To Live for God Alone (Paperback)

What does it mean to live for God alone? “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ”; “My God and my all”; “God alone suffices”—these statements from the saints express the single desire that unified their hearts and gave direction to their lives. “God alone” was the constant theme of Saint Rafael Arnaiz (1911–1938), the expression of the search for God that informs any monastic vocation. Saint Rafael was profoundly and thoroughly a monk, even though ill health repeatedly forced him to leave the monastery, and he was never formally professed. With his single-hearted love for Christ and for the Blessed Virgin, he faithfully walked a path of trials and suffering that matured his faith, sharpened his longing, taught him to wait and to hope in God, and opened his heart to love. To Live for God Alone invites the reader into the compelling story of Rafael’s personal journey and into his penetrating insight into the cross and the Christian vocation. 

Mark O’Keefe, OSB, is professor of moral theology at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. Among his most recent books are In Context: Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and Their World (2019); The Way of Transformation: Saint Teresa of Avila on the Foundation and Fruit of Prayer (2016); and Love Awakened by Love: The Liberating Ascent of Saint John of the Cross (2014). An experienced spiritual guide and retreat director, he also currently serves as resident chaplain of the Carmelite Nuns of Terre Haute, Indiana.