THE ART OF

ACQUIRED CONTEMPLATION

FOR EVERYONE

(Into the Mystery of God)

Deacon Dr. Bob McDonald

ECCE HOMO

Behold the Man Behold the Man-God Behold His holy face Creased with sadness and pain.

His head shrouded and shredded with thorns The atrocious crown for the King of Kings Scourged and torn with forty lashes Humiliated and mockingly adored.

Pleading with love rejected Impaled by my crucifying sins Yet persisting in his love for me I see all this in his tortured eyes.

So, grant me the grace to love you As you have loved me That I may lay down my life in joy As you have joyfully laid down your life for me.

In the stillness I seek you In the silence I find you In the quiet I listen For the music of God.

THE ART OF ACQUIRED CONTEMPLATION

Chapter 1 What is Acquired Contemplation?

Chapter 2 The Christian Tradition

Chapter 3 The Scriptural Foundation

Chapter 4 The Method

Chapter 5 Expectations

Chapter 6 The Last Word

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS ACQUIRED CONTEMPLATION?

It will no doubt come as a surprise for the reader to be told that acquired contemplation is indeed something that can be “acquired” and that it is in fact available to all Christians in all walks of life. It is not, as is commonly held, an esoteric practice reserved for men and women of exceptional holiness. It is now known to possess a universal potential which all of us can enjoy and which has been largely untapped by lay Christians for nigh on 2000 years. It is however, not widely known that an anonymous monk in the 14th century dared to suggest that acquired contemplation was available to everyone, yet it still remained the prerogative of monastics and saints until the 20th century when adepts such as Dom John Main and Thomas Merton cleared the way and offered this prayer method for anyone who felt called to it. This booklet is designed to help all those Christians, who are attracted to contemplative prayer, to embark on this exciting journey and to provide clear and logical guidance based on experience. It is precisely this guidance which avoids all sorts of well-meaning but erroneous practices which a novice can so easily fall into. So, what is this prayer form all about?

Acquired contemplation is the art of approaching God in silence and stillness without words unlike other forms of prayer which involve the use of words such as the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and prayers in spiritual books. The Catholic Encyclopedia distinguishes between two forms of contemplation: acquired contemplation also called centering prayer and infused or passive contemplation. Acquired contemplation is a deliberate act of love of God by means of which man reaches out to God. Infused contemplation is the loving action of God reaching out to man. Centering prayer is available to all Christians in our day, unlike for past centuries where it was confined to the monasteries and was reserved only for monks and religious sisters. Infused contemplation, however, is in fact God’s decision and is outside of our human control. In other words, man acts and God reacts if he sees fit to do so. The latter is a special gift and is given by God only to a select few, but we, in silence can open our hearts and our whole being to God and we do that by constant attentiveness to a prayer word of our choice. We thereby acquire the early stages of contemplation in so far as it is humanly possible.

It is important to understand that acquired contemplation is NOT meditation. The Oxford dictionary states that meditation involves exercising the intellect and the mind with a specific topic of our choosing. In other words, we ponder upon something such as a passage of scripture and we draw uplifting conclusions from it. But it involves deliberate discursive thinking on our part.

Acquired contemplation, however, is the very opposite of meditation. There is no intellectual pondering or activity of any kind. It is in fact the emptying of the mind of ALL thoughts or ideas or imaginings. The sad truth is that all of us have as it were, a radio commentator talking incessantly in our heads. Our consciousness is constantly bombarded by words which is why it is so often difficult to enter into a state of true mental rest. This profusion of words and ideas effectively prevents us from reaching out to the infinite and totally formless spirit who is our God. Any ideas or images we have formed about God must by definition be flawed and woefully short of the reality of our Creator. Many of us still hold onto the childish image of God as an old man with a long beard. This is clearly not the case, yet we are still trapped in such childlike errors.

