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CP4 – Seeking God’s Face – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

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Reflection 4 – Seeking God’s Face – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

God is never so hidden for long, provided our eyes are open. Indeed no one grows in faith without finding signs of God’s help and intervention in daily life, small favors that could be dismissed as chance until we begin to notice their frequency. Fragmentary, perhaps, seemingly unlinked, these quiet signs reveal a personality of great kindness in God. But even more, they may reinforce the pain of those times when his concealment seems to be again steady and enduring.

Christian revelation is the mystery of divine personhood gazing at us from a human face. Yet it may be that sometimes in prayer we embrace an idea of God’s mystery in too exaggerated a manner and forget to keep our eyes on Jesus of Nazareth—even if no exchange of glances takes place and we are finally left staring at someone departing. The mystery of the eternal God hides in that human face. Often it must be sought where the divinity of Jesus Christ was most concealed, in the hours at Calvary when his face was marred and disfigured and he spoke for long interludes nothing but from his eyes.

Perhaps the saints became holy because they never made peace with the impossibility of seeing God in this life. Among the poor, or in the midst of hostile or indifferent souls, they went in search of his face, only to return again to the silence of prayer where God once more hid himself. These souls lived as though always on the verge of finding a treasure and never succeeding. Blind and groping, cast back into darkness after refusing every partial vision—this was always preferable to taking comfort in a brilliant shadow.

If we desire deeper prayer, should we not also learn to pass through the crowds in secret, unnoticed by others, drawing no attention? The desire to be unknown and hidden, concealed from sight, is not simply a monkish inclination. It is an impulse that arises with deeper prayer. This desire has a certain logic in the nature of love. We seek in love a God who has a penchant for hiding himself, and we are drawn to follow him into his own hiding places.

Haggerty, Donald. Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God (pp. 29, 31-32, 33-34). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

Discerning Hearts Daily Contemplative Prompts

How can we become more open to recognizing God’s subtle signs in our daily lives, especially during times of perceived concealment?

Reflecting on the practice of seeking God in humility and hiddenness, how can this Lenten season help us draw closer to the mystery of His love?

Obtain a copy of the book here

A great many religious people undertake a serious dedication to prayer. They are moved by a longing for a deeper encounter with God that beckons them as a distant light at night on the sea. Yet far fewer become true contemplative souls, for it is difficult to continue the quest for God in the face of many obstacles.

For those who are spiritually courageous and full of desire for God, this book will provoke them to persevere in this ultimate adventure in life-the more complete discovery of the living God. Thematically unified by the notion of God’s ultimate transcendence to our limited human knowledge, this work offers a rich profusion of insights on the life of prayer and the pursuit of God.

A key to spiritual growth is the understanding that the hiddenness of God becomes a paradox in the experience of a soul seeking him wholeheartedly. Rather than enjoying a more intimate familiarity with God, the soul advancing in prayer is likely to experience more intensely the concealment of God. This surprising truth undergirds true contemplative prayer. It is a reason why every contemplative soul, and every saint, is inflamed with a never satisfied thirst for God.

CP3 – The Hiddenness of God – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

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Reflection 3 – The Hiddenness of God – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

God is more present in prayer than we may often think, turning toward us with a father’s solicitude to protect our soul in some manner, assuaging some doubt, removing some uncertainty. In this there may be no image, no emotion, no particular thought. Yet the effect within our soul is a certitude that God is very personal in his love. He asks us to trust this truth.

The simple truth is that God is perplexing in his love. It is the paradox of more intimate relations with him. Unfortunately we may stop too soon on the path that leads more deeply into his love. Our experience in prayer can cause us to halt prematurely. God’s preference for hiding does not match our expectation of intimacy with him. His presence to us in prayer offers no easy assurances of his love. Indeed God may seem painfully unknown when he is sought most intensely. It can be as though we induce him to hide when we desire him most. We know him sometimes only as he leaves behind sharp hungers in our soul.

A tension between God’s disclosure of himself and his hiddenness is always present in our relations with God. For reasons we never fully fathom, God determines the pace and the extent to which he uncovers any glimpse of his face. This is unique and personal for each soul; yet certain patterns are recurring. These point to the partial nature of every experience of divine love and the return by God afterward to deeper mystery. A rhythm of divine approach and disappearance repeats continually. This interchange educates us in the paradox of relations with God. When God is drawing closer, it is not uncommon that darkness encloses the soul for a time. Trials become precursors to deeper graces in prayer. More significantly, the purifications God imposes parallel the disclosure God is preparing. When he shows himself, it will be in camouflage and shadow, the glimpse of his face often not recognized until later. The pattern extends outside prayer, too. A poor man’s face, uncomprehended at the time, leaves our soul disquieted, longing for God and not knowing why. After every instance of showing himself, Our Lord disappears again from sight, a further provocation to spiritual hunger.

