St. John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation with Fr. Donald Haggerty – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Join Fr. Donald Haggerty and Kris McGregor discuss the depths of prayer as explored by St. John of the Cross, Mystical Doctor of the Church. Saint John of the Cross is the Church's premier teacher on contemplative prayer. Catholic tradition even calls him the Mystical Doctor. The sixteenth-century Carmelite priest not only wrote four massive treatises on the spiritual life, along with some of the finest poetry in the Spanish language, but also worked alongside Teresa of Ávila in renewing the Carmelite order. Thérèse of Lisieux claimed she found no other spiritual reading that could satisfy her soul like John of the Cross.

Yet the volume and intensity of Saint John's work can make his teachings seem daunting, even to trained theologians. Father Donald Haggerty, author of The Contemplative Hunger and Contemplative Enigmas, offers listeners a unique step-by-step introduction to the way of contemplation as Saint John understood it and taught it—a burning, transformative intimacy with the God who made us.