Now I am getting very long winded here, so let me ask my question: Is there any inherent dangers in the Catholic/Orthodox Contemplative Prayer movement? Should one avoid Centering Prayer or the Jesus Prayer, and meditation all together? What say ye? What is your opinion(s) about Contemplative Prayer? Do you engage in it yourselves and what benefits have you discovered as a result of it? I await your responses. God Bless.
Contemplative prayer is superficially similar, but actually nothing whatsoever like the eastern religions; the goal is completely different. So to try and compare the two is like unfairly saying that your protestant’s prayer is similar to pagan prayer because it is all words and no meditation. Contemplative prayer can be summed up in the words “Be still, and know that I am God.” If one reads the mystics such as St John of the Cross, they talk about the three stages of the Spiritual Life: Purgative way, illuminative way, and the unitive way. The thing is, you do not progress from stage to stage on your own merits, it is a gift of grace bestowed to you. This is in sharp contrast to attempting to reach enlightenment.
Secondly, the danger of the eastern mindset is that you are clearing your mind to escape the illusion of what appears to be real and achieve enlightenment. This is a far cry from giving your thoughts, words, and spirit to God through contemplative prayer. One is actively searching out your heavenly Father; the other is opening yourself up to a “real non-reality” that consists of God only knows what.
A distinction is also drawn by the mystics between contemplation and meditation. Meditation is an inward prayer, and one can meditate on Scripture, salvation history, liturgy, or Creation itself. Contemplation is a higher form of prayer that is a grace given by God, and it is associated with the the higher stages of the Spiritual Life. It consists of a “silent love,” as CCC 2724 says. It’s a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, a communion in the Holy Trinity, and is “pre-eminently intense.” It is often intially experience in the illuminative way, but is a hallmark of the unitive way.
The reason the rosary is so crucial, is because it combines vocal prayer and meditative prayer, an in time will lead you into contemplative prayer. It sounds like your friend is looking to find pagan parallels, rather than actually asking what prayer is for. Are the pagans evil for praying/meditating? Or is it the focus of their prayers we should be leery of? Should not our words honor God as does our thoughts? Should we pray to God but not seek true unity with Him, leaving that for something that happens after we die? It appears that he is drawing conclusions based on superficial realities without looking to what the Church teaches about prayer first. This is similar to msiunderstandings about the rosary.
Interestingly enough, the saints teach that one goes through the stages of the Spiritual Life regardless, either in this life or after death:
- Purgative way
- Dark night of the senses.
- Illuminative way.
- Dark night of the spirit.
- Unitive way.
Mother Teresa experienced the dark night of the spirit for decades, and yet this is also why she became a saint. She was farther in the spiritual journey.
As for the benefits from this? More than benefits, my friend, prayer is absolutely essential. The Church doesn’t just teach us to be saints, she teaches us how; and the lions of the faith have developed a literal “science” of holiness. Your anger, you attachment to mortal and later venial sins, it will all go away. It’s amazing. For a phenomenal 17 disk course on completely Orthodox spiritual theology, go to
www.brantpitre.com. It covers all this and more. He uses CCC, fathers, and tradition to teach you about the 3-fold lust, how it was present in the Fall, how Jesus experienced it in his 3 temptations, how he gave the means to defend it in Sermon on the Mount, how the 7 deadly sins are outgrowings of the three-fold lust, how to identify the root causes of your sin in yourself, and the corresponding spiritual answer to the problem. He covers the stages of the spiritual life, how to recognize what stage you are in, etc. This is the stuff they used to teach to priests to help give you advice in the confessional based on what sins you were committing and what stage of the spiritual journey you were in. This set will change your life, it did mine. I wish I had learned the Church treasure trove of teaching on prayer before I had learned about the theology, in retrospect…
To answer the other question, yes, contemplative prayer was developed by the monastics. The reason for this is that in times of persecution, saints could “take up their cross” literally by seeking martyrdom. As Christianity became accepted and persecutions died down, this was no longer feasible, and so the ascetic lifestyle was developed to pursue Spiritual perfection in the Christian walk.
As for centering prayer, I can’t speak on that. I have heard contrasting views; some are for it (some Carmelites do it), others say it really is rooted in eastern mysticism. I have noticed that the people that advocate it tend to also dabble or at least draw parallels/establish ecumenical dialogue with eastern mystics, so I am leery of it, to say the least. There is nothing wrong with a mystical view of prayer; by its very nature prayer is mystical. However, if I remember correctly, centering prayer places undue focus internally, rather than externally to the Creator. This may be a gross over-simplification however, so take this with a grain of salt.