Haggerty, Donald. Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God (pp. 27-29). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

Discerning Hearts Daily Contemplative Prompts

Reflect on times when it felt like God was distant in your prayers, making you long for a closer connection

How have these experiences tested or strengthened your belief in God’s love and the complex process of getting closer to Him?

During Lent, how can accepting God’s mysterious absence help you see the unique ways He shows His love and presence, often when you least expect it?

Obtain a copy of the book here

CP2 – The Law of Divine Concealment – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

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Reflection 2 – The Law of Divine Concealment – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

The law of divine concealment is inescapable in all deeper prayer. No contact with God in prayer, no spiritual experience or encounter, does not quickly hide him again. He manages always to flee. Every spiritual taste and discovery becomes dissatisfying before very long. Every comfort received in prayer is impermanent, every light is temporary. But what is remarkable is that our soul’s desire can remain firm and unyielding, waiting for God to show himself, the shadows finally lifted. This may be the most unnoticed grace in prayer: we are drawn back constantly despite every difficulty and frustration.

Only partial understandings of God’s love are ever given, and these are never stable. This can provoke spiritual confusion. The experience of God’s hiding can entangle our soul in a morass of useless questioning. Indeed, if we commit ourselves to praying in a solitary silence for a sufficient period of our life, we may think sometimes that God’s hiding is the most familiar mark of his divine personality. But we ought to learn over time that a concealed presence is his manner of keeping companionship. His disguises are his way of manifesting fidelity and love.

God is more present in prayer than we may often think, turning toward us with a father’s solicitude to protect our soul in some manner, assuaging some doubt, removing some uncertainty. In this there may be no image, no emotion, no particular thought. Yet the effect within our soul is a certitude that God is very personal in his love. He asks us to trust this truth.

Excerpts taken from: Haggerty, Donald. Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God (pp. 26-28). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

Discerning Hearts Daily Contemplative Prompts

Reflect on the paradox of divine concealment in prayer as described in the passage.

How does the experience of God’s fleeting presence in moments of deep prayer challenge and enrich your faith?

Consider how the enduring desire for God, despite His seeming absence, can be seen as a grace.

How does this shape your understanding of trust and companionship with God, especially when He feels most hidden?

Obtain a copy of the book here

CP1 – Deeper Prayer – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

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Reflection 1 – Deeper Prayer – Reflections from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts

What does it mean to speak of a soul becoming contemplative?

This question is not answered simply by reference to the external setting of a life. An environment of solitude and silence may enhance the life of prayer. But it does not determine whether by God’s grace a soul becomes contemplative. Contemplative life is not bound, as it were, by geographical restrictions or the external conditions of a life. What, then, is necessary for a contemplative life?

If we seek the essential truth of a contemplative life, it is an interior quality of soul that makes a life contemplative. In its simplest meaning, this word contemplative is a descriptive term for a life given fully to God. It involves of course a committed exercise of daily interior prayer. But a soul becomes contemplative most of all by giving to God a complete gift of itself. This inevitably entails a response to quite exacting demands of divine love and, equally, a growing experience of poverty in self.

There is another startling truth that is constant in contemplative lives. This is the provocation of God’s concealment to the soul. The contemplative life draws its passion and drive in large part from the pursuit of a loving God who hides and is always beyond grasp. This hiddenness of God, even in his immediacy and near presence to the soul, provokes the searching quest of a contemplative soul for God. The concealment of God is, as well, a source of trial and suffering in contemplative lives.

The premise in all these reflections is that God is inviting us to a deeper interior life. It is possible that many souls miss the beauty of this divine summons to deepen their love. Sometimes we are simply too active and do not value sufficiently the importance of time for prayer. A perennial need within the Church is that more souls become contemplative, not just those in monasteries or cloisters, but hidden souls of prayer living in the world, mixing with the world, a leaven sanctifying it. This need to seek God with passion marks every period of the Church’s history, even as it draws little notice. It intensifies with the passage of time.

Haggerty, Donald. Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God (pp. 16-19). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

Discerning Hearts Daily Contemplative Prompts

Commit to a Daily Moment of Silence

A simple yet profound action a Catholic can take during Lent, inspired by the reflection on divine concealment and the earnest search for God, is to commit to a daily moment of silence. This can be a dedicated time—perhaps five to ten minutes—each day where you sit quietly in a space free from distractions, focusing solely on being present with God.

Obtain a copy of the book here