Meditation

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There is also that often repeated phrase from the life of the Cure of Ars, “I look at Him, He looks at me.”

I’m so culture-bound that I always liken this to staring at at an unplugged television set… I look at it, it looks at me. Or even another person, which is not always so easy as it sounds, this mutual silent gazing. I feel like I need to be “doing” something while I’m “being.”

Oh well, I hope you are blessed to become more aware of God’s presence in your life of prayer.
 
I’ve been doing mental prayer using concepts found in the Catholic spiritual masters such as St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton, for over 35 years.

In all, the method isn’t what brings us to contemplation, but the grace given to us by God, who dwells within.

The methods of reciting the Jesus Prayer, or any sacred word, even the Rosary, is to open us up to contemplation.

When we pray the Rosary, we don’t focus on the Hail Mary’s, although some one new to the faith may have to at first, but we meditate on the mysteries. For the beginers, they’ll begin by imagining the events of the mysteries in an interior pictoral form. However, as a person grows in prayer, those images will cease and the meaning behind them will become part of the meditation. Eventually, even they will deminish as the individual is centered on the presence of God, who dwels within.

They will be content with just being in His presense, expecting nor desireing anything else. Being in His presence experiencing God’s love, is the transformation prcocess that God desires. The person experiencing God’s love will begin to love as God loves. Nothing else will matter.

St. John of the Cross expresses this journey perfectly in his Canticle of Love.

Read it here;
karmel.at/ics/john/cn.html

In Christ Jesus
Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
They will be content with just being in His presense, expecting nor desireing anything else. Being in His presence experiencing God’s love, is the transformation prcocess that God desires. The person experiencing God’s love will begin to love as God loves. Nothing else will matter.
In Christ Jesus
Jim
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Yes, you sum up much of what I’ve read beautifully. Would it be too prying to ask, is this “contentment just being in His presence” often your experience? I only ask looking for hope that the babbling brook that is my mind might one day settle down!
(Just a side note, right now as I write, Fr. Thomas Loya on his radio show “Light of the East” is discussing the Jesus Prayer!)
 
One thing that is misrepresented here, is the concept of emptying ourselves.

Even in Chrsitian meditation, we seek to empty ourselves of the daily distractions that consume our minds, and inhibit our ability to pray.

Saying a gental prayer, such as the Jesus Prayer, or even the Lord’s name, “Lord Jesus,” will help to quiet our facilities, so that the attention of our focus is on Chrsit who dwells with in.

So many people complain about mental distractions during prayer, yet the method is nothing more than returning to the prayer, gently and without anxiousness.

God knows our desires and needs, we merely have to open ourselves up to Him.

My Carmelite Group was once given a prayer by a person who was very much contemplative.

She said, begin saying this prayer in it’s entirerty;.
“Be still and know that I’am God.”

Repeat the prayer, and placec yourself into God’s presence.

When you become aware that your mind has wandered off, return to the prayer, but this time, leave off the last word, i.e. " Be still and know that I’am."

Each time you become aware that you’ve wandered away from prayer, gently return to the prayer, but again, leave off the last word, i.e. “Be still and know.” Eventuallly you’ll be left with, “Be Still.”

Again, it isn’t the words of the prayer which will bring you the grace of contemplation, but God. The purpose of the prayer is merely to quiet the facilities, so that our attention is on the presence of God within, and being in his presence without agenda’s.

Jim
 
christofirst said:
Yes, you sum up much of what I’ve read beautifully. Would it be too prying to ask, is this “contentment just being in His presence” often your experience? I only ask looking for hope that the babbling brook that is my mind might one day settle down!
(Just a side note, right now as I write, Fr. Thomas Loya on his radio show “Light of the East” is discussing the Jesus Prayer!)
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Feeling in His presence isn’t a constant. Often, my mind is wandering off and I feel like I wasted my time. But that’s me, not God.

However, grace is given, even when we don’t have an experience of feeling close to God, and often, it’s when we’re given the most, only we don’t realize it at the time.

Jim
 
Is there much difference between Centering Prayer and the Jesus Prayer?
 
Michael_Mayo said:
Is there much difference between Centering Prayer and the Jesus Prayer?
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I won’t speak on the first, for it is a forbidden topic here, except to note that it has little to do with the Jesus Prayer.

The Jesus Prayer is like the Devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and it comes in many forms. The most popular being the one used by Eastern Christians, which has many versions but a common longer form is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The Western Christian version of the Jesus Prayer is the Fátima Prayer often heard in the Domincan Rosary, "“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.”

Among Eastern Christians, it is also referred to as Prayer of the Heart. When praying the Jesus Prayer, Eastern Christians (often using a prayer rope) follow Paul’s direction to pray constantly in 1 Thess 5:17.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
Is there much difference between Centering Prayer and the Jesus Prayer?
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Actually CP is contemplative prayer, nothing more. The topic is prohibited here, so I won’t explain.

The Jesus prayer, can be said as discursive vocal prayer, or as a prayer phrase during interior mental prayer.

Having used the Jesus Prayer in CP, I can assure you that they are compatible.

Jim

Jim
 
Splagchnizomai said:
For a Western approach to the Jesus Prayer (and one doesn’t require “permission” to use), I’d recommend Devotion to the Holy Name.
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That link no longer seems to work. Is this what you mean, “Blessed be the most holy Name of Jesus without end!”?

Some of us are introverts and others extroverts. I have always been a quiet person. For a while there I even thought something might be wrong with me because when I didn’t have anyhting to say it was because I didn’t have any thoughts. I was good at listening and watching but sometimes it would have been much more helpful to have some thought to share. Have you even ben in a group discussion and someone asks you, 'What do you think?" Well, quite often I would have to say ,“Nothing”. That inner silence was just there. As I matured I learned to accept and appreciate it. I pray with the Psalms and I make up my own prayers and I use a short phrase such as “Lord, have mercy” but my best prayer, most restful and that feeling of closeness to Jesus, is silence, inner silence. Research these days is saying that learning to meditate is no different from learning mental skills such as music or math. I don’t know about math but music can certainly also be prayer. Some of us are good at math, music, sports, writing, etc. I am good at silence.🤷
 
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