Prayer of Contemplation
Headings
Introduction
The term “Meditation” or “contemplation” is received by the majority with the sentiment of boredom. Years after I wrote my first article on prayer, I discovered the mystics, and the power of contemplative prayer. The situation I found, is quite the opposite: Those who find their own prayers tedious, see contemplative prayer as simply prolonging an agonising process and even taking away the few things that might possibly induce the slightest bit of interest to it, i.e. the words, the images or the music. If prayer is boring, it is because it is not prayerful. The thing that you find boring is not your prayer, it is your own company. Prayer is the consciousness of God’s company, or an effort towards that consciousness. The Catholic Tradition of Contemplatives includes The Carmelites, the John of the Cross, St Theresa of Avila, St Catherine of Siena, and St Ignatius of Loyola to name a few and so the tradition is indeed a rich and multiply attested resource at the highest level which we will see more of.
Trying to Define
St Theresa of Lisieux said wonderfully that prayer is, “The lifting up of the mind to God”. As a definition though this would seem partial. St. Theresa is certainly not unaware of this, rather she is instructing us on how to pray. But a definition of prayer would have to include the all the phenomenon that comprise the prayer event. Prayer (like any communication) is a two-way action, i.e. it is two actions. “You lift your mind to God, and God turns his Face to you” is probably gives a more complete picture. It is not hard to guess which is the more significant action in prayer. The Christian life is simple, and the overall perspective of Christianity is this: Christian life is prayer. Humans live, Christians pray, they have a prayer-life, not in the manner that prayer is part of their lives but rather that their lives are a prayer. The reason for this all-pervasive spirituality is in the very nature of love, which involves one’s whole being, “mind, body and soul”. (Matt. 22:37). Prayer is the only suitable response and attitude to the Almighty God.
“Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain (…) The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place “to which I withdraw.” The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant. Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ (…) In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God (…) The grace of the Kingdom is “the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity . . . with the whole human spirit (…) Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ’s love.” (CCC 2562-65)
Rom 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.”
1 Thess 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
The Presence of God:
It is worthwhile dwelling upon the fact that infinity is Present to You, as God with you. This is not a diminished infinity, but the real infinity of God, because God does not leave any of his infinity behind, wherever he might be and in whatever mode of Presence. It is impossible for the infinite not to be infinite, he does not “remove some of his infinity from himself” to appear in a diminished glory, rather the infinitely glorious God really Present, allows us not to experience but the smallest iota of that glory in the spiritual edification that we feel, if any, else not at all.
I usually lose interest in a prayerbook when it has to use an argument from physics, however do humour me with just this one: Suppose I had an infinite number of marbles. I give you 3. How many do I have left?: Infinity. Now were I number all of my marbles and I give you every odd numbered marble. How many marbles do you get: Infinity. How many marbles am I left with?: Infinity. So we get: Infinity – 3 =Infinity, Infinity – Infinity is also = Infinity. Although God is certainly not a mathematical infinity, yet it helps one appreciate that a diminished glory is still necessarily an infinite Presence, there is no other way for God to be for were he not infinite, he would not be God. He only diminishes the glory that we are able to perceive. As we shall see, at other times, he increases it too.
St John of the Cross’ Ascent of Mount Carmel : “… If one should describe to a man that was born blind, and has never seen any colour, what is meant by a white colour or by yellow, he would understand it but indifferently, however fully one might describe it to him; for, as he has never seen such colours or anything like them by which he may judge them, only their names would remain with him; for these he would be able to comprehend through the ear, but not their forms or figures, since he has never seen them (…) Even so is faith with respect to the soul; it tells us of things which we have never seen or understood, nor have we seen or understood aught that resembles them, since there is naught that resembles them at all. And thus we have no light of natural knowledge concerning them, since that which we are told of them bears no relation to any sense of ours; we know it by the ear alone…Faith nullifies the light of the intellect…”( Book 2, Chapter III)
He goes on, “…A blind man when in the presence of his prince will preserve a reverential demeanour if told that the king is there, although unable to see him; but practically, what men do not see they easily forget, and so readily lapse into carelessness and irreverence. Just so, my child, we do not see our God, and although faith warns us that He is present, not beholding Him with our mortal eyes, we are too apt to forget Him, and act as though He were afar…” Chapter II (pg32)
1 Cor 13:12 Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Psalm 139 O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
“.7..we walk in the light…” 1 John 1:7
“78For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light…everything exposed (ἐλεγχόμενα) by the light becomes visible (φανεροῦται·), 14for everything that becomes visible (φανερούμενον) (NIV “is illuminated) is light.” Eph 5:7-14
Have you ever been worried about going to Heaven? There is enough grace present here in your prayers to take you to Heaven and back several times over. God does not just stretch out a solitary hand over the cliff to save you. He is here in Glory, in Majesty, in Power, in his Superabundant Grace because he wants you.
John 10:18 “…no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
“…prayer places us in the brilliance of God’s light and exposes our will to the warmth of His heavenly love…”- St Frances de Sales, Introduction
Prayer: Jesus now that I have found you, the Kingdom is so near, all that I need is your help to persevere.
