How do you Catholics meditate?

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Curious11

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So I’m not a catholic and have never owned a rosary (quite frankly, I don’t even know where to get one or how much they cost) so rosary is out of the question for me.

How do you guys meditate? And can a Christian meditate without prayer, sort of like a Buddhist kind of thing but without Om and focusing on God’s word?
 
The thing is, the Roasy really is possible for anyone- you don’t need beads- Search “How to pray the Rosary” online… God gave us 10 fingers for a reason 🙂

Prayer and Christian meditation are deeply intertwined- some would say essentially the same thing- and both come from the same root- a desire for communion with God.
 
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I appreciate your gesture, but I understand nothing of what you just told me, I’m afraid. Are you saying the way you pray the rosary depends on the day? And how do you “announce the mystery”?

I’m what we in Spain call a big “cateto” (illiterate) on these matters
 
Okay that clears things up
Thank you!
 
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Curious11 said:
So I’m not a catholic and have never owned a rosary (quite frankly, I don’t even know where to get one or how much they cost) so rosary is out of the question for me.

How do you guys meditate? And can a Christian meditate without prayer, sort of like a Buddhist kind of thing but without Om and focusing on God’s word?
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  • One form is the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
Catechism
435 … The Eastern prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer, says: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” …
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IN BRIEF

2720 The Church invites the faithful to regular prayer: daily prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the feasts of the liturgical year.

2721 The Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer:
  • vocal prayer,
  • meditation, and
  • contemplative prayer.
They have in common the recollection of the heart.

2722 Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ’s example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples.

2723 Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered, by confronting it with the reality of our own life.

2724 Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.
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http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1c3a1.htm
 
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You can also meditate on Gospel events by just reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and then thinking about some aspect of the passage you read. You can even use your imagination and put yourself right in the middle of the scene. You don’t have to read much. Just stop after one verse even and ponder it if you feel so inclined.
 
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You can meditate without prayer. You do not have to say the Rosary or other prayers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Rosary and say it almost daily (I make up days I miss) but for First Saturday devotion we are required to spend 15 minutes meditating on the mysteries without the rosary.

One can also meditate on other things…meditate on the Eucharistic at Adoration, or the Passion of Christ before a crucifix, or on Scripture.

I find it helpful to use a meditation aid like a video, slideshow, book of meditations designed especially for Adoration or Stations, etc. Lots of these around so you can use different ones. I’ll post some links later to some online ones.

If I absolutely don’t have a meditation aid, I just think about how the subject I’m meditating on makes me feel and how it relates to my life.

This isn’t the contemplative meditation that you read about in The Interior Castle, it’s more like trying to get a new insight or life lesson.
 
Most of the mystics differentiate between meditation and contemplation. I practice Ignatian Spirituality and his definitions vary slightly from what is the more common definition from the Carmelite tradition. A really great introduction to meditation is learning lectio divina. There are 4 or 5 steps, they’re pretty easy to learn and you could pray this way every day for the rest of your life and be assured you’re using a method that’s ancient and successful. Learning the Rosary is also a great beginning, as well as a practice that will bear a lot of fruit should you commit to it.

I’m partial to Ignatian stuff and I always recommend it where I can. I’ve written a small manual for it for a small group at my parish, if you’re interested I can PM it to you.
 
Also, the two most important aspects of prayer are making the time daily to do it, and showing up. The Church offers a lot of methods and “systems”, which is a great grace, but it’s more important you show up for it every day.
 
Very true.

Show up. I try to always keep that in mind, first and foremost.

My secret trick (not so secret) is to pray before the Eucharist in the tabernacle of exposed int he monstrance. It makes prayer so much easier.
 
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I suggest taking a look at this interesting article here about centering prayer and the views of St. Teresa of Avila. Redirect Notice

Meditation isn’t prayer, but it is apart of prayer. Often when we meditate on the sufferings of Christ, for instance, we naturally feel the urge to speak to Him. Meditation without prayer is kind of fruitless, I would say. Because it’s like a crush. You think in your mind of how wonderful that person is, but without speaking to them, nothing will come of it.

The centering prayer mentioned in the article is a certain meditation that is becoming more popular at the moment. It has no roots in Christianity and is dangerous. It requires emptying ones mind. Please do not listen to those who promote it…
 
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