Interior Life (Catholic Theology) - Garrigou-Lagrange: Three Ages of The Interior Life

Garrigou-Lagrange: Three Ages of The Interior Life

The most basic book about this topic is the Three Ages of the Interior Life by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. He compares the interior life to the usual interior conversation which each man has with himself. Fr. Garrigou says:

"As soon as a man seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. This constitutes the interior life... The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary consists in hearing the word of God and living by it."

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