Walking Toward the Jet

But Contemplation

A Constant Conversation

'I would like us, in our meditation today, to make up our minds

 once and for all that we need to aspire to become 

contemplative souls, in the street, 

in the midst of our work, 

by maintaining a constant conversation with our God 

and not breaking it off at any time of the day.'

St. Josemaria Escriva

So Entirely Employed

'There is a self-forgetfulness which is so complete that it really seems as though the soul no longer existed, because it is such that she has neither knowledge nor remembrance that there is either heaven or life or honor for her, so entirely is she employed in seeking the honor of God. It appears that the words which His Majesty addressed to her have produced their effect - namely, that she must take care of His business and He will take care of hers. And thus, happen what may, she does not mind in the least, but lives in so strange a state of forgetfulness that, as I say, she seems no longer to exist, and has no desire to exist - no, absolutely none save when she realizes that she can do something to advance the glory and honor of God, for which she would gladly lay down her life.'

St. Teresa of Avila
                                                                                                                

Painting: Jose Alcazar Tejedor, Santa Teresa de Jesús, 1884

The Better Part

Painting: Johannes (Jan) Vermeer, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Revisiting Keyholes

"When it’s God Who is speaking.. the proper way to behave is to imitate someone who has an irresistible curiosity and who listens at keyholes.  You must listen to everything God says at the keyhole of your heart."  (St. John Vianney)

Lectio Divina is so central to monastic life that I’ve often hesitated to write about it, for I am terribly aware of my inadequacies to explain.  But lectio itself is not about explanation.  It’s not about study, not about intellectual speculation.  Lectio is about listening and noticing and hearing and responding.  Lectio is about love.

Lectio Divina is reading of Sacred Scripture, but with a specific purpose.  That purpose is not to gain information, but to interact personally with God. To illustrate how this has operated in my own life, I’d like to share about a time when I prayed with Psalm 63….

Opening with a prayer that God would lead me, I began to read.  I spoke the first words directly to Our Lord:  “God, you are my God whom I seek.”  My practice is to read, slowly and prayerfully, until something particular grabs me.

Soon I was echoing words of the psalm, asking that my lips would glorify Him.  The next verse (5) had me telling God I would bless Him as long as I live.  I prayed for the grace to do just that:  for the grace to praise Him throughout that day and throughout my life…

That’s when I felt He “spoke” something to me.  This was not in words... it was simply a gentle sense of awareness that to bless Him as long as I live means that ... wow!!! ... I can bless Him forever!  Jesus has come and opened to me the doors of eternal life, so I can praise Him forever!

I told God this was the best thing I could imagine about eternal life.

I went on, awhile later, into prayer of intercession for several people who came to mind, asking that they be given grace to seek God and to bless Him forever.

The practice of praying with Scripture is central to monastic life. It is central to allowing God to lead His people to the graces of contemplative prayer.  It's not just for those in monasteries; it is also for you and for me.

I lean in closely to listen.... 

"Every day will I bless You, and I will praise Your Name forever and ever.  Great is the Lord and highly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.  Generation after generation praises Your works and proclaims Your might.”  (Psalm 146:2-4)

Text not in quotes © 2012 N Shuman thecloisteredheart.org

This is a slightly edited repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You  and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'
   

A First Class Motive

'Examine the daily Rule of Life of the Religious Orders. In every one of them you will find a special time set side for Mental Prayer. Why is that? Because they must lead a Supernatural Life, to go against the dictates of their own lower nature. It is an arduous undertaking, and weak men and women could not continue on bravely at the bitter work of self conquest without some very strong motive. The daily thinking supplies the motive.

'In her Convent Chapel, the nun thinks, in the early morning, of all that our Divine Lord has done, and is doing, and will do for her. The thought awakens love in her heart, and that leads her to brave resolve to love and to suffer for Him. That resolve carries her through the trials of the day. She feels the pain, but through all the suffering, there is running a deep supernatural joy that she has a chance of bearing something for Him.

'Very ordinary, second-rate motives may bring people along the road to salvation, but for one aiming at close union with her Divine Spouse, a first-class motive of love is needed. That motive will not be in our hearts unless we strive to know Our Lord intimately by constant meditation.

'As we listen silently to Him Whose Will we desire to follow in detail, we, like the dear disciples, shall become enraptured with the beauty of His words, our cold hearts will be warmed with His Love, and like them, too, we shall begin to imitate His ways and reflect His divine goodness.'

(The Living Pyx of Jesus, Pelligrini, 1941, pp. 416-417)

Banish, Therefore, the Distractions

'He who enters into the secret place of his own soul passes beyond himself, and does in truth ascend to God. Banish, therefore, from thy heart the distractions of earth; and turn thine eyes to spiritual joys, that thou mayest learn at last to repose in the light of the contemplation of God.' St. Albert the Great

Kitaev Hermitage, click for attribution

Pray Like a Fish

'The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish 

which at first swims on the surface of the water, 

and afterwards plunges down, 

and is always going 

deeper; the soul plunges, 

dives, and loses itself 

in the sweetness 

of conversing with God.'

St. John Vianney

Painting: Goud-en zilvervisjes in een quarium Rijksmuseum, in US  public domain due to age, digitally enhanced

Let's Go!

Is anyone here interested in contemplative prayer?  (yes, I'm smiling)

Then let's leave here and go there, to the most recent post of the Passionist Nuns at In the Shadow of His Wings, where we will find wisdom like this.....

"In its essence, the prayer of contemplation is not about deep thinking or concentration. It is about profound and all-absorbing contact with God Himself....." Sister Rose Marie CP

Why are we still here?  Let's go!


Painting:  Charles Allston Collins, Convent Thoughts

The Scent of Contemplation

"Meditation is like a person who smells a pink, a rose, rosemary, thyme, jasmine and orange blossoms, one after the other separately.  But contemplation is like one who smells a perfume made from all these different flowers.  For he receives at once the full scent of all the flowers which the other inhales separately, and it is quite certain that this perfume, which comes from the blending of all these odours, is more sweet and precious than the perfumes of which it is composed, taken separately one by one.

"After having drawn a great number of different affections from the various considerations of which our meditations are composed, we then unite the virtue of all these affections, and this union of their powers brings forth a certain quintessence of affection, more active and powerful than all the others from which it proceeds.  While it is only one, it includes the virtues and properties of all the others, and is called contemplative affection."

St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God

Painting by Carl Spitzweg 

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An Act of God

As I've been praying, and writing about, and trying to live lectio divina over these last weeks, there is one part I'd almost forgotten.

Lectio is not a one sided activity.  I read, I talk to God, I commit to Him.  And then....

Something happens.

This is not always a "felt" something.  It may not be perceived by me at all.  But when I am speaking with Jesus and reading His Word and committing myself to live for Him, an amazing thing is going on.  Jesus is actually here.  Not just in my imagination, not by an act of wishful thinking, but He is genuinely here.

I can forget this breathtaking reality when my prayer has been dry or weighed down with distractions.  But Jesus is actually here, regardless of how I feel.  AND...

He is doing something.  Sometimes He brushes my spirit with His presence, sometimes He breathes a word of Scripture into my life, sometimes He lets me see a path I might be called to take.  But always He is here, and always He is acting.

In my lectio yesterday, I thought about doorways.  When I pray with Scripture, I must make a first step, pick up my Bible, and thus open the "door." As I read and pray, I open my heart to Christ more widely.  But it can be hard to keep a door open, especially if it's only slightly ajar.  Its natural tendency may be to swing closed.  I must make an effort to hold it open.  I compare this to the way my mind drifts as I try to hold it open to Christ in prayer.  Sometimes I have to find "props" to help me refocus and keep the door from slamming shut.

But there's one thing I've noticed about doors.  When they are partially open, they often close under their own weight.  Yet when they are opened beyond a certain point, most of them stay open on their own. 

Yesterday I began to feel God's help in keeping the "door" open.  It's almost as if I'd been holding it until my arm had grown tired, and then, quite unexpectedly, Someone took the weight of it from me.

Then, it's as if He walked in.  Somehow, it was as if He stepped more deeply into my life, into my awareness, into my prayer, and quietly led more of the "conversation."  And as impossible as this is to describe, I know I should not use the phrase "as if."  There's no "as if" about it.  Our Lord let me know, in some mysterious way, what I had believed by faith all along..... 

that He is here.  

"Experiences of God are far, far more than anything we can fabricate for ourselves.... when God gives someone the unspeakable experience of Himself in contemplative immersion, He leaves no stone unturned."  (Father Thomas Dubay SM, Fire Within, Ignatius, 1989,  p. 47)

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Receiving...

As we spend time with Scripture, listening to God's Word and responding, we are engaging in lectio (reading), meditatio (meditation), and oratio (prayer).  But there is, as we've seen, another step on "Guigo's ladder."  There is contemplatio, "in which we 'taste the goodness of the Lord.'"  

Contemplation is not something we can give to ourselves. It's not achieved through impersonal "techniques" such as trying to "empty our minds."  

We can, however, put ourselves in position to receive contemplation.  We do this by FILLING our minds.  We fill them with Scripture - with the Word of our loving, personal God.  

As we look at the difference between meditation and contemplation, I find the following video (from "Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction") extremely helpful.  I hope you do as well.







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Going for This

Since we began this "lectio day," I have been bombarded by distractions.  Many seem to come from inside myself.  I sit with scripture, and often in a very short time all sorts of stray thoughts wander in, pull up a chair, and make themselves at home.  Often these are thoughts of what I COULD be doing instead of "this."

And what, I ask myself, is "this."  

