Contemplative prayer

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I talked to my priest via email concerning the “uncreated light” which is what we can see of God. Then there is his essence we cannot know. To work with the uncreated light he suggested contemplative prayer. I thought of Teresa of Avila. How does one begin this contemplative prayer? Is it like lectio?
 
I have no idea what the answer to your question is, but I am very curious how others respond. 🙂
 
There is no single method of contemplative prayer Bill. I remember that Cardinal Basil Hume OSB was once asked how long he prayed for each day. He said ‘usually about 5 minutes’. The interviewer looked puzzled. Basil replied, ‘but it takes me about an hour to get to that five minutes’ 🙂

Personally I pray with psalms, canticles, and scripture. Then I bring people to mind who are in need of prayer, and bring my own needs to God. It is only after doing this that I find I can settle down into wordless prayer (sometimes I need to use a phrase, such as ‘Lord Jesus Christ, I trust you with everything’ to settle the mind further when it starts thinking). Like Cardinal Hume I find that it can take a long time to settle into contemplative prayer, and sometimes the mind stays too busy (like ‘a sack of monkeys’ as the Buddhists say, or the contemplative Muslims have the nice phrase ‘wuzz-wuzz’ for all the unbidden thoughts of an active mind that won’t settle).

That’s just one perspective.

Good bless,

Michael
 
There are a number of different ways to pray contemplatively. A lot depends upon your own personality. Lectio is certainly one approach. So is the Jesus Prayer. To state the obvious the aim of contemplation is to contemplate. That is, you are focussing on something other than yourself. The aim is to allow yourself to be transformed by that which, or whom, you contemplate into an image of it itself (or Him Himself).

What you have to find is a method which puts you into a state of willing receptiveness to God. St Teresa, St John of the Cross, St Ignatius Loyola, St Frances de Sales, St Clare of Assisi and others all proposed methods of doing this. You could explore these. Catholic tradition, though, usually counsels that you search for a person to act as your spiritual director who can guide you wisely. Many of the Religious Orders have people willing and able to act in this way. Perhaps you could search for one there.
 
I don’t think I’ve ever done this.

The fact that my brain acts like a jar full of wasps being shook I don’t think I will ever get there.

😊
 
catholicscot said:
There are a number of different ways to pray contemplatively. A lot depends upon your own personality. Lectio is certainly one approach. So is the Jesus Prayer. To state the obvious the aim of contemplation is to contemplate. That is, you are focussing on something other than yourself. The aim is to allow yourself to be transformed by that which, or whom, you contemplate into an image of it itself (or Him Himself).

What you have to find is a method which puts you into a state of willing receptiveness to God. St Teresa, St John of the Cross, St Ignatius Loyola, St Frances de Sales, St Clare of Assisi and others all proposed methods of doing this. You could explore these. Catholic tradition, though, usually counsels that you search for a person to act as your spiritual director who can guide you wisely. Many of the Religious Orders have people willing and able to act in this way. Perhaps you could search for one there.
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Agree.
 
If you have the time, attending a silent directed retreat is a good start. But be warned, going towards contemplation is a hard difficult road, at least for me. I have been working at it for a year, next week I’m going on my third week long retreat and I have worked with a spiritual director, and I can honestly say that at this point I’m still not totally clear on what contemplation is, let alone achieving it. I like the quote by Cardinal Hume.
 
Nelka said:
I don’t think I’ve ever done this.

The fact that my brain acts like a jar full of wasps being shook I don’t think I will ever get there.

😊
Click to expand...
There is an idea that contemplation has to be something like Buddhist meditation where everything is stilled and then in due course enlightenment arrives. I don’t think that we can make that a universal rule though. God is not a beautiful picture which we have to stare at like in an art gallery. He is our beloved whom we seek to know better and to love more.

For some people a receptive stillness is indeed the best vehicle to achieve this. Others can get just as close by other contemplative paths. However restless your mind might be there are things which at times you exclusively focus on because they attract your attention for one reason or another. It might be a football game or music or dancing or programmes on the History Channel or whatever. Your mind and your feelings and emotions all act in the same direction at the same time. You are contemplating.

