Heaven In Faith

5. "The Kingdom of God is within you."
A while ago God invited us to "remain in Him," so to live spiritually in His glorious heritage, and now He reveals to us that we do not have to go out of ourselves to find Him. "The kingdom of God is within... "St. John of the Cross says that "it is in the substance of the soul where neither the devil nor the world can reach" that God gives Himself to it; then "all its movements are divine, and although they are from God they also belong to the soul, because God works them in it and with it."

6. The same Saint also says that "God is the center of the soul. So when the soul with all "its strength will know God perfectly, love and enjoy Him fully, then it will have reached the deepest center that can be attained in Him." Before attaining this, the soul is already "in God who is is center," "but it is not yet in its deepest center, for it can still go further. Since love is what unites us to God, the more intense this love is, the more deeply the soul enters in God and the more it is centered in Him. When it "possesses even one degree of love it is already in its center"; but when this love has attained its perfection, the soul will have penetrated into its deepest center. There it will be transformed to the point of becoming very like God." To this soul living within can be addressed the words of Pere Lacordaire to St. Mary Magdalene; "No longer ask for the Master among those on earth or in Heaven, for He is your soul and your soul is He."