What is meditation? What do I do?

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Nelka

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I worry a lot, I’m stressed a lot, I can’t relax (especially mentally), I struggle to focus, pay attention and understand.

I keep reading that meditation is a way to help, I look up meditation for Catholics, no mind emptying or anything like that but I just cannot seem to understand.

Even when I pray and even when I pray the Rosary I struggle to stay focused so how am I supposed to just sit and think of something and how on earth does that help me mentally?

If I were to sit and think about Jesus and myself talking about things my brain will be all over the place, also I would have to wait until very late at night to have a chance to do it.

So is meditation another term for thinking about something and how do I stop procrastinating about everything in order to meditate on something?

Thanks.
 
Meditation is to turn over and work though some topic or aspect of your life, WITH GOD.

It is NOT to empty your mind. God gave us our mind not to be empty but to be full of love for Him.

So we might pick up some reading and “launch” from there just as a starting point. Put the phone away. Put your todo list in the other room and pick up a topic to meditate with God about: humility, cheerfulness, your priorities, your setbacks, your joys, your defects, perhaps your lagging gratitude, whatever. Just ideas.

15 minutes. Turn reading material perhaps into short points of examination. You might read in Scripture “for there was no room for them in the inn.” And you convert that sentence into: Lord where do I fail to make room for you in my day to day life, in the morning time, at work, in my conversations, in my choice of entertainment, or May how and when I set my priorities?

And then the conversation, the meditation, the prayer begins, perhaps ending at a fixed time and maybe with a short resolution to be better that day in this or that way.

Worry distances us from God, better worry or talk with Him about the content of our worry!
 
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Nelka said:
So is meditation another term for thinking about something and how do I stop procrastinating about everything in order to meditate on something?
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No. Meditation is being fully in the present moment, and not allowing your thoughts to run away with you. You sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament and He looks at you, and you look at Him.

Don’t worry if your mind keeps running, it gets better with practice. Just keep bringing it back to the present moment. Most people find prayers helpful to develop this discipline.
 
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...th_doc_19891015_meditazione-cristiana_en.html

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION*

October 15, 1989

Luke 2:19,51 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Psalms 119:9 How can young people keep their way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you;do not let me stray from your commandments.11 I treasure your word in my heart,so that I may not sin against you.
 
Regarding “what do I do”, there are different ways to meditate. Most of my meditation comes during saying the Rosary, or occasionally when I reflect upon Scripture. Once a month I do a 15-minute meditation as part of my First Saturday requirements.

While praying the Rosary, one is supposed to meditate on the mystery assigned to the decade. There are a number of ways to do this and I tend to use them all depending on what I am doing at the time, what mood I am in, etc.

Method 1 - at the beginning of each decade, announce the name of the mystery, then stop and think about it for a couple of minutes or read a short Scripture passage having to do with it, then pray the decade. One of my rosary groups at church does this.

Method 2 - the “Scriptural Rosary” where you read a verse of scripture having to do with the mystery before each Hail Mary. This helps keep you focused on thinking about the mystery. There are lots and lots of Scriptural Rosaries online, in books, or in recordings. This method usually requires being somewhere where you can read the Scripture verse, so it can’t be used if you’re praying while doing something else such as driving or housework (unless you have a recording of it that you can play while you drive, work etc. ) It also makes the Rosary take longer time, so I don’t use this way if I’m pressed for time.

Method 3 - Similar to the Scriptural Rosary, except I just make up my own thought about the mystery before every Hail Mary. Example, I’m doing The Annunciation. I might say,
“Mary was just a young girl going about her day when she suddenly saw an Angel. She must have been very surprised.” - Hail Mary
“I wonder how I would feel if I were just cleaning the kitchen and an Angel showed up. I would probably be pretty scared.” - Hail Mary
“Then the Angel gave Mary the even more startling news that she would have a very special baby while still a virgin. What a shock.” - Hail Mary
“Sometimes God speaks to us in a totally unplanned way and we aren’t always prepared for the message.” - Hail Mary
etc.

This method requires that you be pretty creative about coming up with thoughts about the mystery yourself, but it’s something I can do while I drive or do housework as I’m not required to read anything.

Method 4 - just look at pictures of the mysteries or look at a video of them while I pray (lots of videos on Youtube) and kind of go where the thoughts take me.

Method 5 - same as 4 only if I’m driving or traveling and can’t watch a video, I play it in my head.

(Continued next post as I exceeded character limit)
 
(Continued from last post)

For my 15-minute meditation for First Saturday, you have to meditate without saying prayers, so that makes it a little more challenging. I like to use either one of the First Saturday Devotion videos on Youtube where it shows you pictures of the mysteries to think about, or else I use Sister Lucia’s Method for First Saturday Meditation, which is good for thinking about just one or two mysteries in detail and applying them to your own life.

https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/how-to-make-first-saturday-rosary-meditation/

For Scripture meditation, I usually like to read the Scripture passage I choose verse by verse (often out loud if I’m at home and won’t disturb people) and then when a verse raises a question in my mind, I’ll stop and think about it, sometimes “thinking out loud”. You can also use Lectio Divina guides for a more guided meditation. The USCCB often posts them, see here for example http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/advent/lectio-divina-for-advent.cfm .

Hope this helps. Meditation for Catholics is not an emptying of the mind but a focus on applying the lessons of Scripture and the Holy Mysteries to our own lives. It’s not always the most relaxing practice, as thinking is work, so if you are looking to do it for stress relief, it may or may not be of use in that way.
 
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I would say there are many levels of meditation. You can be like a Carmelite Contemplative or you can start at where you are now, which more the case.

Basically meditation is to reflect, examine and think on the subject that interests you.

There are many tools to help you to meditate, Rosary that you mentioned is one of them. Use the tool that is more conducive for you.

You can go before the Blessed Sacrament, take a subject, and ponder upon it. Speak to God as if He is standing right in front of you.

You can use a specific Bible passage, ponder upon it, what it is, what does it speak to you and ask God to help you following and living it out in your life. Then say a prayer.

Those are some examples for you. As you getting better, you can look into the saints (St. Teresa of Avila is my favorite) in how they do it.
 
Meditation is different than contemplation. In meditation, you use your mind actively to think about the mysteries of the faith. Don’t worry about your mind jumping to other things. The greatest of saints experienced this a lot–e.g. St. Teresa of Avila often wrote about it. When you catch your mind wandering, just bring it lovingly back to the meditation. Like many things, the more you practice meditation, the easier it is to “get into it.” The Rosary or a brief Scripture passage are great meditative tools.

Contemplation is a wordless, adoring stance before God. Meditation often leads to contemplation–thinking about a mystery leads the heart to elevate to this wordless adoration where the mind is stilled, even briefly. A book that has helped me in a form of contemplation is the Catholic classic, The Cloud of Unknowing. It is very easy to read, harder to do, but it has the contemplative “push down” rational thoughts and the busy mind into a “cloud.” Well, it is hard to describe here, but it does work for me for relatively short periods and actually is very refreshing for the mind and soul.
 
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