Harnessing these energies to spend a little time each day focussing on the Love of God is what contemplation is. I spent years learning to be still and I could sit for an hour or more without paying attention to my thoughts. It was wonderfully therapeutic my pulse slowed right down and I felt thoroughly relaxed. Never felt even slightly closer to God though. Then I realised, my thing is reading and writing. So now I read prayerfully, reflect on what I have read and then recast it sometimes as a written meditation sometimes as a poem (hence my blog) and sometimes I realise I don’t really understand so I have to read again or read something that will explain it better for me. And all this time I am focussing on Him and who knows perhaps receiving abundant Grace the while.
 
One book on prayer I would thoroughly recommend is Sister Ruth Burrows’ “Essence of Prayer”*. Her central point is that all prayer (and not just contemplative prayer) opens ourselves up to God working within us. So all prayer is God’s work much more than our own. She teaches that we shouldn’t have anxiety over prayer, we shouldn’t worry about which ‘technique’ or practice is ‘best’ as that is like judging our time with God. Rather we should find a type of prayer that we are comfortable with. For some that might be silent prayer, for others the Rosary, for others a shared prayer group, for others lectio, for others the Divine Office or more simply praying the psalms, for others it might be more regular attendance at Mass.I’m sure I have forgotten some/many others as well. These are all gifts of God to us, and these different gifts are suited to people of different temperaments, and maybe different types of prayer are more suited to us at different stages of life.

*P.S. I find Sr Ruth inspirational because she is a faithful Carmelite nun of decades of devotion who says that she doesn’t feel the presence of God. What faith!
 
billcu1 said:
I talked to my priest via email concerning the “uncreated light” which is what we can see of God. Then there is his essence we cannot know. To work with the uncreated light he suggested contemplative prayer. I thought of Teresa of Avila. How does one begin this contemplative prayer? Is it like lectio?
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You should get the book called Fire Within by Father Thomas Dubay. This is about contemplative prayer referencing St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross.
 
Nelka said:
I don’t think I’ve ever done this.

The fact that my brain acts like a jar full of wasps being shook I don’t think I will ever get there.

😊
Click to expand...
Yes, but don’t let that discourage you. As we gently let go of the distractions and focus on the Presence of the Lord, we are choosing Him. Persistence in this works! God blesses our focusing on His Presence.
 
Michael_Allen said:
One book on prayer I would thoroughly recommend is Sister Ruth Burrows’ “Essence of Prayer”*. Her central point is that all prayer (and not just contemplative prayer) opens ourselves up to God working within us. So all prayer is God’s work much more than our own. She teaches that we shouldn’t have anxiety over prayer, we shouldn’t worry about which ‘technique’ or practice is ‘best’ as that is like judging our time with God. Rather we should find a type of prayer that we are comfortable with. For some that might be silent prayer, for others the Rosary, for others a shared prayer group, for others lectio, for others the Divine Office or more simply praying the psalms, for others it might be more regular attendance at Mass.I’m sure I have forgotten some/many others as well. These are all gifts of God to us, and these different gifts are suited to people of different temperaments, and maybe different types of prayer are more suited to us at different stages of life.

*P.S. I find Sr Ruth inspirational because she is a faithful Carmelite nun of decades of devotion who says that she doesn’t feel the presence of God. What faith!
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Yes! Clinging to God without good feelings strengthens our faith!
 
billcu1 said:
I talked to my priest via email concerning the “uncreated light” which is what we can see of God. Then there is his essence we cannot know. To work with the uncreated light he suggested contemplative prayer. I thought of Teresa of Avila. How does one begin this contemplative prayer? Is it like lectio?
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You may start with understanding the boy Samual’s response in the old teatament. When Samual knew God was trying to tell him something he said in response to God, “speak Lord, for your servant listens.”

Just put yourself in his place at rest and at attention for God to speak to you, and just stay in a listening mode ready to hear him when he does. This of course means that we are silent in the mind because we are listening for him. Paying attention would exclude other thoughts. And basicaly put yourself in a loving fashion toward God.

Then wait.

There are of course some other considerations to be made in preparation which St. Theresa of Avilla made in her autobiography. But one thing she said was, sometimes it is suprising how very quickly some are able to accomplish this. So it can happen after a time or quickly. If it dosen’t happen quickly then just stay with it. Also pray that God may give you the grace of contemplation.

May God our Father give you grace and peace.
 
Setting aside the idea of “uncreated light”.

Regarding Contemplation/ Contemplative Prayer: Catechism: scborromeo.org/ccc/p4s1c3a1.htm#III

It can be noted that there is acquired contemplation…and infused contemplation.

