In the year 2026, we are blessed as Catholics with a plethora of faith-filled resources at our fingertips through modern media. Thirst for something more is temporarily satiated through enriching, formative platforms. Talk shows inspire us to be aware of our woundedness and live from our true identity as a pathway of healing. Podcasts fill our minds and hearts with profound theological reflections that in times past were available only to those studying theology degrees. Phone apps provide easy-to-access novenas, rosaries, examen prayers, and daily meditations, making traditional prayers easy to integrate into daily life.

We are indeed blessed. And with God’s blessings comes the yearning for even more. It is the nature of the Lord’s call to deeper friendship. We get a taste of the blessed life and thirst for more. The question to ask ourselves is: What is the more to which the Lord invites us? More spiritual podcasts? More spiritual books? More novenas, more rosaries? Or more simple faith and more heart in the relationship with our living God?

I recall St. Teresa of Ávila’s exhortation, in the first mansion of the Interior Castle, to get back to the basics of a relationship with the Lord. “If a person neither considers to Whom he is addressing himself, what he asks, nor what he is who ventures to speak to God, although his lips may utter many words, I do not call it prayer”. (Teresa of Ávila, Interior Castle, chap. 1, para. 9)

Make the most of accessing the multitude of spiritual resources, but then listen to the heart. There comes a time in our day, our week, our month, or our year when the longing for more may only be satiated by turning off the “spiritual” noise and going back to the basics: approaching the Lord in silent faith, praise and adoration, saying, Here I am, Lord. It is me. You are You. And that is enough for me.

Jennifer Ristine