The Little we Pray
So offer every little action to God. Mother Angelica (of EWTN) tells a lovely story where about how she would go out into the fields to play as a child and when she returned she would always take a little bunch of wildflowers for her mother. Her mother just happened to have hayfever, but loved the gesture just the same!
Psalm 50: For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air,* and all that moves in the field is mine. ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,* and pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
Since he does not need anything from us whether large or small, it makes it possible to offer to him even things that might seem ridiculous, since all things are ridiculously small compared to him. When we speak evenly though we are annoyed, when we smile though we are tired, and a million other things during the day, we can offer them all for God, and he will smile, as dear Mother Angelica’s mother also smiled at her (only slightly rolling her eyes!). Our prayers are not benefitting God, and so even the smallest thing can be a prayer. In illness and in states of mental despair and confusion, one may not go into battle or to climb a mountain for a fundraiser, but merely make trip from the bed to the prayer mat, or from lying to reclining to offer your daily prayer discipline. It benefits God not in the slightest, being so small, but God can use the smallest prayer to benefit you, because it is the opening up of your soul, and the lifting up of your heart to Him.
It is in the acceptance of our unworthiness that our prayers are made worthy through the Sacrifice of Christ. It is a soul that is hindered by pride after all that is an unworthy receptacle for the Holy Spirit. God is not one who refrains from rushing to the aid of his children when called. “when they cry out I will answer them” (Psalm 91:15).
The woman who put “two small copper coins” into the temple treasury, indeed receives more than her money’s worth and what was worth more than many treasures: a blessing from the mouth of the Lord of the Temple, and a sterling report of her to go into his Holy Book. This lady has a curriculum vitae that is in the Holy Book! However consider also the seeming impossibility that the tuppence was “all she had to live on”. Were this true literally then the lady would have been in danger of death or at least destitution in the coming hours or days, for they were no more than “two small copper coins”. I am convinced that Jesus was so moved by her small sacrifice made with a loving and pious heart, the holy desire with which she longed for the Temple’s building, that he was moved to exclaim that it’s value to him was as though it were “all she had to live on”. (Mk 12:41-44, Lk 21:1-4) So great is the loving response of the Lord in even our smallest actions! Those little things that we do, that we feel most difficult and they benefit no one significantly, least of all God, are held by God to be the greatest of actions, not because of the benefit they bring him, but because he is the standard of every goodness and value system, and only that is of value, to which he ascribes value. And God in his infinite love, ascribes great value to the little old lady with her two coins. And so we are right to offer our smallest actions to God, like getting up to pray or to go to church when we feel tired or reluctant or distracted. Truly such an action is worth less than “two small copper coins”, and yet we have to will with our entire being to make that very action. It is little actions, “little flowers” such as these which are all the difference between the unbelieving life and the life of faith.
God “Thirsts” for us
Although God is not ‘needy’, yet God thirsts for us.
CCC 2560 “If you knew the gift of God!”7 The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: (Jn 4:10) there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.”
Father Michael Schmist says in Shalom, God’s thirst for us is not arbitrary or needy. In his perfect self-sufficiency, God has made the irrevocable decision to choose us. This decision (this love) is constant, true and free.
The Prayer of Contemplation
Vocal prayer is active on our part, we are doing the talking, mental prayer is us doing the listening. But God does not need words, He communicates his Holy Spirit directly into our soul. The entire work of Salvation is of God, for we “do not know how to pray”. The reason that Christian prayer works is because Christians don’t have to do any of the work, but they certainly need “only be still”. Every good work that we do for our salvation is of the Spirit. The “work” of Christian prayer is merely an opening our lives to the Spirit’s action. The prayer is always answered first and foremost as an increase of holiness.
This was my Church in Mumbai, India, and the good and recently deceased Fr Osie D’Souza, who was always a no-nonsense sort of person to the point that some found him abrasive (I never did), and who took charge of instructing my own wife upon her receipt into the Church, once recounted during a sermon at the Sunday Mass a tale of a lady who had come to him in some sort of need and whom he was trying to advice about prayers. The lady after a few days came back to him and father asked how things were going. She replied: “Father I just can’t seem to pray at all”. Understandably a bit indignant, he brusquely asked why this might be: “Everytime I say the Lord’s Prayer” was the reply, “I get to “Our Father…” and I can’t move on…!”. “THAT is prayer”, the dear Fr. Osie thundered from the pulpit at the congregation, to stunned silence. I love him more for that sermon I think than for anything else!
“Contemplative prayer is also the pre-eminently intense time of prayer. In it the Father strengthens our inner being with power through his Spirit “that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith” and we may be “grounded in love”: Eph 3:16-17 (NRSV) 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”2714“Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. “I look at him and he looks at me”: this is what a certain peasant of Ars in the time of his holy curé used to say while praying before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men…”2715 “Contemplative prayer is silence, the “symbol of the world to come (…) Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love…” 2717
How long does one linger upon our Lord’s word, what is the appropriate time of reflection? How deep an impression must the word of God make upon you, must it not “stop you in your tracks”? “Be still…” Psalm 46:10. When one passes something of tremendous beauty, one is silent, wants to drink it in, and needs no words to describe or commentary about what is beheld in the spirit.
