In the great mystery of God’s plan, it is hidden souls who He uses to unleash supernatural power in the world. In our worldliness, we think it is much more “useful” to be visible while working on grand plans and lofty goals with clear successes. This is not how the Lord sees things. He calls certain people to a life of hidden sacrifice and prayer in order to aid those serving in active apostolates and vocations. The successes of those in visible apostolates or priestly vocations depend on the prayers of hidden souls.
The contemplative orders uphold the Church and the world by their prayers and sacrifices. Without these contemplative orders and the hidden laity living this calling, the Church would cease to be successful in the world. In fact, I would be willing to argue that the loss of vocations and the tens of thousands who left contemplative orders in the wake of Vatican II is in some mysterious way tied to the collapse of Christianity as a dominant force in the West.
It is the prayers of hidden souls that allow for success in the temporal order in the Divine Plan. We will discover in the next life how often our successes were won through the prayers and sacrifices of another person who was praying for us and we never knew it. Priests will discover the spiritual mothers and fathers whose hidden prayers and mortifications allowed them to persevere in their ministry.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who was a Discalced Carmelite nun, wrote a beautiful reflection on hidden souls in her essay “The Hidden Life and Epiphany.” She wrote the essay as she meditated on Christmas and Epiphany. While we are not in that liturgical season, her words offer a rich understanding of the power of hidden souls of which the Carmelite Order, along with others such as the Visitation nuns, Poor Clares, and many others are a part. There are also many members of the laity who have been called to this path of a hidden life. It is not simply about being hidden. It is that hidden souls seek deep intimacy with God through a life of prayer which allows them to help the Church and the world.
The deeper a soul is bound to God, the more completely surrendered to grace, the stronger will be its influence on the form of the church. Conversely, the more an era is engulfed in the night of sin and estrangement from God the more it needs souls united to God. And God does not permit a deficiency. The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest nights. But for the most part the formative stream of the mystical life remains invisible. Certainly the decisive turning points in world history are substantially co-determined by souls whom no history book ever mentions. And we will only find out about those souls to whom we owe the decisive turning points in our personal lives on the day when all that is hidden is revealed.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross understood the true supernatural power of prayer that is intimately united to the Holy Trinity. There is an open mockery of prayer in our culture. Whenever disaster or violence erupts, those who do not believe in God’s power mock those who offer their prayers. We too as Christians can doubt the efficacy of prayer.
At the supernatural level, it is a life of prayer and intimacy with God that allows Him to operate more freely through the temporal order. We are meant to be conduits of His grace in the world in the measure we are conformed to Him in prayer. Wars have ended, lives and souls have been saved, conversions, and the course of history have been changed through prayers. The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7th reveals this to us in an overt manner. Prayer changes things.
Hidden souls operate behind the scenes. Their prayers and influence may go unnoticed for the whole of their lives. They may never fully know how they have helped others. St. Teresa Benedict explains:
Perhaps it is revealed in an epiphany, the work of God becoming visible in our external behavior and activity noticed by those around us. But perhaps it also bears fruit that, though observed, conceals from all eyes the mysterious source from which its vital juices pour.
These hidden souls live in a perpetual state of faith, hope, and charity. They never know fully what their prayers have done. There must be a total trust in God’s plan and working in the world since the fruits are so often obscured in this life. St. Teresa encourages:
Today we live again in a time that urgently needs to be renewed at the hidden springs of God-fearing souls. Many people, too, place their last hope in these hidden springs of salvation. This is a serious warning cry: Surrender without reservation to the Lord who has called us. This is required of us so that the face of the earth may be renewed. In faithful trust, we must abandon our souls to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. It is not necessary that we experience the epiphany in our lives. We may live in confident certainty that what the Spirit of God secretly effects in us bears its fruits in the kingdom of God. We will see them in eternity.
This is a much-needed reminder in a time when darkness continues to grow that Christ is raising up souls in the heart of the Church who are interceding on her behalf. There are countless souls called by Christ to be hidden lights in the darkness through the intensity of their prayers and sacrifices. They are helping us in our vocations and missions. They are upholding us in ways that will remain mysterious until the next life, but the graces continue to flow unceasingly throughout the Church and the world. The prayers of a hidden soul intimately connected to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are powerful—so powerful that they can change the course of history.
Image by Tomasz Kmita-Skarsgård via Wikimedia Commons
