Inner Search

Sometimes real breakthroughs in your spiritual life only come about after searing self-examination. Even in the 1950s, when books on Catholic prayer and spirituality could become bestsellers, the works of Dom Hubert van Zeller were exceptionally popular. A Carthusian monk (and good friend of Msgr. Ronald Knox), van Zeller had the rare gift of translating monastic spiritual wisdom developed over centuries into clear, practical advice for ordinary Catholics seeking to deepen their own prayer lives. The Inner Search, one of his most enduring and readable books, takes as its point of the departure the Psalmist's exhortation to "Seek the face of the Lord always!" Indeed, writes van Zeller, "the whole of our effort of faith, excercised throughout life, amounts precisely to this" -- and when it is pursued properly and consistently, countless benefits, spiritual and otherwise, soon follow. A handful of van Zeller's helpful teachings: The single most powerful “vitalizing factor” in the spiritual life Explained: “The saints are those in whom there is least obstacle to the life of Christ within the soul” 5 things that foster the gift of spiritual “discernment” 3 common excuses for neglecting the duty of corporal penance: do any of them sound familiar? False ideas about God's will that impede our progress toward sanctity. How to recognize and correct them The bad habit to which almost every excess in the spiritual life can be traced 2 ways of looking at the world: one leads to perpetual frustration, the other to happiness What it means to "discover God present in the soul” (an important step in spiritual progress) Spiritual “over-eagerness”: what it is, how it can hamper the action of grace 3 ways God “exactly fits” our spiritual sufferings to the specific needs and capacities of our souls. How each represents the pur