I’m reading Fr. Donald Haggerty’s Contemplative Provocations and I keep getting stuck at each paragraph, like this one:

The inclination to hiddenness is a quiet mark of holiness.  It corresponds to the secrecy of relations between a soul and God.  For it seems to be God’s consistent habit with souls to conceal himself even when they are close to him.  We can surmise that the saints came to know well this divine preference for concealment.  It added intensity to their seeking after God in his many disguises.  Rather than frustrating them, the divine hiding provoked them with intense longings.  And it aroused in them a desire for their own concealment, not from God, but from the eyes of others, so that they might remain among the unknown and the recognized.  If we want to find holiness, the first place to search is in the shadows and corners.