The whole life of the good Christian is a holy longing. . . . That is our life, to be trained by longing.

St. Augustine

We are essentially and ultimately desiring animals, which is simply to say that we are essentially and ultimately lovers. To be human is to love, and it is what we love that defines who we are. Our (ultimate) love is constitutive of our identity. . . . we are talking about ultimate loves--that to which we are fundamentally oriented, what ultimately governs our vision of the good life, what shapes and molds our being-in-the-world--in other words, what we desire above all else, the ultimate desire that shapes and positions and makes sense of all our penultimate desires and actions.

James K.A. Smith

Enter the deep places of our life and claim us for your purposes.

We would be more free than we are,

more bold than we dare,

more obedient than we choose

We wait for the gift of your large gift of life

that will wrench us away from death

to the miracle of Easter joy.

Walter Brueggemann

To you, O LORD, I call;

my rock, be not deaf to me,

lest, if you be silent to me,

I become like those who go down to the pit. 

David