Continuing on the series on silent prayer, Babu Victor returns with another guest post – this time on understanding what contemplation is. The post will cover some aspects of Christian meditation, which is a necessity when learning contemplation. Please note these are not to be confused with other forms of meditation/contemplation practices, where the focus would be on emptying the mind.
Christian meditation is just the opposite: filling the mind and heart with the things of God, especially His written Word.
To understand contemplation, we need to compare it with the other two forms of prayer:
1. Vocal prayer
2. Meditation
There are of course many other ways of praying but this is a traditional classification.
Vocal prayer
Vocal prayer is self-explanatory: all forms of verbal prayers to God including singing, prayers of petition, devotions, praise and thanksgiving.
Meditation
Meditation in simple terms is thinking about God. It is a mental activity, in which we recall who God is, His goodness towards us, our experience of His work in our lives etc. Though I say this is a mental activity, it definitely moves the heart and from it springs forth praise and gratitude. Amazingly this many a time leads to an outburst of vocal prayers!
A well known method of meditation would be to read a passage from scripture and reflect on it (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:1-3). It includes picturing the place, situation and characters in the passage and also paying a lot of attention to the spoken words. It involves a bit of role-play too i.e. placing oneself as a character in the passage.
Example: If you’re reading the passage where Jesus multiplies the bread and fish, one should be able to visualize the grass on which the people were seated, see the fish and the loaves of bread, the disciples, Jesus and also hear the words spoken. Through all this, we invite God to speak a truth about the passage into our hearts.
Meditation could simply be described as reading and re-reading an email from one’s beloved who is absent at the moment. The only ways of contact with the beloved are the email. In this case, the beloved is God and the emails are the contents of the Bible.
Meditation puts us in touch with God indirectly. We don’t access His very person but His Word, which is the medium through which He reveals Himself to us.
Contemplation
Contemplation would be something like this: you are reading a letter from your beloved reflecting on its content and you hear a knock on the door. You open the door and you see your beloved standing at the door. You leave the letters aside and just spend time with the beloved. There is no medium here, just direct contact with God. This is the stage in the spiritual life when direct contact with God becomes more and more frequent.
As we begin our journey with God, our relationship with Him depends largely on vocal prayer and meditation. Contemplation is a gift of the Holy Spirit. “It is the prayer of the heart, an entry into the presence of God where there are no words, concepts or images. It is the prayer of being in love.” (Fr. James Farfaglia)
It should also be emphasized that at no stage in the spiritual life does the Bible become irrelevant! Even in the deepest of contemplation, Scripture is the undying firewood that is burnt on the altar of personal prayer.
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” - 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
Since many of us (like myself for instance) start with charismatic spirituality, here’s a book that I found greatly helpful in merging charismatic spirituality with meditation and contemplation:
The Contemplative Way of Prayer: Deepening Your Life With God by Fr. Robert Faricy
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