Contemplative Haven

If we are all called by baptism to contemplation, we have to wonder why, comparatively speaking, contemplatives appear to be few within the Body of Christ. What becomes of this call from God for the deepest of unions with Him?

Perhaps we could use the analogy of the simple telephone call to explore different reasons as to why more people do not readily receive and respond.

First of all, the call comes from God, through grace. Are we open to grace? Are we open to receiving it, or do we shut ourselves off with our busy-ness? Do we have so many lines going at once that we can’t focus on one conversation at a time? Do we turn down the ringer-volume or pull the jack out of the wall, particularly by infrequent reception of the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion?

Are we selective in what we are open to hearing? Do we use the block-call feature too often, in an attempt to allow God in only when it is convenient for us? Or maybe we use call-waiting, fooling ourselves into believing we have unlimited time to get back to Him, that this age of grace will last forever, and after all, someone else is on the line. Do we put Him on hold, or call-forward: “I’ll listen to what You have to say, Lord, when I get to a better place in my life.” Are we, for whatever reason, afraid to answer the phone?

It must be admitted that sometimes we actually do not hear the phone ring. We are in another part of the house, or outside, or in the middle of noisy activities, using vacuums, washing machines, high-powered blenders. But God leaves messages. Do we listen to His messages when we are back inside, or when the noise level drops? Do we ensure that there are periods when we are back inside, with quiet time in which to listen to His voice, reflect on what He says, enter into conversation with Him, and rest in His presence – a block of time when He receives our undivided attention and we will not be interrupted?

Sometimes we receive messages through less-than-perfect intermediaries. How often have we had trouble in returning a call because the handwriting was unclear, or the number incorrect? Do we have the patience, persistence and interest in deciphering the message, because we understand the importance of the call-back?

There are other ways to continue this analogy – I’m sure you can think of many. But it seems to me that the most important thing is openness to receiving, and the awareness that Someone is trying to reach us.

For union with the Lord, for this ongoing call to contemplation, I want to be like someone who carries a cell phone that is fully-charged and always on – I want to be available, contactable and ready to listen, 24/7.

Despite the fact that there is a universal call to contemplation, and before we explore some of the responses to that call, there is one thing that really must be said. Perhaps it is the first of the apparent contradictions, the little puzzles, but here it is: contemplation is not required for salvation.

There are degrees to just about everything – virtue, holiness, prayer, love, union. There are graces given by God, but there is also human free will. There are charisms, but there are also circumstances.

The saints and contemplative writers wish to make it clear to us that if contemplation is not something that we experience, it is no barrier to eternal life with the Lord. Saint Teresa of Avila, in The Way of Perfection, wrote these words for her sisters in the convent:

“…it is very important for us to realize that God does not lead us all by the same road, and perhaps she who believes herself to be going along the lowest of roads is the highest in the Lord’s eyes. So it does not follow that …we are all perforce to be contemplatives. That is impossible; and those of us who are not would be greatly discouraged if we did not grasp the truth that contemplation is something given by God, and, as it is not necessary for salvation and God does not ask it of us before He gives us our reward, we must not suppose that anyone else will require it of us.”

And if Saint Teresa’s gentle, poetic assurances do not convince us, Thomas Merton, in New Seeds of Contemplation, surely will:

“It is the duty of anyone who has had even the faintest glimpse of God’s love to protest against an inhumanly cruel and false psychology of mysticism, this psychology which presents “sanctity” and “contemplation” under the guise of riches to be acquired. As if sanctity and mysticim were “goods” that one must have in order to be acceptable in the Kingdom of God…”

So as we continue, let us keep this in mind. His ways are not our ways. Some receive the gift of contemplation because of their great faith, some because of their weak faith. Some because of their virtue, some because He wants to bring them out of sin. Some because they have heard about it and desired it, some because they just loved God. Some not at all, for His own reasons. Let us respect His choices.

From the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska:

“I often see the Child Jesus during Holy Mass. He is extremely beautiful. He appears to be about one year old. Once, when I saw the same Child during Mass in our chapel, I was seized with a violent desire and an irresistable longing to approach the altar and take the Child Jesus. At that moment, the Child Jesus was standing by me on the side of my kneeler, and He leaned with His two little hands against my shoulder, gracious and joyful, His look deep and penetrating. But when the priest broke the Host, Jesus was once again on the altar, and was broken and consumed by the priest.

After Holy Communion, I saw Jesus in the same way in my heart and felt Him physically in my heart throughout the day. Unconsciously, a most profound recollection took possession of me, and I did not exchange a word with anyone.”

I’m exhausted. Yes, my face just hit the keyboard. I’m sorry to say, it did not elicit a contemplative response.

Wishing you all a safe and blessed weekend! We will continue our explorations next week, God willing – if I haven’t done any serious damage to the peripherals.

Who is called to contemplation? Well, the short answer is, we all are, as baptized Christians.

In Open Mind, Open Heart, Thomas Keating writes, “Contemplative prayer is the normal development of the grace of baptism and the regular practice of lectio divina.” Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange also considers it to be, if I may put it this way, a ‘perfectly natural’ supernatural phenomena. In Christian Perfection and Contemplation, he states: “…if we are truly convinced of the essential supernaturalness of faith, we understand that mystical contemplation is the normal blossoming of this theological virtue united to charity and to the gifts of the Holy Ghost.”

