The sooner our soul accepts that what God desires to give in prayer is a deeper encounter with his transcendent mystery, the more securely do we advance in a passion for God as our beloved Lord. There is a link between our passion for God and our experience of his ultimate mystery as God. This connection is especially true in contemplating Jesus Christ in our prayer, who as a man looking at us nonetheless conceals infinitude in his eyes. The face of Jesus in the Shroud of Turin can have this effect on us if we gaze at it with love for some time. Looking at this face in a lingering gaze, we confront a mystery beyond our conception. We are staring at our beloved God in the beaten face of a crucified man. The divine reality hides there in that mysterious face and we cannot surpass the limits of our human vision. And yet, strangely, as his face remains before our eyes, it contradicts any suggestion of an insurmountable barrier between our soul and God. His features, the closed eyes, the swollen cheek bones, the teeth clenched in death, draw our own passionate desire even as this face hides a presence of utmost mystery. We can only speak of an inexplicable conversion of soul in the experience of gazing on the face of the crucified Lord. It is as though his face had a mysterious power to overcome all our natural sense of separation and distance from God. (Conversion, Haggerty, 172).
Prodigal Catholic 