Oh, wow, Alan! This is such an awesome inspiration. I know this is not my thread, but may I ask you to elaborate. I really NEED to learn about this and begin such a process in my life. I have been laboring under the burden of great emotional pain for most of my life. I want to be free from that, and I know that Jesus can heal and strengthen me, but I don’t know HOW to allow him to do that.
There are all sorts of ways to ride the emotional roller coasters. Sometimes we might cling to the safety bar, other times extend our hands in the air and cry out with excitement. Assuming we have control over our fears, and with the peace of Christ we do, we don’t have to ride it the way anybody else rides it, or for that matter thinks we should.
In contemplation, we dissociate ourselves, and our focus, from the normal stream of thoughts that go through our heads at any given moment. During contemplative prayer forms, this is typical done sitting in silence. (CCC 2700-2724) and IMO, especially given the word “should” in 2708, no mature Christian should go without entering into this form of prayer.
What usually happens in contemplative prayer is we sit silently, allowing thoughts that may arise to gently go by, as if down a stream of thoughts. We will think of things, but if we seize on them by taking notice and analyzing them or judging them, then they will control us. The idea is to let these thoughts go by gently and pass right through, offering them no resistance, no interest, no other bondage. This type of mental state opens up our minds and hearts for the Holy Spirit to work on us at a very deep level that usually He can’t access because our busy minds, thinking first of this thing that needs to be done then that worry or another, actually inhibit Him from being able to enter in. It’s like contemplative prayer is the unlocking of the door of our minds and hearts, getting our human ways of thinking out of the way.
Sorry if I’m too abstract; I hope this helps. I might summarize by saying that getting our own thought stream out of the way is one of the powerful tools we have in taking control of our thoughts. How to restructure thoughts? For starters, try pondering seriously, some of what seems to be contradictions that Jesus makes. Put two and two together in ways you haven’t before. It’s OK; we’re not talking about the literal meaning which is up for argument, but with how the Word strikes you. This is also along the lines of the concept of Lectio Divina (divine reading) which is in part contemplative, meditative, and more. It’s not about what it means, but how it affects us.
So it is a very close and personal way to relate to Jesus, compared to a more theological approach IMO. Like friends hanging out and telling stories to each other.
Imagine why a child might be in the kingdom while and adult would not be, under the same circumstances? Why would the greatest be the one who serves, not the one who commands? How can we be “perfect” or do “greater works” than His own miracles? Think about a world in which we could actually do these things, literally, figuratively, or even allegorically.
Or we can act as direct observers of our own thought patterns, as a data-gathering measure toward reengineering them… What is it that causes us high stress sometimes, while other times we weather similar circumstances? We can remember what sorts of things we were thinking that went along with the better or worse feelings, and do a compare/contrast to find out how our thinking differs to give us a different experience under the same circumstances, one seemingly more stressful than the other. Ultimately, we will then apply our thinking when less stressful to the situations we catch ourselves tempted to participate in undesirably high stress, and for me I got a lot of mileage out of that. I called it my “mental reset” procedure. It’s like taking a chill pill, but without the pill or the chill.
Alan