God is not reachable by means of our imagination and it is only by emptying our mind of all preconceived notions of our Father God that we can ever hope to enter into his august presence. We do this by means of utter silence. This does not mean that we cannot encounter God in other forms of prayer such as the Rosary, but these are in fact meditations and not contemplation. With the Rosary we formally meditate on the whole life of Jesus. On the contrary, acquired contemplation abandons all discursive thought and enters into a state which St. John of the Cross described as NADA meaning nothingness. It is in the vast nothingness that we come to rest in the arms of God.

In pursuing nothingness it is important to understand that we are not implying that God is nothingness. Not at all. God is everything. But we deliberately embrace nothingness in order to encounter the God who resides in our soul and so we choose to abandon the day-to-day busyness of our mind. God is of course already in our soul, but we are prevented from accessing him fully by our intrusive thoughts, ideas and imaginations. In putting these aside for a time, we prepare ourselves for God’s loving condescension, whereby he allows himself to be “KNOWN”.

Many writers insist on borrowing instruction from Hindu or Buddhist forms of so-called meditation. But this is an oxymoron since these practices do not involve meditation at all. In effect we need no instruction from Eastern religions since we already have a 2000 yearlong rich Christian tradition of centering prayer. The eastern objective is to reach what they call nirvana which is nothing more than a humanly enlightened state of mind. Christian contemplation is not interested in nirvana because we are seeking a state of union with a person, and that person is the Creator of the Universe who is God. Also, there is no demand in the Christian tradition to adopt the lotus position or any other difficult posture. All that is required is to sit upright in a comfortable chair. Nor should we refer to our prayer word as a mantra. That too is borrowed from Hindu practice and is totally unnecessary and misleading.

Not only that, but in Transcendental so-called meditation, the Maharishi allocates mantras according to the age groups of his clients. But what is not well known is the fact that these mantras are actually the names of Hindu gods. We Christians must shun these invocations of false gods. We need to focus our attention on our Father God and in resting in his presence with the holy view that we can have a deeper relationship with him who is our personal creator.

We do not need to be immersed in Hindu theological practice wince we have always had our own theology for 2,000 years, a theology which takes us into a deeper connection with our Triune God and him alone. There is no room for idolatry in acquired contemplation. As the decalogue instructs us, “Thou shalt not have false gods before me”. Acquired contemplation then needs to be pure in its objective which is to enter into the quiet and listen for the music of God.

An anonymous ascetic monk in the 14th century wrote an informative treatise which he called, “The Cloud of Unknowing.” He describes acquired contemplation as a process by which we enter into this cloud of unknowing and we do this by erasing all thought and entering blissful silence. In penetrating the cloud we place ourselves in the presence of God but as the monk points out, we cannot push through the cloud of our own volition. That is God’s prerogative and if he did allow us to penetrate the cloud that would be infused contemplation. All we can do is rest in the NADA, the nothingness and patiently wait on God.

As stated earlier, acquired contemplation is available to every Christian but sadly very few even know there is such a thing and of those who do know few are willing to spend the time and the effort to acquire it. Yet the truth is that acquired contemplation is a simple exercise. That is not to say that it is easy. It is not but it is quite simple to put into practice and by perseverance and generously giving of one’s time to encountering God, one can reach the experience of true NADA and ultimately enjoy the benefits which accompany it.

Having said that, there is always the problem that modern man is up to his eyeballs in busyness. One only has to think of the working mother who has a young family. For her, being able to spend 20 minutes twice a day in prayer is asking too much. She may have to wait till her family has reached their older years before embarking upon the exciting journey of centering prayer. Others could in fact make the time necessary if only they would give up many of their trivial and useless pursuits such as video games, internet addiction, texting and watching television for hours per day and maybe even face book involvement. But that is a personal decision which one would only carry out if one felt the call to holiness. We are in fact, all called to holiness and to become saints but sadly most of us prefer our busy lives to the devotion of a holy way of life. Once you begin acquired contemplation, the practice eventually becomes so enjoyable and profitable that you would never be likely to go back. In other words, acquired contemplation carries with it its own benefits which, once acquired, impel you to persevere.

In terms of our physiology, definite measurable changes occur when one contemplates. Most notably, changes take place in the brain. In the normal conscious state an encephalogram, which is an electrical tracing of brain activity, demonstrates so called beta waves which are busy crowded lines of low altitude. In the contemplative state however, the brain waves become slow and of much greater amplitude and these are called alpha waves. In other words, the contemplative has entered into an alpha state which is the deepest form of rest to which we can consciously aspire. This has been well researched by Dr. Herbert Benson who describes his findings in his book, “The Relaxation Response”. He also identifies other physiological changes in the alpha state such as lower blood pressure, lower pulse rate, slower and shallower breathing, and increased electrical resistance in the skin, all of which are characteristics of a deeply restful condition. This deep rest is a powerful antidote to anxiety and its effects last beyond the actual contemplative session and carry on for a few hours throughout the day. Contemplation would be a very worthwhile exercise for this reason alone. So many of our brothers and sisters could benefit from a reduction in anxiety levels.

Now, some misguided but well-meaning writers who do not understand the positive effects of regular contemplation suggest that in emptying the mind of all thought, one runs the risk of the devil, “entering into the vacuum.” This is simply not true for four reasons. Firstly, there has never ever been any record or evidence of demonic possession in anyone in an alpha state. On the contrary, one is enjoying a deep rest which counteracts any problems with anxiety. The contemplative is in control of his mind at all times and not vulnerable to the action of the devil. Secondly, while it is true that in acquired contemplation, the mind is devoid of thoughts, nevertheless one is well advised to constantly and unceasingly repeat the chosen prayer word throughout the session so that the mind is still occupied by the prayer word and therefore is definitely not in a vacuum. Thirdly, Dr. Benson in managing hundreds of cases to whom he has taught contemplation, has never come across any cases of adverse reactions. Fourthly, the Benedictine Monks in Montreal hold contemplation sessions four times a day for themselves and for scores of lay people. Again, no negative results have been observed. Therefore, the suggestion that contemplation exposes one to the intervention of the devil is a non-argument and has absolutely no foundation in practice.

The prayer word is the anchor which we adhere to throughout the contemplation session. By faithfulness to the word, one avoids the temptation to enter into the non-prayer of quietism which is nothing more than spiritual sloth. St. Theresa of Avila, a wonderful mystic, given to deep contemplation, described her own prayer as the prayer of quiet but by that it is clear she meant prayer of silence and not the heresy of quietism. As Richard Rolle once said, “Love is not lazy” and the prayer of quiet is far removed from the laziness of quietism. It is in fact an act of love of God and the practice of acquired contemplation promotes a refreshing new ability to love our God more deeply.

Many novices at centering prayer complain that nothing is happening. That is to say they have expectations of some sort or another, but these are pointless and a waste of energy. One is simply entering into the presence of God who is only to be encountered in the nothingness and in that state, one simply waits patiently for God. But there are benefits which one can hope for which may occur sooner or later by the condescension of God. We can ultimately enjoy a new vision of God and a whole new awareness of him. It may take months or even years of patient contemplation to experience the gift of renewed vision and clarity but nevertheless it awaits those who persevere and once experienced, one would never abandon it.

The lesson is never to give up contemplation because you are impatient or things are not developing in the way you had hoped. Just enjoy the silence and leave the rest up to God. Be faithful to your prayer word. Hold onto it and do not let it go throughout the entire session. By repeating it over and over again it becomes a quiet murmuring in the heart and not just a mechanical so-called technique. IT BECOMES THE PRAYER.

In the silence we move into God’s presence with no preconceived notions about God. We simply approach him and rest in his presence, glad to have the privilege of being there. We are utterly attentive, waiting eagerly like a little child on the Lord. “Here I am Lord” is what we are conveying to the Almighty and he hears our prayer. We are listening with our heart and not our ears. We see nothing with our eyes and we feel nothing with our emotions. This is precisely where we find God, this is where we want to be and in doing so we leave all outcomes to our Father in heaven.

