How to do Contemplative Prayer?

[Inquiringperson]

I don’t get how to do contemplative prayer. I’m afraid of doing “centering prayer” instead of contemplative prayer.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

Are you referring to meditation or infused contemplation? Of the 9 levels of prayer, which one are you referring to?

 

[underacloud]

I suggest reading The Cloud of Unknowing. It is a great introduction to the practice of contemplative prayer and the general principles of mysticism.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I don’t get how to do contemplative prayer. I’m afraid of doing “centering prayer” instead of contemplative prayer.

Centering Prayer is contemplative prayer for the person, seeking to do contemplative prayer, but it’s a prohibited topic in this forum.

Contemplative prayer is opening yourself up to the presence of God, who dwells within.

In the Eastern traditions of the Catholic Faith, the desert mystics of the fourth and fith centuries like Abba Isaac of Egypt. St John Cassian gave a talk about he and another monk, Herman asked permission from their abbot to seek out Abba Isaac who was known for being a man of true prayer, in order that too could learn the true method of prayer that would bring them closer to God.

Abba Isaac taught the two monks to pray and this is what he told them, according to St. John, Cassian;

*I think it will be easy to bring you to the heart of true prayer. . . . The man who knows what questions to ask is on the verge of understanding; the man who is beginning to understand what he does not know is not far from knowledge.

I must give you a formula for contemplation. If you care-fully keep this formula before you, and learn to recollect it at all times, it will help you to mount to contemplation of high truth. Everyone who seeks for continual recollection of God uses this formula for meditation, intent upon driving every other sort of thought from his heart. You cannot keep the formula before you unless you are free from all bodily cares.

The formula was given us by a few of the oldest fathers who remained. They communicated it only to a very few who were athirst for the true way. To maintain an unceasing recollection of God, this formula must be ever before you. The formula is this: “0 God, come to my assistance; 0 Lord, make haste to help me.”

Rightly has this verse been selected from the whole Bible to serve this purpose. It suits every mood and temper of human nature, every temptation, every circumstance. It contains an Invocation of God, an humble confession of faith, a reverent watchfulness, a meditation on human frailty1 an act of confidence in God’s response, an assurance of his ever-present support~ The man who continually Invokes God as his protector is aware that God is ever at hand.

I repeat: each one of us, whatever his condition in the spiritual life, needs to use this verse.

Perhaps wandering thoughts surge about my soul like boiling water, and I cannot control them, nor can I offer prayer without its being interrupted by silly images. I feel so dry that I am Incapable of spiritual feelings, and many sighs and groans cannot save me from dreariness. I must needs say: “0 God, come to my assistance; 0 Lord, make haste to help me.”

The mind should go on grasping this formula until it can cast away the wealth and multiplicity of other thoughts, and restrict itself to the poverty of this single word. And so it will attain with ease that Gospel beatitude which holds first place among the other beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Thus by God’s light the mind mounts to the manifold knowledge of God, and thereafter feeds on mysteries loftier and more sacred . . . . And thus it attains that purest of pure prayers to which our earlier conference led, so far as the Lord deigns to grant this favour; the prayer which looks for no visual image, uses neither thoughts nor words; the prayer wherein, like a spark leaping up from a fire, the mind is rapt upward, and, destitute of the aid of the senses or of anything visible or material, pours out its prayer to God…
*

Myself, I just use the name “Lord Jesus,” which I repeat.

Contemplative prayer is a prayer of letting go. Letting go of our ideas about God, for they are our images of him, not as he is. Letting go of distracting thoughts that take us away from our focus of being in his presence.

In all, it is God who brings us to contemplation, not what we do. All we’re doing is opening ourselves up to God.

In Christ Jesus
Jim

 

[animalis]

I don’t get how to do contemplative prayer. I’m afraid of doing “centering prayer” instead of contemplative prayer.

Keeping your senses connected to a crucifix in silence is a way the saints have prayed.

Also there is the practice of Lectio divina: 1. Read a verse or two slowly over and over, and keep attentive to any stirring that you precieve inside. 2. Then bring into this two questions. Ask, what is the text saying? What is the text saying to me? 3. put your self in the scriptures, connect the ‘self’ with the words of the sacred page. This is meditation. 4. Then as you attend to the stirring inside by that attention contemplation might well up. The meditation is like working a well, but we cannot be convinced that we can will our contemplation. This is a gift outside of us, but present in us.

Important to note, we cannot be conviced that the questions on the text produce a true answer. Kind of like a dream. We cannot be convinced that our body is telling us a truth. And for contemplative prayer to grow it is necessary to obtain a spiritual director that has been through a path of lofty prayer. For that is where you would want to be. The director needs to understand doctrine, a person of learning from pure texts, like documents from the Vatican, Bible, and mystical works from the saints, or authors who saturate themselves in the saints.

During your growth in contemplative prayer you need to pratice mortifications that do not mortify others. Fasting is a must. According to S. Gregory the Great, the spritual battle does not begin unless one checks his or her gluttony. The mortification of the senses should be studied and directed upon you. The mortification of your intellect, will, and memory are also essential in this battle.

Prepare to war against the world, the flesh and the devil.

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