The most powerful reading for me today is the psalm.  My soul is thirsting for you, my flesh pines and my soul thirsts.  When I read or sing these words I am taken to the scripture we read a couple weeks ago, Jesus’ final discourse in the Gospel of John, chapter 17.

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
"I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you . . . "

I remember when I first realized that Jesus was praying for me.  It was truly an overpowering experience.  Then, as years passed I paid more attention to what he was saying.  God is desiring union with me, with us.  For me, that is what the spiritual journey is about.  Through the incarnation, we have Christ within us but it seems to me, it is another thing all together to be in God.  That is harder for me to imagine.  What does that mean?  Is it a mystical experience? Yes.  Is it a gift? Yes.  Is it something we can learn to do, to grow in?  Yes.  It is all of these things and none of them.  All of these things and more.  Whatever You in me and I in You means, I do believe that it is what the psalmist and I mean when I pray “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord.”  Generally, when I try to give expression to this, someone reminds me that in thirsting, I am already there, in God and God in me.  Echoes of Thomas Merton’s prayer.  This is enough to stop my mind from working so hard and to just sit in the thirsting.

Today, was we pray with the scripture readings, let’s spend just a little time thinking about what we thirst for in our relationship with God.  Then, we can spend more time, just being in the thirsting.