Dear Alan,
The difference in people’s conceptions of CP and whether or not they are capable of embracing it, is having the practice directed by competent spiritual authority who are able to explain the right and wrong way of centering, and discern the readiness of the person’s spirit to embark on the voyage.
What I have learned in these threads and in a book on CP, is that some enthusiasts who had a positive experience, rush out to share it with anyone who will listen, regardless of their readiness to practice it.
I have Penington’s book, and in it, he was affirming a young mother’s report that she and her three-year-old practiced CP together! He also commended a teacher of catechetics for teaching it to grade school children. Oh Please! That’s where we need to draw the line, and perhaps that’s the basic objection of those who are against the practice … that some promoters use very little discretion, nor pay heed to the Holy Spirit’s leading in the lives of their listeners.
Some of these souls have been terribly harmed, and they will naturally shout from the rooftops how dangerous it was for them, assuming that it has the same ill effect for everyone else. How does one understand the difference? By following the writings and practices of the saints, until such time as they are experienced enough in prayer to discern the Spirit’s leading, and whether, if at all, CP is His guidance for them.
I need to say a few words, I think, quoting St. Teresa’s warning to some very holy nuns in her new convents who fell into deception, thinking this absorption was a good and holy mysticism. How much more susceptible could a simple lay person become, through reading an exciting book about the esoteric experience of contacting Divinity?
In her book “Foundations” (Collected Works), she devotes the entire Chapter 6 warning her prioresses about the dangers of these
absorptions, a/k/a* stupefaction*. We know that she herself was deluded by the mysticism of this pseudo contemplation, and wished to prevent its occurrence with her sisters.
Section 2: In this absorption the imagination does not wander but in apprehending one thing, concentrates on it without distraction.
Section 4: In rapture or union of the faculties, the duration is short, (about the length of an Ave Maria, she wrote elsewhere) and great effects, interior light, and many other benefits are given, and the intellect doesn’t work (it cannot think, but it is not idle, for the Lord fills it with Himself); it is the Lord who works in the will.
In absorption, things are very different, for although the body is captive, the will is not, nor is the memory or the intellect. (They are idle, empty, inert. She alluded to knowing persons who spent seven to eight hours in this absorption, and I noted one person who wrote of this on the forum)
Section 5: So I counsel the prioresses to make every possible effort to prevent the nuns from spending long periods in this daze. For to remain in such an absorption is nothing else, in my opinion, than to allow the faculties and senses to become crippled and not carry out what the soul commands them … give these persons duties that will distract them.
I perceive that CP has been good for you, but there again, you have been taught well and were brought to that stage of spiritual development where it did not work against you. It seems good to me to leave it be and not do the Spirit’s work of guiding others to it. My experience has been that when a person is ready, the Teacher will come, every step of the way - through a friend, a book, the clergy, or in so many wonderful ways we cannot imagine. May we entrust these souls to Him, for they truly are His own.
Carole
Do what you can . . . but leave the outcomes of your efforts on these forums to God.
