Category: Meditation - St Joseph Healing Ministry

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/18/2013

Contemplative Prayer - An Experience of God

"Taste and see that Yahweh is good" (Psalm 34:8); "You have not seen him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him you believe in him and so are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described; and you are sure of the goal of your faith, that is, the salvation of your souls: (1 Pet. 1:8). Paul wrote to the Philippians about the loss of all things just to gain Christ and to be given a place in Him and to be able to partake of His sufferings (Phil 3:10).

In his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), Pope Benedict XVI quotes the first letter of John, "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 Jn 4:16). Benedict says this is the choice of the Christian - an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ, and through this encounter, this experience, a peson's life is changed. Since God loved us first, love for God and neighbor is a response to this love. The term, "love" is from the Greek "agape", which Benedict says gives Christians a new understanding of the term love. Love becomes concern and care for others. It seeks their good, and is even willing to sacrifice, lay down their lives if need be, for others.

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Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI: Deus Caritas Est 'God is Love' (obtained from the internet, EWTN library) #1,3,6.

A Spiritual Journey

2/17/2013

Contemplative Prayer had been described as unworded prayer.

In The Cloud of Unknowing, written in the fourteenth century perhaps by an English monk, the unknown author wrote about the lack of words in contemplative prayer.

"A man may know completely and ponder thoroughtly every created thing and its works, yes, and God's works, too, but not God himself. Thought cannot comprehend God. And so, I prefer to abandon all I can know, choosing rather to love him whom I cannot know. Though we cannot know him we can love him. By love he may be touched and embraced, never by thought."

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William Johnston, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing (New York: Image Books, 1973) ch 6, p. 54.

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/16/2013

Contemplative Prayer in Scripture and as Described by the Saints and Mystical Writers
                              Unworded Prayer

    The saints have pointed out the scriptures that best describe the experience of contemplative prayer. "Be still and acknowledge that I am God, supreme over nations, supreme over the world" (Psalm 46:10). Contemplative prayer is a gaze of faith, fixed upon Jesus. As a parishioner told the Cure of Ars, "I look at Him and He looks at me" (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2715).

    Contemplative prayer could last a moment - it could last several hours. A person realized that he has experienced it afterwards, as he realizes that he has changed. The psalms sing to his soul: "My whole being yearns and pines for Yahweh's courts, My heart and my body cry out for joy to the living God" (Psalm 84:2). He realizes that he is in love with God!

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See Thomas Dubay, Fire Within (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989) page 65-69. Also see Elizabeth of the Trinity, Heaven in Faith and also Last Retreat, for an explanation of scripture as it relates to contemplative prayer. These can be found in Elizabeth of the Trinity, The Complete Works, trans. Aletheia Kane, O.C.D., Volume One (Washington DC: ICS Publications, 1984) all pages.

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/15/2013

The Fruit of Contemplative Prayer is a greater desire to know God, our Beloved.

Many people think that contemplative prayer will just come to them, and sometimes it does, for this is a gift from God. But a person must remember that he is on a spiritual journey, and with all grace, he must respond to it. Even after one experiences contemplative prayer, he must go back to meditation to purify himself. In modern days, this is called a daily examination of conscience. The fruit of contemplation is a greater desire to know the Beloved. One returns to Scripture, and all that was mentioned above under meditation. One continues vocal prayers and participation in liturgical prayers expecially the Mass.

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/14/2013

Contemplative Prayer - is when God embraces our heart!

St. Bonaventure writes that one should consider that through this love comes all indulgences given by God -all good abundance - and through this love is possessed the desirable memory of His Presence - then He embraces a person's heart! This is the consummation of the Soul! The perfect step! The Unitive Step!

What an individual experiences is not the object of his imagination, for one cannot attribute to Him neither time, neither face, neither shadow, neither measurement, neither limit; for He cannot be represented - but it is all desirable . . . Last, it cannot be entered in the rational order, and it cannot be defined, neither proved, neither appreciated, neither understood, neither grasped, for His intelligibility exceeds all intelligence. . . . but He is all desirable.

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Bonaventure, La Triple Voie, 1269-1270. Available from the internet. http://jesusmarie.free.fr/bonaventrue_la_triple_voie.html
Translation my own. Third Section, Consummation of the Soul, XVII.5

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/13/2013

Contemplative Prayer
Contemplative prayer is pure gift.

Although contemplation is pure gift - you cannot prepare for it nor summon it - the saints acknowledge that you can make yourselves more open to such prayer. St. Teresa of Avila recommends that you slow down your normal processes, try to keep your mind from wandering by saying a few simple words. Some writers recommend: "Jesus, I love you", or the Jesus prayer: "Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy upon me, a sinner". Teresa says, be aware that you are in God's presence. Think about His love. Then words fall away in the pure receptivity of contemplation. You should not strive to cease from thought, although this may happen for a short time. You should abandon yourself into the arms of Love and occupy yourself with thanksgiving.
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St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, The Fourth Dwelling Place, chp. 3, no.7.

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/12/2013

Contemplative Prayer - Doing everything for God with love and charity

John Welch (1939-), a Catholic priest of the Carmelite Order, and chair of Carmelite Studies at the Washington Theological Union, in his book, The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim, says that St. Teresa of Avila warns that in the third mansion, a person could become too content to leave this place. But the purpose of prayer, Teresa reminds people, is conformity with God's will, not consolations. If one wants to do what God wants, this desire is expressed in the way a person lives his life [68].

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, describes the purgations that a soul experiences as it passes through the various levels on its way toward the divine light of perfect union with God. These purgations are purifications of the soul. These purgations also fit in with St. Bonaventure's descriptions of the Purgative and Illuminative way. On the journey, the person must first deprive himself of his desire for worldly possessions, as Bonaventure describes - the best candy, the softest clothes, and the most expensive apartment. John calls this mortification of the appetites. Since the senses are deprived of such things, it is like a night to them. As a person travels on this road, he goes by faith, and to the intellect, faith is like a dark night. He is traveling toward God, who is also like a dark night to a soul in this life [73-74, Ch 1, par 1-6].

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John Welch, O. Carm., The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1996).
John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, in the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1973).

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/11/2013

Preparing for Contemplative Prayer - Meditation

    St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is considered one of the best of mystical writers and is a favorite of many, including me. She describes the journey a soul makes, through prayer, to union with God. Her three books, Book of Her Life, Way of Perfection, and Interior Castle, are all on contemplative prayer. In her book, Interior Castle, she uses the term mansions, and in Spain that is the title of the book, "Las Moradas" (The Mansions). She lists seven of them. The first three pertain to vocal prayer and meditation, the last four pertain to mystical prayer, what happens to the soul when God touches it. These last four are stages of contemplative prayer and the person praying has no control over these stages. In other words, he cannot do something to bring the effects about on his soul. People may have consolations in nature and they end in God, but spiritual consolations have their source in God and people enjoy them in a natural way [Interior Castle, p. 72-74].

    In the seventh and innermost mansion dwells "the King of Glory, the greatest splendor. . . . The nearer one got to the center, the stronger was the light" [p.8]. The "mansion" is a person's soul and St. Teresa was given an image of it by Our Lord, as if it were a castle made like a diamond, in which there are many facets or rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions [p.28].

    St. Teresa is different than most writers on contemplative prayer as she describes how one experiences contemplative prayer. The words, "stages", "levels", "grades", "mansions", should not be thought of as happening chronologically. Nor do people pass through them at the same speed. God sometimes will touch a person who is just a beginner with the higher level of contemplative prayer. Sometimes a person who prays a lot may never experience contemplative prayer. St. Teresa says the King does not give Himself to those who do not give themselves totally to Him - but rather to those who serve Him - those who do His will moment by moment, day after day [Thomas Dubay, Fire Within (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989) 111ff.

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Saint Teresa of Avil, Interior Castle, trans. E. Allison Peers (New York: Image Books, 1961).

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/10/2013

Preparing for Contemplative Prayer - Meditation - the Purgative & Illuminative Way

       During your time of meditation, a person must seek out malice, says St. Bonaventure. Its roots are anger, envy and luke-warmness. Anger is manifested by gestures and speech, envy by sadness of the good of another, and luke-warmness by unfavorable suspicions, and by blasphemous thoughts.

          Bonaventure teaches that by looking over these things, a person must always keep in mind his death and that it is imminent. He must always keep in mind that the eyes of the Judge are fixed upon him, and also that the Blood of the Cross has been spilled for him. After examining his conscience in his meditation, he must follow through with correction by acquiring the virtues of generosity, austerity and gentleness. Bonaventrue quotes the prophet Micah (6:8): "I have shown you, man, what is good, and this is required of the Lord, only this, to do what is right, to love mercifulness, and to walk humbly with your God."

      In the Illuminative Way, Bonaventrue says, a person thinks about: First, his debt to God - what a price Jesus paid for him - and the sins that God has forgiven and the punishment he merits. Second, he thinks about the favors that God has granted him. And finally he thinks about the promised rewards.
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Saint Bonaventure, La Triple Voie, 1269-1270. Available in French from the internet. http://jesusmarie.free.fr/bonaventure_la_triple_voie.html , (Accessed 12/18/08). Translation my own.

A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/9/2013

St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) a Franciscan whom Pope Leo XIII called "the Prince of Mystics" and whom others call the greatest theologian of the spiritual life among the Franciscans, in La Triple Voie, which he wrote around 1270, uses the word "steps" or "way" ("Voie") and he lists three major ones under the mjor headings of the Purgative, Illuminiative and Unitive ways. He says that you must make use of the sting of conscience to be purified, [Purgative Way], the light of reason to have clear sight, [Illuminiative] and the spark of wisdom to become perfect [Unitive].

In the Purgative way, Bonaventrue teaches that during meditation the Spirit excites the sting of conscience. The Spirit helps a person to not neglect to watch over his heart, and his time - so it is employed usefully, and his purity of intention - so that his work is aimed to his eternal end. [What are the joys of your heart? What pleases you? And do these things help you gain your eternal end?] Next, a person must not neglect prayer, studies, and good works. The last thing a person must not neglect is to repent of his sin and to cry over it, to resist evil and all temptations, and to advance in virtues so that he can arrive at the Promised Land.

Bonaventure says that one must examine his attitudes to root out concupiscence [man's natural tendency to sin - a result of Adam and Eve's actions] within himself. He tells of these signs: the lust of the flesh is betrayed by the need of candy, of gratification of the senses, of the search for softness, [I love those fleece blankets - my old army blanket is tucked away somewhere!] for comfortable clothes, for sensual conversation and entertainment. The lust of the eyes is the desire to know secret things, the need to have rare and precious objects. The lust of the spirit or pride is when one seeks out the best treatment, the best music, and honors - things that render a person vain. In all these tendencies, the sting of the conscience must stimulate remorse of the heart.

St. Bonaventure, La Triple Voie, 1269-1270. Available from the internet in French. Translation my own.

We visited the home of St. Bonaventure when we were in Italy. Civita di Bagnoregio is perched on a hill and the hill all around it is gradually falling away. To get to the town you must walk out on a long bridge. When we arrived it stopped raining and we were able to see a double rainbow. Click on a photo to enlarge it.