With all my heart:
Building a relationship with God

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Jacque Childs

When I was younger, I had a best friend. We did everything together and when we weren't together, we were talking on the phone.

It just seemed like there was nothing we couldn't talk about - our hopes, dreams, our problems, and whatever else filled our days.

My parents are like that too - best friends. Next July they will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006) Dt 6:2-6 Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51 Heb 7:23-28 Mk 12:28b-34

There were a lot of ups and downs in their lifetime, yet they had each other to talk to, rely upon, and share their feelings. It has been a lifelong relationship.

This is what God is calling us to do in the readings for today. In Deuteronomy, Moses tells the Israelites to love God above all others with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And in the Gospel of St. Mark, Jesus tells us the same, to love God with all our heart, with our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.

Our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength - it seems like a pretty overwhelming task. It means building a relationship with God.

Our heart is where we talk to God, it is where we pray. We go one-on-one with God. God wants us to become best friends.

God wants us to tell him everything, what we dream, how we are feeling, our ups and downs, our sorrows, and our joys.

And in our hearts God wants to talk to us. God wants to encourage us because God loves us so much.

St. John Damascene says, "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God." Our mind, our will, our intellect is what brings us closer to knowing God and developing that relationship over a lifetime.

God created each one of us with a soul. Our soul is our connection to God spiritually so that we can be in communion with God. When God asks us to love Him with all our soul, God wants us to increase our depth of that spiritual connection.

To love God with all our strength, now that is the hard part! With all our strength means the intensity in which we do things.

Right now as I write this article it is easy to have that intensity and love but later when I am tired, or when I have a paper to write, then I might not have all that strength. But the cool part is that God knows this and if we ask for that strength, God will indeed give it to us.

In the Gospel Jesus added an important second commandment and that is to love our neighbor as we love our selves. When we know God's love, when we understand what Jesus did for us by his sacrifice on the cross, when we understand how great a love that is for each one of us, our hearts make us want to share that with others.

	Reflection questions • Is my heart open to being best friends with God? • Do I strive to have a personal loving relationship with God?

We want to love each and every person as we are loved. We want to open up our hearts, our minds, and with all our strength be there for our best friends, our families, our parents, and our neighbors.

Our relationship with God transforms us into a loving relationship with others. How awesome is that?

Jacque Childs holds a M.S.S.W. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has been a morning sacristan for 15 years and the bulletin editor for 11 at St. Paul's University Catholic Center. In 2004 she was conferred with a Certificate of Ministry from the Diocesan Lay Person and Diaconate Institute and is currently a grad student with the Institute of Pastoral Theology, Ave Maria University.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

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