In the Image and Likeness of God


In all our relationships we need to remember the important fact that each person is made to the image and likeness of God.  Thus we ought to be able to see reflected in each something of God.  Moreover each person is unique, and so he or she has something special to show which no one else has.  That is the reason why each person whom I meet has a claim on my respect.

The Prayer of Quiet


I want to talk about a form [of prayer] which, because it is intimately bound up with the whole monastic search for God, ought to be specially treasured: the prayer of quiet.  What matters is that we acquire the capacity to be silent in the presence of God: that we cultivate a silent awareness in which the soul meets God deep within itself.  A starting point is an awareness of our limitations as creatures, of the self beyond which lies the nothing where we encounter God.  This awakes a sense of dependence, enables us peacefully to commend ourselves to God’s providence and see in the activity of daily life his guiding hand.

Pondering Vocation with Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB

Over the next several days, we will ponder some thoughts from the writings of Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB.  Prior to becoming Archbishop of Westminster, he was the abbot of Ampleforth Abbey.  We hope you find these thoughts fruitful in your discernment...

Man, I am convinced, is religious by nature.  The religious instinct belongs to his very nature, is part of his make-up.  It is part of his make-up to be oriented to God.  True, for the vast majority of persons this orientation is unknown, unrecognized.  Often it is directed toward things that are less than God, but in so far as the mind is constantly groping towards the ultimate meaning of things and in so far as man’s desire craves to be satisfied by this or that good, then the unacknowledged, unrecognized, unknown search for God has begun.

From  The Intentional Life: The Making of a Spiritual Vocation

by Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB