PRAYER - CONTEMPLATION
Notes and quotes from a talk given to adults who have decided to follow Jesus
by Bishop David Chislett

At the present time there is a great revival of interest in prayer and spirituality. Many people have become tired of living superficial and meaningless lives, skimming across the surface of reality like speedboats bouncing over the water. They are fed up with the emptiness and darkness that floods our being when our relationship with God is dysfunctional.

The evidence of this is all around us. We see a turning to the mystical teachers of India, to Buddhism, to the horoscopes in our daily papers, the plethora of "New Age" practices, to the occult, and to the new fundamentalist groups occupying the fringes of Christianity.

CHRISTIAN TRADITION AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

Sadly, a lot of people ignore mainstream Christianity in their search for transcendent reality. At least some of the time this is because their experience of our communities is not one that would suggest that we can be of much help.

There is, however, at the heart of Christianity a very wonderful stream of "mystical" or "spiritual" theology, grounded in Scripture, lived in the Church community, and illustrated in the lives of God's people down through the centuries.

Tonight, I want to draw on the cumulative wisdom of this tradition, and say something about the kind of prayer we call "contemplation". At one level this talk is probably too general; but it will nevertheless give you an overview, and, more importantly, a way in.

It has been customary to speak of three basic kinds of prayer:

1. Vocal prayer - the prayer of the lips - said or sung. Liturgical or "spontaneous".

2. Meditative prayer - the prayer of the mind. We ponder, reflect and think about God, about his works, and about what he says to us.

3. Contemplative prayer - the prayer of the heart. Our lips and minds are quiet, but the heart reaches out in the wordless prayer of just "being" with God.

Contemplation is often thought to be the most difficult kind of prayer that there is. That is partly the fault of the stodgy and difficult style with which many spiritual directors have written about it in the textbooks; but, more simply, it is because contemplation cannot really be described; it can only be "experienced" or "done". It involves the loss of self awareness, going beyond the mind. An English mediaeval writer described it in these words:

"Contemplation is not the pleasant reaction to a celestial sunset,
nor is it the perpetual twitter of heavenly birdsong.
It is not even an emotion.
It is the awareness of God,
known and loved at the very core of one's being."
(Cloud of Unknowing)

To move in this direction, we need to create opportunities in our lives for reflection and silence. We need to practise relaxing in the presence of God, letting go of tension, anxiety and worry, and turning the attention of our hearts to God and his love. Many people discover that "vocal prayer" and then "meditative prayer" are stages along the way in this process. However it happens to us personally, we allow ourselves to be drawn by God more deeply into his love. We lose awareness of ourselves and become, as it were, eyes gazing upon God who is beyond ourselves.

" . . . we enjoy him who lies behind all the promise and all the longing of creation: we enjoy God for himself alone. Nothing comes between himself and us: no self-concern, not even penitence; no thinking about God, for that centres the activity on my mind; no speaking to God, for that is to use my voice and my words . . . we become ears that simply take in the music; eyes that gaze upon the scene; the good earth that receives both rain and sunshine. We become an empty cup for God to fill . . . we grow in union with God. In true contemplative prayer, the awareness of the self is lost, if only for a moment, and God becomes all in all." (Richard Holloway)

WHAT HAPPENS TO US?

If we allow ourselves to be drawn to God in this way, at least three things begin to happen:

1. The transfiguration of our lives.
St Paul said: "All of us, gazing on the Lord's glory with unveiled faces, are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image by the Lord who is the spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18) The "unveiled" face refers to the veil which Moses wore over his eyes to hide the blazing light of God's glory from the sensitive eyes of the Israelites when he came down from the mountain. But when he went in to speak to the Lord, he took the veil off. St Paul is saying that unveiled before God, we undergo transfiguration (metamorphasis) into the image and likeness of Jesus. Our intimacy with him is deepened in this mystical gazing, this wondrous encounter with his love and his holiness.

The Cloud of Unknowing says:

"All those who engage in the work of contemplation find that it has a good effect on the body as well as on the soul, for it makes them attractive in the eyes of all who see them. So much so that the ugliest person alive who becomes, by grace, a contemplative finds that he is by grace different, and that every good man he sees is glad and happy to have his friendship, and is spiritually refreshed, and helped nearer to God by his company!"

We become like the object of our contemplation.

2. We become more truly human
In this kind of prayer we experience God as he is. But as we prepare to pray in a contemplative way we often experience ourselves as we really are. And that can be painful. As we persevere (with repentance when necessary, with learning to trust in God's word, with relying on God's protection and strength), we gradually learn to accept ourselves without pretence. In so doing we become more truly human.

