SJC9 - Purification of the Will for Love Alone - St. John of the Cross with Fr. Donald Haggerty

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Purification of the Will for Love Alone – St. John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation with Fr. Donald Haggerty

Fr. Haggerty and Kris McGregor discuss St. John of the Cross’s teaching on the purification of the will, as outlined in Master of Contemplation. The spiritual journey of aligning our will with God’s, which is the essence of sanctity, and that true love of God requires surrendering self-centered desires and habitual tendencies to seek personal satisfaction, enabling a deeper union with God. Using examples like Martha and Mary from the Gospels, he shows us the challenge of choosing God’s will over worldly distractions, especially for laypeople living amid daily responsibilities.

Fr. Haggerty reflects on how cultivating a life rooted in selfless love leads to authentic joy and holiness, using Mother Teresa’s life as a vivid example. Her ability to prioritize acts of love—like stopping to aid a homeless man even when meeting the Pope—demonstrates a life fully surrendered to God.

Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions

The Alignment of Will and God’s Desire: Reflect on how your daily choices align with God’s will and seek ways to surrender self-centered motivations.
Finding Delight in God Alone: Examine where you find your happiness and whether it leads you closer to or distracts you from God.
The Priority of Love in Actions: Consider whether your actions are motivated by selfless love and how they reflect Christ’s presence in your life.
Letting Go of Worldly Attachments: Identify any material or worldly desires that hinder your spiritual growth and pray for the grace to let them go.
The Call to Serve in Daily Life: Ponder how you can embody Christ’s love in small acts of service, especially toward those in need.
Faithfulness in Your Vocation: Evaluate how well you are living out your vocation—whether in marriage, priesthood, or single life—with faithfulness and love.
Seeking God in Simplicity: Reflect on whether you have cultivated a sense of contentment with what you need rather than what you want.
Humility in Spiritual Growth: Pray for the humility to recognize and purify any prideful motivations in your spiritual or personal life.
Joy as a Fruit of Surrender: Meditate on how surrendering to God’s will has brought authentic joy to your life and how you can deepen this surrender.
Discerning the Better Part: Ask yourself how you can, like Mary of Bethany, choose the “better part” by prioritizing prayer and contemplation in your daily life.

An excerpt from St. John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation

“After exposing these principles of asceticism, we turn to the purification of the will by the theological virtue of charity. Saint John of the Cross treats this subject in the last section of book 3 of The Ascent of Mount Carmel. The teaching is not a matter simply of self-denial leading to an emptying of the will for God. While the ascetical task is important and required, what is indispensable for the grace of contemplation is a developed capacity for deeper self-emptying. No grace of contemplation can be expected as long as we indulge coveting tendencies in our lives. A release from immoderate, self-oriented desires that turn us inwardly upon ourselves is therefore a necessary preparation for any deeper life of prayer. Seeking to please ourselves as a motive for choices is always some variation of this damaging inward turn. In the view of Saint John of the Cross, this tendency demands serious efforts of reversal. If we aspire to the grace of contemplation, our will has to give itself with vigor to the will of God. We have to strive to give delight to God by our choices and by our renunciations, not seeking to find pleasure and delight simply for ourselves. As we turn away from pleasing ourselves, we become more empty and receptive inwardly to God’s promptings. The grace of contemplation in prayer then has an open window, if God chooses to bestow it. Otherwise, that window is sealed tight. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the deeper challenges in this purification of the will for the sake of contemplative graces. As the will exercises itself in interior self-renunciation, it opens itself to a loving union with the will of God. This increasing bond with the will of God is a necessary prerequisite for the prayer of contemplation.”

Haggerty, Donald. Saint John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation (pp. 120-121). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.