And to confuse things (unintentionally) there are various authors and various schools who use term “contemplation” differently…in their writings (over the centuries)

(and I am meaning here even only those who writers and schools that do not depart from faithfulness to the Church or who are not Christians to begin with -the term gets used in various ways among them as well).

Though a basic outline that I use to explain things is that it can be said that there is acquired contemplation --which can be on a philosophical level (read Josef Pieper on “natural contempation”) or on the theological level …and there can be even the ordinary kind like that of a mother “contemplating” her sleeping child or our contemplating nature. These are a true contemplation.

And there can be “acquired contemplation” (that is “acquired” -reached by us -though of course grace is involved) in the sense of a kind of contemplation in prayer where things become more of a intuitive gaze (to look and to love ) etc (such as prayer of simplicity). (within which too God might begin to give infused contemplation as well)

And then there is “infused contemplation”…infused by God. Which also involves looking and loving. But is directly given by God - not by our acquiring such.

(and when I say looking and loving in either form- I do not mean only exterior looking…thought that can be the case…for such can quite often be quite interior)
 
“On this second Sunday of Lent we celebrate Saint Gregory Palamas who was a defender of a principle mystical teaching of Orthodoxy that we can experience God’s Divine Energies even though we can never know His essence. He explained that when the Apostles witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor, that they were seeing the actual uncreated light of God. This was not some created experience. He also taught that it is possible for others to be blessed to see that same uncreated light of God by repentance, spiritual discipline and the practice of the Jesus Prayer. Saint Gregory cautions those of a rational mind to be open to the incredible mystery that is available to those who are pure of heart.”

orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2010/02/truth-of-uncreated-light-of-god.html
 
Michael_Mayo said:
“On this second Sunday of Lent we celebrate Saint Gregory Palamas who was a defender of a principle mystical teaching of Orthodoxy that we can experience God’s Divine Energies even though we can never know His essence. He explained that when the Apostles witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor, that they were seeing the actual uncreated light of God. This was not some created experience. He also taught that it is possible for others to be blessed to see that same uncreated light of God by repentance, spiritual discipline and the practice of the Jesus Prayer. Saint Gregory cautions those of a rational mind to be open to the incredible mystery that is available to those who are pure of heart.”

orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2010/02/truth-of-uncreated-light-of-god.html
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I’ve came across this and learned some interesting things. There is something called Quietism. Some things too for some reason the church calls heresy I’m not sure what though. If it works I don’t see the problem. But we must fit God into our box some think. Yes this Palamas seems like an interesting fellow but I don’t know if he’s a Catholic saint or not.
 
Contemplation is a gift of tears, shed tears when one experiences the unspeakable sweetness and fire of God’s love. A person who has not experienced contemplation never understand. People who experienced contemplation ceases to desire the pleasures and delights of this world and longs only for God. It is a pure gift of God can not work it out by themselves. Meditation Buddhist or Muslim and the like is fake and empty.

Translated by Google Translate
 
For me, Contemplative Prayer, or more accurately, “Quiet Prayer,” is nothing more than turning to God who dwells within, and resting in His presence. It is an act of love.

In this prayer, we open ourselves up to contemplation, which can only come from God.

Sitting in a comfortable chair with my eyes closed, I turn the focus of my intention toward God, and I slowly say the Jesus Prayer, three times. “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” As I begin to quiet down, I merely say the words, “Lord Jesus,” and repeat it slowly with reverence, as my facilities quiet and I turn within to be with God.

When I become aware that my mind has drifted off away from prayer, I merely return to my prayer word, “Lord Jesus.” There is no anxiousness about it, nor expectation of some profound event to take place. It’s loving God in His presence, because He is God, nothing more.

Whatever God gives me in prayer, is His gift, not any method of prayer or technique I’ve used.

The same concept is used in saying the Rosary, Lectio Divina, or other forms of prayer. Consciously praying in God’s presence is what St. Teresa of Avila called, “Mental Prayer.” It doesn’t matter if your using “contemplative prayer,” or “discursive verbal prayer.” Always pray with the awareness that you are in God’s presence.

It takes time to quiet down and for many people, trying to sit silently for two minutes is near impossible when they first begin.

However, you should give yourself 20 minutes, two times per day for quiet prayer as the practice becomes part of your life.

This has been my way of prayer for over 35 years now. The riches the Lord has given me are beyond words.

Centered In Christ Jesus
Jim
 
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