Contemplative prayer as described by the Saints - Contemplative light / knowing
St. Paul wrote to the Colosians: "That is why, ever since the day he told us, we have never failed to remember you in our prayers and ask that through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding you should reach the fullest knowledge of his will and so be able to lead a life worthy of the Lord, acceptable to him in all its apsects, bearing fruit in every kind of good work and growing in knowledge of God, fortified, in accordance with His glorious strength, with all power always to persevere and endure, giving thanks with joy to the Father who has made you able to share the lot of God's holy people and with them to inherit the light" (Col 1:9-12).
St. Paul wrote to the Colosians: "That is why, ever since the day he told us, we have never failed to remember you in our prayers and ask that through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding you should reach the fullest knowledge of his will and so be able to lead a life worthy of the Lord, acceptable to him in all its apsects, bearing fruit in every kind of good work and growing in knowledge of God, fortified, in accordance with His glorious strength, with all power always to persevere and endure, giving thanks with joy to the Father who has made you able to share the lot of God's holy people and with them to inherit the light" (Col 1:9-12).
St. Nil Sorsky, (1433-1508), a Russian Orthodox saint and monk, described the infused light of contemplation: "When the soul undergoes such spiritual activity and subjects itself to God and through direct union approaches the Divinity, it is enlightened in its movement by an intense light and the mind experiences a feeling of joy of the happiness that awaits us in the life to come."
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George Maloney, ed., Pilgrimage of the Heart, a Treasury of Eastern Christian Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 145, quoting St. Nil Sorsky, Ustav, p. 28, cited from the critical text of M.A. Borovkova-Maikova. Translation Maloney's).
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George Maloney, ed., Pilgrimage of the Heart, a Treasury of Eastern Christian Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 145, quoting St. Nil Sorsky, Ustav, p. 28, cited from the critical text of M.A. Borovkova-Maikova. Translation Maloney's).
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