We went to visit one of my friends who has recently joined a contemplative religious order as a postulant.

After we left, one of the friends that I’d made the trip with, said to me, “Their faces are full of joy and they are bright, especially [our friend].”

That’s the transfiguration of the body by the Spirit, offered to each and every one, because contemplation, suffering divine things, is offered to each and every one! My friend had always been like this; but now she is more so, now that her live was thrown into the deep end of the pool of mental prayer.