My take on the Romantic

The truth of a romantic spirit is in this statement:
"My heart is restless untilss it rests in you, O Lord."
-St Augustine

Disclaimer: I will not be giving out dating advice here. I know you are probably disappointed.

The romantic is one (male or female) who tends to dwell on thoughts of longing and take emotional tendencies. This of course is an overly simplistic definition of the romantics train of thought. The romantic has a unique and intrinsic way of seeing the world and their life. Better yet every romantic has a his own unique strain of romanticism. Each person tends towards romanticism at certain moments, but the romantic is own who tends to it more often then not. This is both good and bad.

First, we will take the bad. The romantic is dwells on thoughts of longing. There is a basic fault with this. When one longs for something different then he has, then by default he is longing against his state in life and this is usually a strife against the will of God. The unusual fault in this longing is the desire for a perfect experience for the self. The individual hopes for the good of the self and sometimes at the harm of the other. Also, the emotional tendencies of the romantic engulf him into a state of life dictated to by feelings. This is a great misstep. Living life by something so fickle as the experience one has with the changing responses to life is a dangerous bequeath of the individual will. Emotions are powerful, and the romantic often finds himself being encapsulated by them and he soaks in them. This further encourages the longing for that which one has not.

Now the good:Many great holy men and woman have been romantics. St. Augustin, Bl. John Paul II, Little St. Therese. The list goes on. These romantics tend towards great holiness, the key is the way of directing your longings and guiding your emotions. The reason we long is because we our empty of the grace of God, or not satisfied with the extent to which we are exposed to Him. That's a good thing. We should long for God, but when we long for that which is not of God, we are blocking our own path to Him who is the only being capable of ever filling the need for more. When you dwell on God, your emotions become powerful assistants on the path towards redemption, you longing becomes like road maps on the way to Christ, and the romantic is well suited for this travel. Like all of human struggles, the nature of the thought is not bad or harmful, it is the direction we take it in. It is our guidance of the tendencies that decide our ultimate competence in the sight of out tendencies.

Do not try and ignore your romantic tendencies, instead use them in a healthy way that allows you to draw nearer to God. That is the need for all of  us struggling with core issues. There is no such thing as a hopeless romantic, there is always hope, especially for a romantic.

God Love you,

AMDG
Peter James d`Aquino