Normal development. Normal blossoming. That is very comforting. That is very encouraging. So then, why, as Catholics, are we not brought up with this attitude? Why are we not given the proper instruction on the normal and to-be-desired development of our prayer life? Why is contemplation rarely, if ever, the subject-matter of homilies? Why is it considered something the average person needn’t be made aware of?

In Fire Within, Father Thomas Dubay comments that the “minimalistic” view of prayer and the spiritual life has become deeply engrained within us, and that many of us have come to accept a “two-way” and “two-tier” mentality: two ways to God, one for the average person and one for the elite, and two tiers of holiness, one ordinary and one extraordinary.

Father Dubay is adamant that these theories are false. He states:

“They who think that fullness of contemplation is meant to be confined to an elite few do not understand the contents of Sacred Scripture,”

In her comment regarding my post, “How Can You Tell?”, Monica, of, Be Not Afraid , raised some difficult points/questions. I would like to spend some time exploring them.

Over the next little while, we will be looking at: who is called to contemplation and possible responses to the call; what it is that people find intimidating; spiritual self-awareness; different movements in/degrees of prayer; reading about contemplation versus experiencing it, and the importance of having a spiritual director (not necessarily in this order).

We may see some apparent contradictions amongst the saints/contemplative writers, and also within the teachings of the same person, at different moments in his/her life. It can be a challenge coming to grips with these types of contradictions, and trying to ascertain what they might mean for us at whatever point we are at on our spiritual journey.

But I am grateful for all these men and women who try to explain the inexplicable, the progress of a soul in its union with God.

“I was lonely, in spite of my good friends, but I knew instinctively that mine was a curious kind of loneliness which could never be ended even by the closest relationship with individuals, but only, in some mysterious way which I could not yet understand, by some kind of communion with all men, everywhere in the world.”

This is just a test. My Trinity Sunday keeps coming out as Saturday. Oh well. I went to the 5:00 p.m. Mass, so I guess I could look at it that way.

But really, no matter what time zone I choose on my settings, it never seems to come out right. Eeeeeegad. Maybe I’m nowhere.

So, if it ever looks like I’m answering your comment before you’ve even left one, you’ll know why. Precognition. Yes, that’s it.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

“At this moment, in one’s deepest center, the Father is begetting His Word Whom He never began to beget and shall never cease begetting. At this moment the Father and the Son are breathing forth Their common Bond, the Spirit Kiss, Whom They never began to spirate and shall never cease spirating. Which is to say that at this moment the Trinity’s inner life is going on in the indwelling presence.”

Father Thomas Dubay (Fire Within)

Our realization that we are being called to take the contemplative path can be triggered in different ways. Our prayer life may change slowly and imperceptibly, finally reaching the point where we convince ourselves we no longer even have the ability to pray. This may cause feelings of near-despair, abandonment and heartache, until we discover this thing called the “apophatic” way.

Or, we may already be receiving infused prayer, recognize this difference in our prayer life, allow it to flow naturally, and seek out increased knowledge through writings or a spiritual director.

Yet again, we may be living generous, loving, prayerful lives, even though actually in the state of sin, and God will give us experiences or consolations, in or out of prayer, which may frighten or intrigue us. This can push us into an investigation of these types of experiences, which will lead us to the discovery of the contemplative tradition within the Catholic Church.

The ideal situation would be to receive some spiritual direction from a contemplative religious, in order to ascertain, together in God, whether or not we are being called down this path. But here are two clues, from the author of The Cloud of Unknowing:

“The interior sign is that growing desire for contemplation constantly intruding in your daily devotions….It is a blind longing of the spirit and yet there comes with it, and lingers after it, a kind of spiritual sight which both renews the desire and increases it….The second sign is exterior and it manifests itself as a certain joyful enthusiasm welling up within you, whenever you hear or read about contemplation….As for the discernment of this sign, see if that joyful enthusiasm persists, remaining with you when you have left your reading. If it disappears immediately or soon after and does not pursue you in all else you do, know that it is not a special touch of grace. If it is not with you when you go to sleep and wake up, and if it does not go before you, constantly intruding in all you do, enkindling and capturing your desire, it is not God’s call to a more intense life of grace, beyond what I call the common door and entry for all Christians.”

“It is in the nature of this gift that one who receives it receives also the aptitude for it. No one can have the aptitude without the gift itself. The aptitude for this work is one with the work; they are identical. He who experiences God working in the depths of his spirit has the aptitude for contemplation and no one else. For without God’s grace a person would be so completely insensitive to the reality of contemplative prayer that he would be unable to desire or long for it. You possess it to the extent that you will and desire to possess it, no more and no less. But you will never desire to possess it until that which is ineffable and unknowable moves you to desire the ineffable and unknowable.”

So, are you sensitive to the reality of contemplative prayer? Does the awareness of it, and the desire for it, permeate your daily routine and way of being in the world? If so, then contemplation is very likely a gift God has given you. He is waiting for you to accept it and unwrap it slowly and appreciatively, to give Him thanks, and to use it.