"Or that seek after God. First, God is sought as if He were lost. One who has never had a certain thing wants (quaerit) it; but he who has lost something he had seeks (requirit) it. But man had God in the beginning and then lost Him in Paradise through disobedience. And he has become so ignorant that he does not seek God. Indeed, man, completely immersed in the flesh, wants (quaerit) and seeks (requirit) sins and evils.
Second, God is sought, that is, again and again. This means He is sought continually, constantly, always, and persistently, going from day to day, from strength to strength, and thus coming closer and closer. For God appears to those who have faith in Him, and is found by those who do not tempt Him (Wisd. of Sol. 1:2). But first it is a matter of knowing, and then of seeking. For he who does not understand does not seek; he who does not know does not love. I desire nothing unknown. But fools, because they have only feeling, and do not understand but merely feel, always and constantly seek themselves and their own interests, and therefore they all busily turn aside (that is, they turn downwards to themselves; they do not lift themselves up to spiritual things). And thus they become unprofitable, useful neither to themselves nor to God nor to their neighbor, indeed, harmful to all, especially to themselves, They exist only numerically, and in other things they are a hindrance."
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