

My prayer is that each of you come to believe this, to understand it. Believe and understand that within your heart there is a place where neither sin nor fear can disturb. Find that place within your heart and cultivate it, cherish it, and love it.