The end of our searching
One of the things that became clear, for me, throughout the whole of the New Age Movement, was that many people were looking for something spiritual in their lives. And in so many ways the movement was a response to that need in people. Indeed, many people felt they’d found what they were looking for in what it offered.
Now, I have to say straight away that there is much about the New Age Movement that I don’t understand. And what I don’t want to do is criticise other people’s sincerely held beliefs in this post. That isn’t my reason for mentioning it. And if I did do that I would be talking from a position of ignorance, which I may well have already done in the first paragraph.
No, my reason for mentioning the New Age Movement, and people searching for something spiritual in their lives, is simply that it’s my belief that they didn’t need to search so far. The goal was always so much closer to home. For me, that search has deepened my Christian faith and led me back into the Church.
The Church hasn’t been especially successful in promoting itself. But I feel sure that if many of those who have found satisfaction within New Age philosophies hadn’t dismissed Christianity and The Church out of hand — probably because it was seen as old fashioned and irrelevent — they, too, might have found what they were searching for: just as I have.
To my mind, the God of glory, really is the end of our searching.
God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.Additional Collect for The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council
