Hello I want to see God. Is it possible while still alive? A Franciscan Sister once said to me “just wait until the beatific vision, then you just won’t care about anything” which gave me hope that it was possible to see God while still alive. Unless she meant just wait until my death…I’m not sure.
A few means I know to “see God” in the body (these are not the direct beatific vision but come very close as we can while living, as “no one can see My Face and still live”):
reaching the final grade of mental prayer (transforming union here, this type of prayer we are all called to, do mental prayer daily as per St. Alphonsus Ligouri or the book “The Ways of Mental Prayer” and you will reach it)
special revelations from God (possibly rarest of all these things, theophanies and apparitions, stuff like that)
These are the heights we can go to in the body. If you purify your heart by following the moral teachings of the Church, doing good works, and praying A LOT (with the most important thing: CONSISTENCY) you will get to the heights. How long you take depends on how much you want to keep disobeying God and going back and forth between God’s Law and the world’s custom. Get a spiritual director too, they can help make it faster in obeying them (exercises humility, and St. John of the Cross says to be taken with love for a soul God does not look on the greatness of it’s works but of it’s humility).
I always interpreted this passage as meaning what you thought you were will disappear and only the Holy Spirit will remain. The death of your ego. I would be happy seeing any part of God if seeing his face meant death. Like falling to the ground and only seeing his feet or something!
The immediate knowledge of God which the angelic spirits and the souls of the just enjoy in Heaven. It is called “vision” to distinguish it from the mediate knowledge of God which the human mind may attain in the present life. And since in beholding God face to face the created intelligence finds perfect happiness, the vision is termed “beatific”. For further explanation of the subject, see HEAVEN.
DISCLAIMER: Catholic Answers has turned over the archive to Catholic-Questions.org and no longer owns, manages, or moderates the forums. For additional apologetics resources please visit www.catholic.com.