Praying in the Spirit in Scripture
It is in praying in the Spirit that we are true worshippers who belong to God, we are given life, are children of God, are born of the Spirit, we understand the secret depths of God which are revealed to us, we discern all things…What more incentive do we need!:
1 Cor 2:8-14 NRSV “… What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind (heart NRSV) has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. …So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. Those who are unspiritual(footnote “natural”) do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”But we have the mind of Christ.
Fr Vital Lehodey gives the example of walking through a forest; when you are walking and the fountain is a mile away, one is drawn by an idea in the mind of the fountain, and trying to stay focussed by reconstructing and configuring in your mind what that fountain will look like, but when that fountain is in sight, then you stop thinking, and it is the fountain itself that draws you on.
St. Paul says “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:5,6)
Examples in Scripture
Psalm 119– meditation is mentioned 6 times in the same psalm, and exhortation to grant understanding of God’s word several times. Love of God’s word, that it gives life and hope, and that we delight in it… Psalm 19:14 (NRSV) Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 119:15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways
Joshua 1:8 (NRSV) This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful
Psalm 63:1,2,6 “1 My soul thirsts for you, my hearts faints for you, as in a dry dreary land where there is no water, So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory, My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,…I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night… and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you;”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered (διελογίζετο, διαλογίζομαι – I reason (with), debate (with), consider) what sort of greeting this might be — Luke 1:29.
But Mary treasured (συντηρέω- I preserve, keep safe, keep in mind, keep close; τηρέω- guarding, watching, attend carefully, take care of) all these words and pondered (Συμβάλλω- to throw together, to discuss, consider, meet with )them in her heart. — Luke 2:19.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and His mother treasured (διατηρέω– keep safe, hold fast) all these things in her heart – Luke 2:51
Forms and Figures do Impede
These passages describe how the greatest spiritual benefit is derived in the silence and “darkness” of the soul. No one really elaborates upon this as insightfully as St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church..
“…faith is infused and rooted in the soul more deeply by means of that emptiness, darkness and nakedness regarding all things, or by spiritual poverty (which are all the same), so too the charity of God is simultaneously and deeply rooted in the soul. The more the individuals desire darkness and annihilation of themselves regarding all visions, exteriorly or interiorly receivable, the greater will be the infusion of faith and consequently hope and love, since these three theological virtues increase together. “…they should base their love and joy on what they neither see or feel (nor are capable of seeing or feeling), that is, upon God who is incomprehensible and transcendent. That is why it behoves us to go to God through the negation of all.
“Only sanctifying grace is a real, physical, and formal participation in the Divine Nature as such…for it disposes us to see Him as he sees Himself, to love Him as He loves Himself.” —Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Sense of Mystery: Clarity and Obscurity in the Intellectual Life, p. 189.
The late Fr. Thomas Dubay defines the prayer of contemplation: “A deepening of being in love with God, together with a developing awareness of Him, without any images or concepts. It’s a kind of awareness of God that only He can produce. It’s a real knowing of Him, a real loving of Him, but nor in the meditative sense where we think thoughts and draw conclusions and the rest…”
“…In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything,
Desire to have pleasure in nothing.
In order to arrive at possessing everything,
Desire to possess nothing.
In order to arrive at being everything,
Desire to be nothing.
In order to arrive at knowing everything,
Desire to know nothing.
In order to arrive at that wherein thou hast no pleasure
(there is no worldly pleasure to be derived in the company of God- my commentary),
Thou must go by a way wherein thou hast no pleasure.
In order to arrive at that which thou knowest not,
Thou must go by a way that thou knowest not.
In order to arrive at that which thou possessest not,
Thou must go by a way that thou possessest not.
In order to arrive at that which thou art not,
Thou must go through that which thou art not.
When thy mind dwells upon anything,
Thou art ceasing to cast thyself upon the All.
For, in order to pass from the all to the All,
Thou hast to deny thyself wholly in all.
And, when thou comest to possess it wholly,
Thou must possess it without desiring anything.
For, if thou wilt have anything in having all,
Thou hast not thy treasure purely in God.
(Ascent Book 1 Chapter XIV)
“…And that the soul cannot reach the height of God, even as far as is possible in this life, by means of any form and figure, is declared likewise by the same Holy Spirit in the Book of Numbers, where God reproves Aaron and Miriam, the brother and sister of Moses, because they murmured against him, and, desiring to convey to them the loftiness of the state of union and friendship with Him wherein He had placed him, said: If there be any prophet of the Lord among you, I will appear to him in some vision or form, or I will speak with him in his dreams; but there is none like My servant Moses, who is the most faithful in all My house, and I speak with him mouth to mouth, and he sees not God by comparisons, similitudes and figures. Herein He says clearly that, in this lofty state of union whereof we are speaking, God is not communicated to the soul by means of any disguise of imaginary vision or similitude or form, neither can He be so communicated; but mouth to mouth — that is, in the naked and pure essence of God, which is the mouth of God in love, with the naked and pure essence of the soul, which is the mouth of the soul in love of God…” Ascent XVI (9). “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Moses’ prayer is characteristic of contemplative prayer (…) for “Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth…” 2576 CCC
The Desire that Draws down the Lord’s Graces:
“…For those who are receptive this Blood bestowed and accomplished all that they need to be saved and made perfect. But since its gift of life and grace is in proportion to the soul’s readiness and desire, it deals death to the wicked…For I give this Blood and use It for salvation and perfection in the case of that man who disposes himself properly to receive it, for It gives life and adorns the soul with every grace, in proportion to the disposition and affection of him who receives It…” (On the Eucharist: Chapter 14 of the Dialogue)
What if you say “Come Holy Spirit” Where does the desire come from. What does it mean “fill with your fire” if not desire?
“Do you know how I manifest Myself to the soul who loves Me in truth, and follows the doctrine of My sweet and amorous Word? In many is My virtue manifested in the soul in proportion to her desire, but I make three special manifestations(…)For though I am no Acceptor of creatures, I am an Acceptor of holy desires, and manifest Myself in the soul in that precise degree of perfection which she seeks in Me…” St Catherine of Siena, “Spiritual Dialogue
Theological Graces Infused in Darkness
“…pure, simple, dark, obscure, general and confused knowledge of God” (in various places in the Ascent eg Chapter XIV,12 “…It is for this reason that this knowledge is described as general and loving; for, just as it is so in the understanding, being communicated to it obscurely, even so is it in the will, sweetness and love being communicated to it confusedly, so that it cannot have a distinct knowledge of the object of its love…the dark and confused mystical understanding…by means of this dark and loving knowledge, God is united with the soul in a lofty and Divine degree; for, after some manner, this dark and loving knowledge, which is faith, serves as a means to Divine union in this life…” –St. John of the Cross’s 32nd Chapter of Book 3 of Ascent.
The soul…acquires two excellent benefits. The first is that it magnifies and exalts God: the second is that it exalts itself. For God is exalted in the soul after two manners: first, by the withdrawal of the heart and the joy of the will from all that is not God, in order that they may be set upon Him alone…And, because in this way the soul centres itself in God alone, God is exalted and magnified, when He reveals to the soul His excellence and greatness; for, in this elevation of joy, God bears witness of Who He Himself is. This cannot be done save if the will be voided of joy and consolation with respect to all things, even as David said also, in these words: ‘Be still and see that I am God.’And again he says: ‘In a desert land, dry and pathless, have I appeared before Thee, to see Thy power and Thy glory.’ And, since it is true that God is exalted by the fixing of the soul’s rejoicing upon detachment from all things, He is much more highly exalted when the soul withdraws itself from the most wondrous of these things in order to fix its rejoicing on Him alone. For these, being supernatural, are of a nobler kind; and thus for the soul to cast them aside, in order to set its rejoicing upon God alone, is for it to attribute greater glory and excellence to God than to them. For, the more and the greater things a man despises for the sake of another, the more does he esteem and exalt that other. Furthermore, God is exalted after the second manner when the will is withdrawn from this kind of operation; for, the more God is believed and served without testimonies and signs, the more He is exalted by the soul, for it believes more concerning God than signs and miracles can demonstrate.
The second benefit wherein the soul is exalted consists in this, that, withdrawing the will from all desire for apparent signs and testimonies, it is exalted in purest faith, which God increases and infuses within it much more intensely. And, together with this, He increases in it the other two theological virtues, which are charity and hope, wherein
the soul enjoys the highest Divine knowledge by means of the obscure and detached habit of faith;
and it enjoys great delight of love by means of charity, whereby the will rejoices in naught else than in the living God;
and likewise it enjoys satisfaction in the memory by means of hope.
All this is a wondrous benefit, which leads essentially and directly to the perfect union of the soul with God.
SINCE the intention of this work of ours is to lead the spirit through these good things of the spirit even to the Divine union of the soul with God, it will not behove both myself and the reader to give our consideration to this matter with particular care….For it is quite certain, and quite an ordinary occurrence, that some persons, because of their lack of knowledge, make use of spiritual things with respect only to sense, and leave the spirit empty. There will scarcely be anyone whose spirit is not to a considerable degree corrupted by sweetness of sense; since, if the water be drunk up before it reaches the spirit, the latter becomes dry and barren.
“You have not come to something that can be touched/felt…” (Hebrews 12:18)
“If we dispose ourselves to receive, then He never fails to give, and in many ways unknown to us…” St Theresa oF Avila, Way of Perfection Ch. 35
“How is it that we do not die of love in seeing that God himself could do no more than shed His divine love for us drop by drop? When as man he was preparing for death, He made himself our food in order to give us life. God becomes food, bread for his creatures. Is this not enough to make us die of love?” -St Theresa of the Andes.
“My Jesus, fill my heart with so much love that one day it will break just to be with you”- St Bernadette Soubirous
“…I am not asking you now to think of Him, or to form numerous conceptions of Him, or to make long and subtle meditations with your understanding. I am asking you only to look at Him. For who can prevent you from turning the eyes of your soul (just for a moment, if you can do no more) upon this Lord? You are capable of looking at very ugly and loathsome things: can you not, then, look at the most beautiful thing imaginable? Your Spouse never takes His eyes off you, daughters. He has borne with thousands of foul and abominable sins which you have committed against Him, yet even they have not been enough to make Him cease looking upon you. Is it such a great matter, then, for you to avert the eyes of your soul from outward things and sometimes to look at Him?…Chap 28: “Have nothing to do with that kind of humility, daughters, but speak with Him as with a Father, a Brother, a Lord and a Spouse — and, sometimes in one way and sometimes in another”
I learned without guile and I impart without grudging;
I do not hide her wealth,
14 for it is an unfailing treasure for men;
those who get it obtain friendship with God,
commended for the gifts that come from instruction. Wisdom 7:13-14
“…At other times the third manifestation takes place. I then form in the mind the presence of the Truth, My only- begotten Son, in many ways, according to the will and the desire of the soul. Sometimes she seeks Me in prayer, wishing to know My power, and I satisfy her by causing her to taste and see My virtue. Sometimes she seeks Me in the wisdom of My Son, and I satisfy her by placing His wisdom before the eye of her intellect, sometimes in the clemency of the Holy Spirit and then My Goodness causes her to taste the fire of Divine charity, and to conceive the true and royal virtues, which are founded on the pure love of her neighbour.” St. Catherine of Siena, Spiritual Dialogue
Consolations and Desolations
Again, St Ignatius in his “Spiritual Exercises” speaks wonderfully about what he calls “Consolations and Desolations”, the phases that we all go through on our spiritual journey. I will only lightly touch upon these as an article on prayer would be incomplete without it and I add an exhortation to read the book itself, because I have woefully underrepresented it through my own inability. Periods of consolations are a gift from God, but He also ‘permits’ periods of desolation, when we might feel distanced from God, far away from His presence and grace, doubting the usefulness of prayers and His very existence. But like this to a father teaching his child how to ride a bicycle. With the father holding on, the child feels completely protected and secure, knowing no harm can befall him. But then the father takes his hand away, and the child then feels insecure and scared. But this produces a wonderful fruit: learning to ride. And the father is still ever watching, albeit from a distance. Similarly when a child learns to walk. First holding on, then independently. So God permits periods of desolation to train us, that we may emerge even stronger in Faith. The holier the person, the greater the desolations encountered, as with probably all the saints.
God says in his revelation to St Catherine that the soul that is on the road to perfection does not even consider itself worthy of spiritual calm and comfort.Mother Theresa for decades, experienced the most terrible spiritual deprivation. Indeed do not doubt this, and this is completely reliable: All the greatest saints experienced periods of great desolation in their prayer life. The key, according to St Ignatius, is to not change a decision made in prayer, during a period of desolation. For example, if one had undertaken to pray the Rosary daily, stick to the routine, whether you are feeling inspired or not. SO also if you have undertaken to go to monthly Confession, weekly Adoration etc. It is useful to visualise the spiritual life as an undulating wave form, that is sloping upwards. The troughs represent the desolations and the waves consolation.
St Theresa of Calcutta said to her sisters: “we are not called to be successful, but to be faithful.”
The Object of Prayer- To be Transformed
The point of Christian prayer and its effort, is closeness to God. That’s why there is no satisfaction, only increasing desire! But we have a God who wants to be ever close to us, whose very desire is to be intimate with us. Even before we are born, he has is with us intimately:
“you formed me in my inmost being…” (Ps139:13), you see, it is not an externally applied creation it is an intimate contact “in my inmost being”. Again, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..” (Jer1:5)
We are not created as an afterthought, God knew us and loved what he was creating. When we are babies, and before we know who we ourselves are, leave alone say our first prayer, God comes and lives with us, makes us his temple, through no more than the proxy prayers of Baptism. Even in his prayer to the Father, one of only three occasions upon which we are made aware of the intimate conversation between the Eternal Son and the Father, Jesus expresses that he desires He might be “in” us! (Jn 17). What a wonderful God we have, who loves us more than we love ourselves, knows us more than we know ourselves, and is closer to us than we are to ourselves! The greatest unity that we can imagine is physical and emotional, and yet God crosses even the physical barriers of our body unites with us deep within our spirit.
The Christian penitent, in prayer, begins to lead the Eternal Life of God. And should his heart be sincere, then though fears do torment the clouded mind, yet he will never be lost.
“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror (κατοπτριζόμενο kata + ὀπτάνομαι- to appear as in “optic”, used only once in the Bible, meaning to see as in a mirror/to mirror/to reflect), are being transformed (μεταμορφούμεθα) into the same image (τὴν αὐτὴν εἰκόνα) from one degree of glory to another (ἀπὸ δόξης εἰς δόξαν); for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18)
In the Greek, the word for “transformation” (μεταμορφούμεθα) is the same word used for “transfigured” in Mark 9:2 “…and he was transfigured before their eyes” (Mk 9:2 in NIV NRSV, NASB, NKJV). “I no longer live, but Christ that dwells in me”. So let that sink in for a second, I don’t think I need to elaborate further, nor could I do it justice.
“Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)
“ this life was revealed…” and in 1:7 “we walk in the light…” and 3:9 “…they have been born of God.” Man is being “re-created”, as a “new life”, which is simply not his old life, it is the “image of his Creator”. (1 John 1:2)
“…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph.4:13-15)
“…and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator” (Col 3:10)
“You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24)
Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
1 John 3:2 “…we will be like him…”
The contemplative dimension is basically a reality of grace,(…) It enables persons to know the Father “Show us the Father and it will be enough…”(Jn 14:8) in the mystery of the Trinitarian communion, so that they can enter into the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10) (Plenaria of the sacred congregation for religious and for secular institutes, 4-7 march 1980)
the highest and fullest activity of the spirit, the activity which today, also, can and must order the immense pyramid of all human activities” (Paul VI, 7 December 1965).
