In faith attention is controlled by a new Spirit

It would be easier, we think, to turn away from introspection if we knew what we were turning towards. If we only had a fixed object to look at. If only God could be represented by an image. But the true God can never be an image. Images of God are gods. To make an image of God is merely to end up looking at a refurbished image of ourselves. To be truly interior, to open the eye of the heart, means to be living within the imageless vision that is faith, and that is the vision that permits us to ‘see God’. In faith attention is controlled by a new Spirit, no longer the spirits of materialism, self-seeking and self-preservation, but the ethos of faith which is by its
nature dispossessive.

The Selfless Self by Laurence Freeman OSB