Spiritual Yearning
Persons who love truth and God, who thoroughly wish to put on Christ with great hope and faith, do not need so much encouragement or correction from others. They never give up their longing for heaven and their love of the Lord, granted that from time to time they fear patiently a bit of diminishment in that love. But being completely attached to the cross of Christ, they daily perceive in themselves that they are spiritually progressing toward their spiritual Bridegroom.
Having been wounded by the desire for heaven and thirsting for the justice of virtues, they await the illumination of the Spirit with the greatest insatiable longing. And should they be considered worthy to receive through their faith knowledge of divine mysteries or to be made participators of the happiness of heavenly grace, they still do not put their trust in themselves, regarding themselves as somebody. But the more they are considered worthy to receive spiritual gifts, the more diligently do they seek them with an insatiable desire. The more they perceive themselves advancing in spiritual perfection, the more do they hunger and thirst for a greater share of and increase in grace. And the richer they become spiritually, the poorer they consider themselves, as they burn up interiorly with an insatiable spiritual yearning for the heavenly Bridegroom as Scripture says: “They that eat me shall still be hungry and they that drink me shall thirst” (Ecclesiasticus 24:21).
Macarius the Great, from The Fifty Spiritual Homilies
Macarius the Great (295-392) was among the most authoritative of the Desert Fathers and a disciple of Anthony the Great. His spiritual writings are among the most highly valued in the Eastern church. They have come to be highly regarded also in the Western church. The 18th century British revivalist, John Wesley, wrote in his diary: “I read Macarius and sang.” Wesley would go on to translate Macarius’s Homilies for his traveling preachers. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies have one purpose — to help bring individuals to God in absolute devotion.