Almighty ever-living God,
who in the abundance of your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you,
pour out your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
(The Collect (Opening Prayer) 27th Week)
In Jesus we really “see the Face of God” which He Himself has made possible. All the difficulty with this in the Old Testament must be called to mind where it was firmly held that man cannot see the Face of God and live. Yet the only man who speaks “face to face with God” in a pure contemplation of Him, Moses returns with his face genuinely aglow.
Heaven is Contemplation of God
“I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory” Ps 63:2
Rev 22:4 “4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads”
1 John 3:2 2 “ when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
Matt 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God”
Exodus 24:8-11 “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”
Let us, in our own personal prayer lives be like the elders atop that mountain, and like Moses, in that secret and most intimate contemplation lasting 40 days upon the mountain, when he ate and drank nothing but the Goodness of God. Let that be our 40 day Lenten contemplation, and our contemplation in Advent every time that it comes around. The contemplation lasts ostensibly for 6 days for the elders and then a further 40 days for Moses who is drawn into an even closer contemplation than all the rest as he is called up to the mountain all by himself. Remember that these, including Moses himself were persons who had not been Jesus not told about Jesus nor had Heaven and the Kingdom of God been revealed to them. How much more powerful and fruitful must be our own contemplation of God in prayer, to whom the love of Christ has been revealed in Person and into whose hearts has been poured the Holy Spirit (Rom.5:5).
Faith forged in Suffering
To suffer is to suffer some loss, and is the simplest definition of suffering. Suffering in the face of death brings the fear of the loss of everything, while the suffering of pain brings the loss of physical security. In a state of loss we are rendered needy, and in the loss of everything we are totally and utterly dependent. Thus suffering actually opens the door to faith in the reality of God, for our utter neediness and dependence upon him is the only true reality. (All the human state is one of suffering, and one who claims to not suffer is merely one who normalises the suffering of the knowledge of mortality that all humans face. Thus the atheist state of happiness is the normalisation of the despair of hope in life. I once asked an atheist about their outlook on life and they replied “…well, I’m not particularly happy that I will die…”. I didn’t say it (it was not the right time) but “not particularly happy” equals “particularly sad”)
As we become aware of our total dependence upon God in a state of pure Faith, we become open to receive his gifts. God gives to us the supernatural virtues of Faith Love and Hope. After all, faith hope and love are faith in, hope for, and love of God. Faith and Hope are both virtues of a dependent state, of dependency, they are not virtues of independency. (In Heaven we will require neither, as St. Paul says “only love remains…”) However it is in this awareness and acceptance we receive God, for the acceptance of our dependence on God is the acceptance of God himself “…and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:5). Thus supernatural Faith, Hope and Love do not correspond to the secular human virtues of the same name, nor are they in the manner of the virtues of any other religion either. The reason is that Christian faith hope and love, is faith in, hope for and love of Jesus specifically.
Christian faith is in a God who “as good as dead” upon the Cross, bringing it in line with the notion of faith based on vulnerability, the characteristic of the entire prophetic cycle. Abraham believed, as the author of the book of Hebrews writes, “although his body was as good as dead”, and although “Sarah womb is as good as dead”, and further he became willing to give up his son Isaac for dead, in faith. Thus is a faith that is in a state of deprivation of every co-ordinate of human strength. Thus bereft of every other coordinate of physical strength, Faith becomes based purely upon love. St Paul describes how true hope and true faith are only possible in a state of deprivation of worldly co-ordinates of security when he says: “Who hopes for what is seen?” (Rom 8:25). Sharing in Christian suffering in this manner is the gate to supernatural virtues and those virtues are faith, hope and love. This faith hope and love is in and for Christ Jesus the Son of God, no other,“we boast in our hope…”.
We are dependent for everything upon an omnipotent God, who gives to us everything precisely through his omnipotence. Suffering, through bringing us into the clear awareness of this reality, which is the only true reality, then clears the way for our attainment of that same reality, which is God, through such an awareness. This is the primary meaning of suffering.
I knew a lady who suffered greatly from various physical and social deprivations, yet was very prayerful and devout say to me while struggling with depressive symptoms, “I just want to love and serve him in freedom and peace, to have my life and health back”. And while the ordeal the person had been going through was truly excruciating, one must point out that she would never serve “love and serve the Lord” more than what they were loving and serving the Lord already in that very state of suffering. In the Christian teaching, by uniting ourselves to Christ in this manner, we share in his priesthood. Once again suffering gains this great and exalted significance in the Faith: it is our priestly offering to God.
Participation in the Divine Life thro’ the Cross
(this and the next sections are repeated in Jesus, Son of God essay)
And our suffering in this manner we are not alone, but rather united to God. How so? Because we are exercising the same virtues that He himself exercised in His own state of helplessness. Christ exercised the same virtues in his humanity which we exercise through Faith in him, these virtues in his Humanity flow from his relationship to the Father, for they are his love for the God the Father. The supernatural virtues of Faith are derived from the Love of Christ for God the Father and their perfect loving relationship. Thus it is that St Paul can say “…we have been buried with Him by baptism into death (…) so that we too might walk with him in newness of life (Romans 6:4)”.
