Donald Haggerty > Quotes

“Only the silent hear and those who do not remain silent do not hear.” —Josef Pieper”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“The voice of Jesus that speaks in the gospel pages is the same voice that hides in the language of divine silence. But if we do not hear the one, we are unlikely to hear the other.”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“There are no mirrors in heaven—nor, for that matter, in the possession of those who love God with intensity in this life.”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“The soul’s desire is fulfilled by the very fact of its remaining unsatisfied, for really to see God is never to have had one’s fill of desiring him.” —Saint Gregory of Nyssa”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“If we desire deeper prayer, should we not also learn to pass through the crowds in secret, unnoticed by others, drawing no attention?”
― Donald Haggerty

“There is indeed an “exigency of poverty” demanded by contemplative life: the need to push beyond the familiar and the recognizable, to cross thresholds into unknown realms of rootlessness and insecurity, to stretch the desires of the soul toward longings that cannot be satisfied. Contemplative love can never seek to rest in a semblance of stability. The idea that it can be assured of its next encounter with God is a contradiction to its true longings. It does not seek to arrive at satisfaction in its relations with God or a predictable way of finding him. Rather, it accepts as perfectly natural being cast back upon its own incapacity to encounter God. It has found in a condition of homeless interior poverty the usual location for any meeting with God. But this sense of rootlessness unleashes as well an urgency to give to God always more of itself, even with nothing at hand to give. The gift must be without planning or preparation, always going beyond what has been offered to that point in life.”
― Donald Haggerty, The Contemplative Hunger

“We might note Saint Ignatius’ ideal that only God knows what he would accomplish in souls were he not hindered in the process.”
― Donald Haggerty

“Ordinarily, God is asking not for a heroism that will be admired by others, but for the self-effacement of an unnotable fidelity, a perseverance that draws no eyes. He”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“the graces are real in which God is drawing the soul to desire a life deeply rooted in him. He wants our life offered to him only from a free desire animated by love.”
― Donald Haggerty, Conversion: Spiritual Insights Into an Essential Encounter with God

“While God is the ultimate truth to be sought, it is difficult to experience a need for him while keeping steady companionship with a computer. By”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“The truth of God as still unknown cuts like the blade of a knife the sinews of the mind.”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“Catholic doctrinal truth and sound spirituality are companions. They”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“The silence in the midst of which God meets our interior spirit in prayer is ideally an inarticulate, wordless encounter of mutual love. This silence makes no argument for God’s presence; there is no need for an explanation. It often speaks no clear instruction, commands nothing definite, leaves no buried message to be later dug up and interpreted. The truth of the encounter with God in silence lies outside a formulation of language. It is conveyed without words, underneath layers of silence, in a sacred stillness.”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Enigmas: Insights and Aid on the Path to Deeper Prayer

“If we find ourselves in a malaise with God we do well to seek the company of a tabernacle. Those”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God

“a concealed presence is his manner of keeping companionship. His disguises are his way of manifesting fidelity and love.”
― Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations: Brief, Concentrated Observations on Aspects of a Life with God