To the unknown God
To the unknown God, refers to a powerful moment in Acts 17:16–34, where the Apostle Paul addresses the people of Athens at the Areopagus. It’s a moment rich in meaning, especially for those walking the path of discernment and spiritual encounter, as in the Ignatian tradition. Let’s explore its spiritual depth.
🔹 The Context: Paul in Athens (Acts 17:16–34)
Paul, waiting in Athens, is stirred by the sight of many idols. In a city renowned for its philosophy and search for truth, Paul finds a paradox: a longing for the divine, yet veiled in confusion and multiplicity. He notices an altar inscribed: “To an unknown God.” Using this, he offers a bold invitation:
“What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”
(Acts 17:23)
He goes on to speak of the one true God, Creator of all, not confined to temples or images, who “is not far from each one of us.”
Then Paul quotes Greek poets:
“In him we live and move and have our being.”
🔸 Ignatian Lens: Discernment, Longing, and Encounter
This moment resonates deeply with Ignatian spirituality, especially in the early stages of the First Week of the Spiritual Exercises, where we awaken to our need for God and the search for meaning in a fragmented world.
✨ Reflection Points
- Desire for the Divine
The Athenians built an altar to an unknown God — a symbol of human longing and humility.
What altars to the “unknown” do I find in my own life? In what ways am I reaching for God, even without fully realizing it? - God Revealed in Christ
Paul invites the Athenians to go from the vague to the personal — from unknown to known through Jesus.
Have I allowed God to become known to me, personally? Where in my life is Christ revealing himself, even now? - God is Near
“In Him we live and move and have our being.” This echoes the Ignatian principle that God is in all things.
Can I see God’s presence in daily life, even in unexpected places — in conversations, nature, challenges, or silence?
🧘♀️ Prayer of Contemplation: Meeting the Unknown God
You might try this as an imaginative prayer:
- Picture yourself standing among the Athenians at the Areopagus. You’re curious, skeptical, perhaps longing.
- Hear Paul speak — his words are not aggressive, but gentle, inviting, compelling.
- When he speaks of the “unknown God,” feel your own heart respond. Is there a place in you that longs for clarity, truth, love?
- Let Jesus step forward from the crowd. He looks at you with deep understanding.
- Listen — what does He say to you in this moment of your searching?
🧭 Invitation for the Journey
You might consider journaling:
- What does the “unknown God” represent in your life right now?
- Where have you noticed God’s nearness, unexpectedly?
- What idols or distractions might you be being called to release?
If you’re willing, I can help you structure this as a daily meditation, and build a series around Acts 17 in alignment with the themes of the Spiritual Exercises. I will post them in the coming days.
🕊️ A Modern Areopagus: A Speech to the Unknown God
A profound invitation: to reimagine Paul’s speech at the Areopagus—not as a confrontation with ancient philosophers, but as a plea to the modern soul, which also searches, longs, and builds altars to the “unknown.” Only the Holy Spirit can pierce the veil and awaken the heart.
Let’s prayerfully reimagine this speech, as if it were spoken today—to us, to our culture—full of longing, distraction, intellect, and hunger for something more.
People of the world, seekers of meaning,
you who scroll endlessly through knowledge,
who wander between ideologies and identities,
I see your longing.
I see the altars you have built —
in science, in success, in self-expression,
in beauty, in justice, even in pain.
And among them, I see one marked
“To the Unknown God.”
This God you sense but do not yet name,
I proclaim to you now:
He is not an idea, not a force, not a projection of yoöur desire.
He is Being itself —
the One in whom past, present, and future are always now.
He created all that is.
The stars that sing, the oceans that pulse,
the tenderness in a mother’s touch,
the ache in your soul that no pleasure can soothe.
He is closer than your breath,
and yet beyond all you can imagine.
He has no gender, no limits,
and yet chose to be known,
to be called Father —
not by power, but by relationship,
through the Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
Through Him, the invisible became visible.
Through His tears and touch,
through His cross and resurrection,
we glimpse the face of the Unknown.
He is not a god made by human hands or human logic.
He is the One who calls you by name.
And it is only by the Holy Spirit—
the breath of God that moves like wind through the soul—
that you will recognize Him.
Not just as a concept,
but as the Presence who has always been with you.
He is the whisper in your silence,
the light behind your questions,
the mercy in your memory.
And now He calls you.
Not to religion-as-ritual,
but to relationship —
to turn, to open, to be found.
For in Him,
you live, and move, and have your being.
🌿 Prayer for Today
“Lord, You who are unknown to my understanding but close to my soul,
reveal Yourself through Your Spirit.
Open my eyes to the traces of Your love in creation,
in Scripture, in my own story.
Help me know You—not as a concept, but as a Father,
through the face of Jesus,
and by the light of Your Spirit. Amen.”
This is the basis of a guided meditation and spiritual exercise, a step up to the holy feast Pentecost? I shall unpack each stanza slowly over several days, as a mini-retreat and journaling journey.