St Paul says: “…and hope does not disappoint…the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given us” (Rom 5:5). When we empty ourselves of love for ourselves, we open ourselves to love for God, that love which God himself pours into our hearts. These graces as we have said already, are supernatural, and this significant, for it is hardly a trivial matter that we love with the Trinitarian Love of the Son for the Father.
God wants us to be like him, but it is impossible for us to be like him “As He is in Glory”. God remedies this by becoming one of us and making it possible now for us to “be like him on the Cross”. St. Paul says: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death…” (Phil.3:10) This awesome mystery can only mean that although we cannot be like God, radiant in his Glory and Majesty, yet it is not untrue to say what we are given to “be like him” in his death and humiliation. The negation of our self and the faith in ourselves in our suffering is nothing but the increasing intensity of the force of our complete affirmation of Faith in God. Suffering is that means by which we are given in a definitive and authentic manner, to let God into our lives.
This is why St Paul can say “we…were baptised into his death…if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (6:3,5) This is one of my favourite verses to quote because it contains the clear pre-condition for resurrection in the “if…then” form: “if we are united with Him in a death like his”. It is when our death is “like his” that our resurrection will be like his. Is there any other way for us to be resurrected? St Paul certainly does not offer any.
What is it for Christians to undergo a “death like Christ’s”? As the famous third verse from Philippians goes “Christ emptied himself, not clinging to equality with God…” Christ’s relinquished his Godly privilege, and in doing so calls us to relinquish our niggardly human privilege, and what pride we have in it. To undergo a death like Christ is to exhibit the same virtues that Christ exhibited in his Passion which are his gentleness, humility, and love in the face of our own sufferings. Thereby man is brought into a true participation in the Divine Life of the Holy Trinity as we Love with the Trinitarian love of the Son for the Father, that love that is “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given us”. Our own self-regard no longer presents an obstacle to that divine infusion of love. Jesus did not just empty himself of his divinity, he empties himself on he Cross also of his humanity “no one takes it from me, I lay it down of my own accord”. We are called to suffer only the latter, and so infinitely less than the suffering God.
St Augustine sermon excerpt: “He had no power of himself to die for us: he had to take from us our mortal flesh. This was the way in which, though immortal, he was able to die; the way in which he chose to give life to mortal men: he would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him. Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did he of himself have the power to die. In other words, he performed the most wonderful exchange with us. Through us, he died; through him, we shall live”
The genius of the Epistle to the Romans is to hold in tension the great extremes of suffering and glory, presenting in a convincing manner Faith as the bridge between both.
What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
that you set your mind on them,
visit them every morning,
test them every moment? (…)
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?…”
(Job 7:17-18,20)
God has given us an existence that we cannot comprehend, and yet we are told that he wants to bring us to a Life that we can comprehend even less, a sharing in his own Life. On what basis can we refuse to believe the latter having failed even to comprehend the former. And in his wisdom as Creator, a Wisdom that is not just an arbitrary decision but rather in his knowledge of Eternity, He knows that the means to this Life is the perfection of Purity.
What we ask for in prayer
“Sustain in me a willing spirit” or “A fervent spirit”
Don’t ask God for little things, ask him for himself. The only thing that we need petition Him for is to fill us with Himself. “Only one thing is needed…” as Jesus said to Martha. “How much more will your Father in Heaven give..”
I like this passage because although it seems trivial at first, I think it is a reflection upon the attitude of King Jehoash. I had to mentally picture a Hollywood movie in which the impassioned hero grabs the arrows and hits the floor with them so many times and so furiously that the wood of the arrow is split and his hands are covered in blood. I think in a land of signs and mystical symbols, the King would have know that this would be a sign of victory against his enemies. Yet he strikes the ground three times, almost dubiously, it would seem.
2 Kings 13:18-19 He continued, ‘Take the arrows’; and he took them. He said to the king of Israel, ‘Strike the ground with them’; he struck three times, and stopped. Then the man of God was angry with him, and said, ‘You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Aram until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Aram only three times.’
St Paul, he says “you pray, but you do not receive, because you do not ask for the right thing”.
Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Luke 10:40-42 “But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. (Other ancient authorities read few things are necessary, or only one) Luke 11: 8-13 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one (πᾶς)who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Also Matt 7:7-11) What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”Rom.8: 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.
Contemplation in Suffering
“My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?(…)Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my helpand my God.” Psalm 42:3,5
One’s powers of contemplation are greatly increased in a state of suffering, because the mental faculties are united in their focus upon that suffering. However should one not attempt a contemplative attitude toward suffering, that very suffering will hinder one’s prayer life altogether and one will then be unable to pray. Jesus himself in the Garden, “began to be sorrowful and agitated” (λυπεῖσθαι καὶ ἀδημονεῖν) and says: “my soul is sorrowful unto death”, and in the anguish of death he cries out “My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus experiences mental anguish that is “unto death”, great torment, so in our own pain and bewilderment, and feeling of being lost we might be like Him.
