Submitted by Fr. Paul Campbell, S.J.                        USA                     11.02. 2026     

Margaret Silf, author of Inner Compass, shares this reflection:

“In a story by Anthony de Mello, a fish is searching for the ocean. Everyone he asks has heard of this thing called “ocean,” but no one has any idea of what it looks like, or where it might be found. Maybe it is just a figment of fish imagination. Maybe it is just wishful thinking. Or maybe it is the ultimate reality in which every fish lives and moves and has its being. Maybe it’s the mystery that nourishes every fish and sea creature and keeps them alive and growing. Maybe it is the place in which every little stirring of the water, every hidden current guides the course of every fish, from the smallest plankton to the mighty whale. Maybe it is the one true home.

If you too are searching for this elusive ocean in which you live and move and have your being, then look no further than what is all around you. God is closer to us than we are to ourselves, so close that we can’t see the ocean for the water, the forest for the trees. God is closer to us than our own breathing, closer than our eyes can focus, less than a heartbeat away.

Where will we find this mysterious presence that is so close yet seems so far away? As we seek, we discover that God is, quite simply, everywhere, in all that happens and in every particle of all that that is.

Enjoy your exploration every day. Read the sermons in the stones along your path. Listen to the song that daily life is singing in your heart. Find God around the next turn of the road, just waiting to surprise you.”