Does that sound like a paradox to you?

I know that there is a false spirituality whose practitioners seem to become less than human - you know, fifteen feet above the ground, and very mysterious. Instead of the detachment spoken of by the spiritual masters these people develop an unhealthy disdain for the ordinary things of life as though anything in God's creation that gives us pleasure is automatically sinful.

There was a good deal of this "superspirituality" around in the 4th century. The young Augustine tried various forms of it before his conversion to the incarnationalism of catholic Christianity. He wrote:

"I no longer desire a better world, because my thought ranged over all, and with a sounder judgment I reflected that the things above were better than those below, yet that all creation together was better than the higher things alone."

This is a crucial insight, and a valuable antidote to those who would set up "spirituality" as a flight from the earthy realities of real life.

This is further illustrated in a story told about of the really great saints. St Teresa of Avila had a wonderful sense of humour. It was known that she had a weakness for partridges. A rather pompous bishop visited her community one feast day just in time to see the sisters sitting down to a meal of patridges. He said to Teresa, "I'm surprised at you - a nun of the strict obedience - who should be spending her time in prayer - eating patridges." She is supposed to have looked him straight in the eye and said, "My Lord Bishop, prayer is prayer, and partridges are partridges!"

(In fact, one of the loveliest stories about St Teresa - in its own way illustrating her relationship with Jesus - centres on a journey she took one winter. There had been bad weather and the river had washed out and flooded the road. Teresa, 65 years old and infirm, left her carriage and hitched up her skirts, so as to wade through the icy water. Halfway across she saw Jesus standing on the far bank. Smiling at her he said, "Don't worry Teresa, this is how I treat all my friends." Smiling, Teresa replied, "Ah! My Lord, no wonder you have so few.")

A real spiritual journey will help us to delight in being part of God's creation, and to grow in our ability to relate to other people.

This freedom is related to the discovery, in God's love, of meaning for our individual lives. If we do not make this discovery, our work (even work for God!) can degenerate into a boring routine and soul-destroying drudgery. Even leisure becomes unsatisfying, uninspiring and dull.

Contemplative prayer is not selfish withdrawal from the world and its concerns. Paradoxically, as we become more contemplative, we have more to give to others, and are propelled to struggle in the world for healing, justice and peace. Contemplative prayer sharpens our perception and understanding of life around us. It is not surprising, then, that Thomas Merton saw a very necessary link between contemplative prayer and political struggle.

3. Other prayer takes on new meaning
As we make progress, all our prayers attain a contemplative quality.

Many people find that when they begin to pray contemplatively, vocal prayers lose a lot of their significance. They just want to gaze upon God. (They might even - especially if they have a pentecostal experience of the Holy Spirit - go through a period of real spiritual pride, despising those who have not yet been "liberated" from "set forms" of prayer.)

As time goes by and progress is made, however, these same people are often moved to return to more vocal prayer, especially those prayers of a repetitive nature like the Rosary or the Jesus Prayer, which now take on new meaning because they are undergirded by the contemplative life.

In fact, most people who learn to pray contemplatively undergo a heightening of their appreciation of the Mass, and they discover that preparation for receiving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament becomes more effective.

HOW IS IT "DONE"?

In a way this is not a very good question, although it is predictable! It is a difficult question, because (contrary to the views of some religious teachers - especially in non-Christian traditions) contemplative prayer is not "done"; still less is it "achieved"! Coming full circle, we must remind ourselves that it is something God does.

All we can "do" is to give him time and space in our lives, and wait for him.

In a recent interview on the ABC, William Johnston made the point that in these matters we are trying to use words to describe the indescribable. He said that prior to our journeys into contemplative prayer it is as if we are asleep, and we need awakening.

"People can be awakened in various ways; in meditation. Sometimes it happens when people are told they have a terminal illness - they say 'well all the stuff that I was so worried about before - it's not important', and there's an awakening to true reality."

The experience of God's people down through the ages, however, is that we can PREPARE IN FAITH for that awakening, and that this preparation is actually part of the awakening itself. What I mean by this is that there are so many promises in the Scriptures about how God will meet with those who diligently seek him, that if we create space and time in our lives - in other words, if we give God something to work with - then sooner or later we will know the beginnings of contemplative prayer. After all, we believe - in contrast to some other religious traditions - that we don't have to DESERVE God's blessing, we don't have to attract God's attention or his interest, we don't have to ascend into heaven to bring him down. He, all the time, has been patiently drawing us into his love. All we are doing is responding.

Jesus promised that the hungry and thirsty would be filled, that seekers would find, provided they seek him with their whole hearts. He renews his presence and love within us and we can know him as our all-in-all.