What of us? I was given, without any prior specific scriptural reading, to see my sufferings, as burning before the altar of God. That first day, the burning of my sins was my only contemplation and lasted for the duration of my contemplation. What else is there that one has to offer to God but one’s sufferings, and if one offers not one’s sufferings then one has nothing to offer God at all. Consider as your sufferings to offer all the fear, anxiety, despair, sorrow, uncertainly that they cause, not knowing what to expect, not knowing what tomorrow might bring, fearing what might come, feeling pain that is beyond all feeling. Do not consider that these are weaknesses in the faith to feel ashamed of, for our faith is weak anyway, any weaker still when we are not disappointed in it but oblivious. One does not require to pass judgement upon one’s faith, rather merely like Peter to place oneself before the Lord! We are not told whether the two walked back to the boat together, or Jesus with Peter in his arms (either way, I do not think that Peter was dragged back through the water!) So does Jesus also not cry out from the Cross “My God my God why hast thou forsaken me?” and yet he has placed himself willingly on that very Cross before the Father, so also we place ourselves before Him in prayer knowing our weaknesses which cause us fear, trepidation, anxiety, despair. Therefore having no faith in ourselves who are given to such feelings of doubt, but knowing that the one to whom we go is the Almighty and “commending our souls into His hands” for it is He who is faithful. The pain that we feel in our soul, is akin to Jesus’ sorrow of the soul “unto death” though even if a tiny iota in comparison, it is that which is the greatest suffering of the mind, for what can be greater than the suffering of the soul “unto death”? And being the greatest suffering, we do not shun it for it is the best that we have to offer to God.
And yet He has given us this, this one “work” of co-operation in the work of Salvation, that we may “complete in our bodies that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ on the Cross”. For Jesus himself is offering his own suffering “in the holy place” in Heaven to the Father, where He has entered as eternal high priest, “with his blood”. “With his Blood” (Heb 9:11) implies He is offering the sufferings of his Passion before the “Throne of the majesty in Heaven” (Heb 8:1), not because He needed to suffer for Himself, but because through His sufferings He makes our own offering of our sufferings acceptable to the Father. And as “in communion with His Blood” (1 Cor10:16) we are with Him in the most Holy of Holies, of which the Temple which contained the Arc was but a “sketch and shadow” (Heb8:5). Thus we are united with Christ in the sufferings of his Passion as we are “united in a death like His” (Rom6).
This Altar in Heaven is described in Rev 8:3-4 “Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.” Further the souls of the holiest persons are present with us as is given in Rev 6:9 “ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given”
Blessed are the Pure of Heart
A homily on the Beatitudes by St Gregory of Nyssa
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”
Bodily health is a good thing, but what is truly blessed is not only to know how to keep one’s health but actually to be healthy. If someone praises health but then goes and eats food that makes him ill, what is the use to him, in his illness, of all his praise of health? We need to look at the text we are considering in just the same way. It does not say that it is blessed to know something about the Lord God, but that it is blessed to have God within oneself. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I do not think that this is simply intended to promise a direct vision of God if one purifies one’s soul. On the other hand, perhaps the magnificence of this saying is hinting at the same thing that is said more clearly to another audience: The kingdom of God is within you. That is, we are to understand that when we have purged our souls of every illusion and every disordered affection, we will see our own beauty as an image of the divine nature. And it seems to me that the Word of God, in these few words, was saying something like this: In you there is a certain desire to contemplate what is truly good. But when you hear that God’s majesty is exalted high above the heavens, that his glory is beyond comprehension, that his beauty is beyond description, that his very nature can neither be perceived nor be understood, do not fall into despair or think you can never have the sight that you desire. So if, by love and right living, you wash off the filth that has become stuck to your heart, the divine beauty will shine forth in you. Think of iron, which at one moment is dark and tarnished and the next, once the rust has been scraped off, shines and glistens brightly in the sun. It is the same with the inner core of man, which the Lord calls the heart. It has been in damp and foul places and is covered in patches of rust; but once the rust has been scraped off, it will recover itself and once more resemble its archetype. And so it will be good, since what resembles the good must be good itself. Therefore, whoever looks at himself sees in himself what he desires. And whoever is pure in heart is blessed because, seeing his own purity, he sees the archetype reflected in the image. If you see the sun in a mirror then you are not looking directly at the sky, but still you are seeing the sun just as much as someone who looks directly at it. In the same way, the Lord is saying, although you do not have the strength to withstand the direct sight of the great and inaccessible light of God, if you look within yourselves once you have returned to the grace of the image that was placed in you from the beginning, you will find in yourselves all that you seek. For to be God is to be pure, to be free from weakness and passion, to be separated from all evil. If these things are all true of you then God is within you. If your thought is kept pure from evil habits, free from passion and weakness, separated from all stain, you are blessed because your vision is sharp and clear. You are able to see what is invisible to those who have not been purified. The eyes of your soul have been cleansed of material filth and through the purity of your heart you have a clear sight of the vision of blessedness. What is that vision? It is purity, sanctity, simplicity, and other reflections of the brightness of the Divine nature. It is the sight of God.
(John 16:23a) “So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”
Resources
This is an excellent podcast on the topic: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-thomistic-institute/id820373598?i=1000484041117