Inner Journey Blog

Persevering in Meditation and Contemplation

Most of us get very discouraged at our first attempts to rest more deeply in God through meditation or contemplation. We discover that our mind wanders and our thoughts don't sit still. We find little joy at first.

This is normal. Some have a spontaneous gift of meditative prayer. Most do not.

Thomas Merton, in his book on Contemplative Prayer, encourages us in this:

Meditation is sometimes quite difficult. If we bear with hardship in prayer and wait patiently for the time of grace, we may well discover that meditation and prayer are very joyful experiences. We should not, however, judge the value of our meditation by "how we feel." A hard and apparently fruitless meditation may in fact be much more valuable than one that is easy, happy enlightened and apparently a big success.

There is a "movement" of meditation, expressing the basic "paschal" rhythm of the Christian life, the passage from death to life in Christ. Sometimes prayer, meditation and contemplation are "death"-- a kind of descent into our own nothingness, a recognition of helplessness, frustration, infidelity, confusion, ignorance. Note how common this theme is in the Psalms. If we need help in meditation we can turn to scriptural texts that express this profound distress of man in his nothingness and his total need of God. Then as we determine to face the hard realities of our inner life, as we recognize once again that we need to pray hard and humbly for faith, he draws us out of darkness into light--he hears us, answers our prayer, recognizes our need, and grants us the help we require--if only by giving us more faith to believe that he can and will help us in his own time. This is already a sufficient answer.

He goes on to say how valuable it is to walk through both the times of darkness as well as the times of light in prayer. Both are drawing us closer to a greater detachment from this world and an ability to rest in the reality of the Kingdom.

Ultimately we will find ourselves experience more abiding, enjoying, and living out of His presence. It's worth pressing through the initial discouragements that come!

(Feel free to post comments on this devotional blog, on your own daily devotion, on anything relating to contemplation, lectio divina, loving God.)

Merton on Contemplation

I'm re-reading Thomas Merton's Contemplative Prayer. A classic!

He begins by asserting that this type of prayer is not just for "monks" but it is for all people engaged in all types of occupations:

Certainly, in the pressures of modern urban life, many will face the need for a certain interior silence and discipline simply to keep themselves together, to maintain their human and Christian identity and their spiritual freedom.

He then goes on to describe the practice of contemplative prayer, calling it "prayer of the heart" which consists of "interior recollection, the abandonment of distracting thoughts and the humble invocation of the Lord Jesus with words from the Bible in a spirit of intense faith."

He says that prayer of the heart is a "way of keeping oneself in the presence of God and of reality, rooted in one's own inner truth." It is prayer that is "accomplished in silence, in nakedness of spirit, in emptiness, in humility."

This type of prayer goes beyond mental meditation on Scripture or spiritual images. This latter is very benefial and encouraged by Scripture (i.e Psalm 1:3). Although contemplative prayer (or prayer of the heart) is often initiated by meditative prayer, it goes beyond it. It is a "prayer of silence, simplicity... a deep personal integration in an attentive, watchful listening of "the heart."

Scripture uses terms like "gazing upon His beauty," "waiting on the Lord," and "abiding in Him" to describe this type of prayer.

Prayer of the heart (contemplation) is like two lovers just being together. They have passed beyond conversation and have entered into a place of silently enjoying being in the company of each other.

Merton says that contemplative prayer is "not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him whom we have found, who loves us, who is near to us, who comes to us to draw us to himself." He states that through this type of prayer "we seek God himself present in the depths of our being and meet him there by invoking the name of Jesus in faith, wonder and love." This is the practice of being with the One who is "more intimate to us than we are to ourselves."

I will fill you in on more of Merton as I continue to read.

Is There More Spiritual Life Than I’m Experiencing?

Many Christians are asking, “Is this it? Is my spiritual life as fulfilling and satisfying as it gets? Can I expect or long for something that is richer or deeper, or is that beyond my reach?”