There is a kind of knowing that afterward you can never not know.  The kind that, no matter what anyone says, you know what you know, and that deep foundational knowledge is unshakeable. ~Margaret Silf

What is the “knowing” Margaret Silf refers to here?  Knowing that we are deeply loved by God.  The love of God goes far beyond a depth we can really wrap our heads around.  Once we understand that we are loved by God, once we really get this concept, it is unshakeable.  Not only is our understanding unshakeable, this deep foundational knowledge impacts the rest of our lives.

Brady captures his understanding of love!

When we get to this point of understanding we are loved by God we find that we can face things and people in our life that we never dreamed we could.  Pieces of our past may make us feel unloveable.  People in our lives may make us feel unworthy.   They may make us doubt our sense of who we are. There may be things in our lives that creep in out of the blue and cast a cloud of doubt over our sense of purpose.

When we possess the gift from God– a deep foundational knowledge that we are loved– no one, and I mean no one,  can take that away from us.  For what we hold within us is a place that is only ours.  A place that is a sacred space and the only other person who enters that space besides ourselves is God.  This is our core.  The place where we know, without a doubt, who we are.  The inner space where we know we belong to God and where we experience authentic love.

And when people in our lives try to make us feel unworthy or unloveable, we return to our space, our sacred, holy space, and we ask God to help us remember the depth with which God loves us.  Sometimes, we must return there more frequently because those in our lives or events in our lives try to seep into our foundation and make us feel unworthy or unloveable.  That is not the case, our deep foundational knowledge of God’s love for us tells us otherwise.

In time, when we re-emerge from our shared space with God, we carry with us again, our deep foundational knowledge that is unshakeable– we are, indeed, worthy to be loved by God.

Becky Eldredge

Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and writer. She is the author of the Busy Lives and Restless Souls (March 2017, Loyola Press) and The Inner Chapel (April 2020, Loyola Press). She helps others create space to connect faith and everyday life through facilitating retreats and days of reflection, through writing, and through spiritual direction. With nearly twenty years of ministry experience within the Catholic Church, Becky seeks to help others discover God at work in the every day moments of people’s lives by utilizing St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the many gifts that our Catholic faith and Ignatian Spirituality provide.