Catholic Catechism for Adults, Ch 1

My Soul Longs for you, O God (Ps 42:2)
The Human Quest for God. CCC, Nos. 27-43
from US Catholic Catechism for Adults, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Meditation

Where did I find you, that I came to know you? You were not within my memory before I learned of you. Where, then, did I find you before I came to know you, if not within yourself, far above me?...Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!...Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. [O eternal truth, true love and beloved eternity. You are my God. To you I sigh day and night.]...You were with me but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you; now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burn for your peace.

St. Augustine, The Confessions, bk.10, chap.26,27.37

Prayer

As the deer longs for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My being thirsts for God, the living God.
When can I go and see the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
as they ask daily, "Where is your God?"
Those times I recall as I pour out my soul,
When I went in procession with the crowd,
I went with them to the house of God,
Amid loud cries of thanksgiving,
with the multitude keeping festival.
Why are you downcast, my soul;
why do you groan within me?
Wait for God, whom I shall praise again,
my savior and my God.

Ps 42:2-6

God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.

St. Augustine