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From Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty
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“A recognition is necessary, then, when the sensation of loving God and being loved dies away and the inner spirit is barren. Identifying emotional fervor with love for God can be hard to relinquish. Reactions vary to persistent discontent in prayer: for some people it raises doubt about the value of silent prayer and perhaps they give it up; others plod on by ponderous exertion in a discouraging tepidity; still others sense they are being humbled by God. The last response can open us to a valuable intuition - that the desire for gratification in prayer is symptomatic of an indulgent tendency still unpurified in our soul. What may seem a holy passion is a disguised desire for satisfying self. The yearning for gratification compromises prayer. It has to be mortified if we are to seek in prayer God himself.” (page 76)
ignatius.com/Products/COPR-P/contemplative-provocations.aspx
“A recognition is necessary, then, when the sensation of loving God and being loved dies away and the inner spirit is barren. Identifying emotional fervor with love for God can be hard to relinquish. Reactions vary to persistent discontent in prayer: for some people it raises doubt about the value of silent prayer and perhaps they give it up; others plod on by ponderous exertion in a discouraging tepidity; still others sense they are being humbled by God. The last response can open us to a valuable intuition - that the desire for gratification in prayer is symptomatic of an indulgent tendency still unpurified in our soul. What may seem a holy passion is a disguised desire for satisfying self. The yearning for gratification compromises prayer. It has to be mortified if we are to seek in prayer God himself.” (page 76)