The Art of Seeking the Face of God. Guidelines for the Formation of Women Contemplatives Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life

The Art of Seeking the Face of God. Guidelines for the Formation of Women Contemplatives
"The Art of Seeking the Face of God is for many reasons a unique document which represents a change of paradigm in the understanding of the contemplative life of women in the Church. The intention is to underline some of the most significant aspects that can shed some light on this life for everyone – since the contemplative vocation is an anticipation and proclamation of the ultimate destiny of every Christian and of the entire creation, namely the call to nuptial communion with Christ, and at the same time an invitation to the integral interpretation of the text.
As is already indicated by its evocative title, Seeking the Face of God, the contemplative life is characterized by the attitude of seeking that never ends, of yearning, of the restlessness of the heart, of insatiable thirst, of the attraction to and desire for God – an expression frequently used in the document to describe the contemplative experience. Thus it is a life wounded by apophatism, that is, spread open on the vital awareness of the unfathomable abyss which is God, in the constant overcoming of every idolatrous temptation of a cognitive or willed conquest, over and above every vulgarization or profanation of the Mystery, in the position of an expectation full of love, or of a vigil, a vespers, a preparation with a view to the arrival of the Bridegroom, announced in the midst of the realities of this world and open to that definitive fulfilment for which the heart hungers, “until it rests in you”."
Carolina Blásquez Casado, L' Osservatore Romano


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