Gather the scattered soul
The scattered soul
Teresa described a grace that begins to appear as the soul moves further in, which she and others called recollection — from a word meaning to gather together again. The scattered faculties of the soul, normally pulled in a hundred directions by the senses and the cares of life, begin to be gathered and drawn inward, collected into a single attentiveness to God who dwells within.
It answers a deep ache that the psalmist named precisely: unite my heart, he prays, to fear your name. He knows his heart is divided, fragmented, scattered across competing loves and worries, and he cannot gather it by his own effort. So he asks God to do it — to take the pieces of a splintered self and draw them back into one, focused on him.
This is the difference between a self flung outward in all directions and a self collected at the center. Recollection is partly something we practice — deliberately turning our scattered attention back to God — and partly a grace God works in us, gathering what we cannot gather ourselves. Draw near to God, James says, and he will draw near to you. As you turn inward toward him, he meets you, and begins to make the scattered heart one.
“Teach me your way, the LORD. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.”
— David — Psalm 86:11 (WEB)
Pray for and practice recollection — the gathering of your scattered, divided self back into one, collected at the center where God dwells.
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
A divided heart rarely feels divided; the scattering is so constant it passes for normal, leaving us thin and present nowhere, least of all to the God at our center. The interior work is to do both halves of recollection at once — to call our wandering attention back in from its hundred directions, and to ask the LORD for what we cannot manage ourselves: to unite the heart, gathering its splinters into one.
This week, practice gathering: a few times a day, pause, draw your scattered attention in from its many directions, and turn it to God at your center, praying with the psalmist, unite my heart. Reduce the inputs that splinter you, and let him collect you.
The age you live in profits from a fragmented soul, splintering your attention across every screen and worry so you are never collected enough to attend to anyone, God included. Yet a heart gathered into one at its center is finally present to him — which is precisely the attentiveness all that scattering was arranged to prevent.
Most of us live as scattered selves — our attention fragmented across a dozen screens and worries, our hearts divided among competing loves, never quite gathered, never wholly present anywhere, least of all to God. The scattering feels normal because it is constant, but it leaves us thin and restless, unable to attend deeply to the One at our center.
The grace of recollection is the gathering of that scattered self back into one. It is something we lean into — deliberately collecting our wandering attention and turning it inward to God — and something he graciously does in us, uniting a heart we cannot unite ourselves. The psalmist knew to ask for it: make my heart undivided. If you feel perpetually scattered and divided, that prayer is yours to pray. Draw near, and ask the God at your center to gather the splintered pieces of you into one.
- How scattered and divided is my attention through the day?
- Do I ask God to gather a heart I cannot unite myself?
- What splinters me most, and what would help collect me?
Lord, I am scattered and divided, my attention splintered, my heart pulled a hundred ways. Unite my heart to fear your name. Gather the pieces of me I cannot gather myself, and draw my scattered soul into one, collected at the center where you dwell. Amen.