It was after about eighteen months of perseverance that something quite dramatic happened. Not only that but it was quite evident to me that it was not the “numinous” that I was experiencing, but it was God, at least the experience of his love that was enveloping me. The whole atmosphere at the student house [...]
It is a truth of the Church universally acknowledged that loving God is the end for which we are created. God’s love alone makes sense of and makes meaningful my life, your life. And yet loving God can seem difficult—not, to be sure, because God has loved us too little but rather because we have [...]
No task can substitute for love itself. The purpose of life is a person, and eventually that’s all that’ll be left. We will rest, truly rest, not in inactivity but with a person to love. When was the last time you reached “Inbox Zero?” As the name suggests, it’s the state of bliss that comes [...]
In the modern world, love is often ignored or perverted into lust. When we talk of governance, when we talk of relationships, when we talk of societal structures, we never mention love. What happened? How could the modern West be so very different from the ancient and medieval West? One of my greatest joys in [...]
Without any human help, it was my own desperate need to find God that enabled me to persevere in the Dark Night in which I found myself when first fervour left me flat. However, in case I give the impression that first fervour is of little consequence and can easily be bypassed, this is not [...]
At first, contemplation is called dark or confused contemplation because our heart’s desire needs to be purified and refined in many months, if not years, before the Love of God becomes tangible. Then, renewal is on the way as the Holy Spirit comes to those whose patience and perseverance in adversity enables them to receive [...]
Just as the joy I have on account of the good of my friend depends on how much I love that friend, so too is that the case with the saints. To be closer friends with the saints, we must grow in our love for the saints, and then we will be able to share [...]
Love draws you up, but it does not sweep you off your feet. Not yet. Charity paradoxically manages to give you both heaven and earth. Jesus, Paul, and indeed all Christians, keep their sights high and their feet firmly planted. Saint Paul can catch you off guard. Just when you think you have a grip [...]
The priest or religious who takes a vow of Chastity, binding them to Christ as to their spiritual married partner, will be lost without daily access to the contemplation that is for them the indispensable means of uniting them with him. From the very beginning, the faithful have been taught that the Church is the [...]
I had not seen my former student, Adam, for a decade or so after his graduation from Hillsdale College when I ran into him and his young family at the supermarket. "You once asked me" he said, "for what purpose was the soul of man made. I had little in the way of an answer [...]
Making the spiritual ascent into God is rather like trying to run up a downward escalator. The moment you stop moving steadily forwards is the moment when you start moving steadily downward. Going forwards means finding daily time to do what St Peter told his listeners to do when he was the first to announce [...]
Learning to love is more important than anything else because it guarantees the happiness that nothing else can. That is why the whole of the spiritual life and the mystic way is dedicated to teaching how love can be learned, sustained and perfected. I once attended a conference titled “The Moral Malaise” during which the [...]
God’s perfect love casts out all fear when we hand ourselves over to him in hope. Why tremble? Why hesitate? When all that can be desired is offered by the one who is powerful to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine. Change is scary. Between the unknowns we can foresee and those [...]
What happens to the muscles of our bodies can happen to the muscles of our hearts too. This can happen with ever greater intensity when spiritual weightlifting is practised in prayer, in the mystic way. The difference between conversion and repentance is so important that it needs further explanation. I hope to do this by [...]