"This" is spending person to Person time with God Himself.  It is lingering heart to Heart with the One Who waits to shower mercy upon me.  It is accepting a peace that passes understanding, and a love that no one else can give.  What could be so enchanting that it takes my attention when I'm in the middle of "this?"  I am sorry to admit that it can be something as inane as a crossword puzzle, wanting to check out the weather report, or wondering if the mail's come yet....

"We somehow assume that contemplation should sail smoothly along in undistracted, uninterrupted delight in God," writes Father Dubay in the book we looked at yesterday. "It will be such in the final enthrallment of beatific vision, but here on earth we should expect a great deal of ebb and flow:  empty feelings mingled with occasional periods of delight." (p. 62)

"One is being led into a perceived contact with God indwelling....  at first it comes bit by bit and will be punctured with distractions (which obviously come from us), but as one grows, this love gets progressively stronger and deeper."  (p. 61) 

"The beginnings of infused prayer ... are so gentle and unobtrusive at the outset that unless one is well instructed, they may go unnoticed."  (p. 64)

When I first read Fire Within (shortly after its publication), I decided right then that I wanted to "go for it."  I wanted to "go for" increasing depth of prayer.  I wanted to go for giving my will and my life over to God, trusting Him to make me into the holy person He wanted me to be... one who would choose to love Him by decision no matter what.  I wanted to go for a life immersed in prayer. 

"Infused contemplation is by no means a dry or sterile intellectualism," wrote Father Dubay, "a platonic gazing upon abstract essences.  Nor is it an oriental, impersonal awareness.  Rather, it is (according to St. John of the Cross) 'a loving awareness of God."  (p. 63)

"One of the most extravagant errors of recent decades among religious men and women is the idea that contemplation is a monastic enterprise, good in itself but the exclusive domain of the cloister...." (p. 65)

"If we keep Yahweh always before our eyes, nothing can shake us."  (p. 66)

"Deepening communion with the indwelling Trinity brings with it a steadily progressive growth in holiness:  humility, love, patience, purity, fortitude and all the virtues."  (p. 71)  

I re-read these words today and realize I cannot stop short.  No matter where I am on the journey at any given time, I can't let a distraction here and a bout of dryness there win the battle.  I want a life immersed in prayer.

I want to go for it.

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

(above quotes from Fire Within by Thomas Dubay S.M., Ignatius Press, 1989, pages 58-60.  Click this line to read more about this title)

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A Taste of Contemplation

One of the things that has struck me from our "lectio so far" is the image of layered lasagna. That, in turn, has drawn me to think about something totally unexpected:  a dish I used to make when the children were small.  It is something my mother served when I was young.  It's called escalloped cabbage. 

In the bottom of a baking dish, I put a layer of crumbled crackers.  On top of that, a layer of cooked cabbage.  I  redo that a few times, just as one does when layering lasagna.   On top is a final layer of crackers, coated with butter - but it doesn't end there.  To make this casserole soft and tasty, I must drench it in milk, digging a fork into the layers in a few spots so the milk can penetrate and soak down through.  Then it is baked.

For lectio to BE lectio, I must begin with a solid base of scripture.  Then comes the layer of prayer.  It can become a back and forth conversation, as we have seen.

We can read, we can pray, we can meditate on God's Word.  But when it comes to contemplation... well, that must be given.  It must be "infused."  Like the milk that softens escalloped cabbage and brings it all together so the dish can be served, contemplation is (in effect) "poured in."  It is something poured into us by God.

Yet pouring milk into an empty dish leaves us with just...  milk.   In order to have a firm, delicious casserole, the layering needs to first be put into place.

"Even though contemplation is utterly divinely given and humanly received, God gives only to the extent that we efficaciously desire, that is, not merely wish something to happen but take concrete means to fit ourselves to receive it."  In his wonderful book Fire Within, Father Thomas Dubay uses the Gospels plus writings from saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross to teach about prayer.  He says that for St. Teresa, "contemplation is an experienced, mutual presence, an intimate sharing between friends, a being alone with the God Who loves us.  Hence, this prayer is a mutual presence of two in love, and in this case the Beloved dwells within." 

"This experience of the divine presence involves nothing extraordinary.  It is not a vision, nothing is seen or heard... a deep experience of God can overflow into our emotions, but in its essence it is literally non-sensed.  The new knowing and loving of God are a spiritual reality, not a tangible one.   Repeatedly, Teresa insists that contemplative prayer is divinely produced.  She calls this prayer even in its delicate beginnings 'supernatural,' meaning by this term what we now intend with the word infused.  That is, poured in by God..."

...like milk....?

"In all types of infused prayer there are degrees of intensity, more and less, ebb and flow.  There are dry, dark yearnings; slow and gentle enkindlings of love; ecstatic absorptions and delights; experiences of refreshment, peace, pain, light and insights.  Being in love with God is never boring."

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

(above quotes from Fire Within by Thomas Dubay S.M., Ignatius Press, 1989, pages 58-60.  Click this line to read more about this title)

To continue "A Day of Lectio," click this line