Modern man is literally afraid of silence. He avoids it like the plague. Instead, he pursues noise 24 hours a day with his I-Phones, computers, texting, e-mails and music and all kinds of electronic devices. The actual noise is not the important thing to him as long as his mind is kept busy and distracted from reality. People are much less inclined to enjoy conversation and relationships and prefer to be occupied by sound bites. And if, God forbid, the phone should break down, they suffer withdrawal symptoms. Just try taking the phone away from a teenager and watch their panic response. So, mankind desperately needs to recover its inner craving for that silence which leads him to his creator God. Because man subjects himself to noise 24 hours a day he becomes dehumanized and depersonalized and so modern society is in grave danger. Cardinal Sarah has written beautifully on the loss of silence in today’s culture and we do well to reconnect with the God who is within and to lose our fear of the nothingness that kindly leads us to him. The choice is between noise and silence. It is between the suppression of our humanity and the sublime recovery of our status as children of God Our Father.

It is recommended by many writers on this subject that we practice acquired contemplation twice a day for twenty minutes each session. It is preferable to do the morning session before breakfast and the late afternoon session before supper. This is simply a way to avoid falling asleep during the session which would be more likely to happen after a heavy meal. However, this is not an absolute, nor is it written in stone. One can usefully contemplate at any time of one’s choosing and if one can only find room for one session per day, then that is fine too.

Posture is important, again to avoid the temptation to fall asleep. So, it is recommended that we sit in an upright chair with our spine straight. This tends to promote wakefulness in our silence. Slouching is not a good idea as it tends to promote sleep and the benefits of the session are lost. Check the time before you begin then close your eyes and after what you feel or sense is 20 minutes, open your eyes and recheck the time. If you have only been in the presence for say 10 minutes, then simply close your eyes and continue with your prayer word and do so for the remaining 10 minutes. Contemplation is a discipline and the time frame should be adhered to faithfully. As you practice, you will be surprised at just how accurate you become in estimating the 20-minute requirement.

A parishioner of the Cure d’Ars, once told him that in prayer, “I gaze at him and he gazes at me.” That is a short and lovely summing up of contemplative prayer. I gaze at God and he gazes at me and we both relish this intimate relationship without words. Surely, that is worth striving for by generously giving of our valuable time in prayerful silence and absence of preconceived thought. This type of prayer whereby we gaze at God, prefigures what we will one day experience for all eternity when we will see God as he is.

We must not get caught up on expecting things to happen which is what modern man looks for. He demands results for his efforts. Yet it is more correct to expect nothing. This flies in the teeth of today’s society which is frantically doing things and seems unable to enter into rest. But it is rest which is desperately needed by modern man, not more activity.

Do not judge one session or compare it with another session. Each session stands in its own uniqueness. Any episode may be devoid of anything occurring at all except for the blessed silence. Then rejoice. You are on the right track no matter what takes place. Do not judge one session as “good” and another as “bad”. Each has its own song to sing and we should simply accept and trust in the Lord. Make no mistake, you will come to enjoy a deep and abiding peace in your soul and that is the peace of Christ. Surely, that alone makes the effort well worth the time spent.

In fact, many contemplatives are so enthusiastic about their prayer time, they can hardly wait for their next centering prayer session and wouldn’t dream of missing it except in an emergency. They put aside all other activities and rush to their quiet place. For them, contemplation is the most important event of their day.

Our ego is the barrier to contemplation and so to overcome that we must approach our contemplation with humility. THE SIZE OF MY EGO IS THE EXACT MEASUREMENT OF THE DISTANCE BETWEEN ME AND GOD. That bears repeating: THE SIZE OF MY EGO IS THE EXACT MEASUREMENT OF THE DISTANCE BETWEEN ME AND GOD. The bigger my selfish ego, that is to say PRIDE, the further I am from Jesus. The smaller my ego, that is to say HUMILITY, the closer I am to him. 1 Peter 5-5, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”. In other words, I need to foster the virtue of humility in my heart and thereby give Jesus permission to act in all things in my life. “I surrender myself to you Jesus. Take care of everything.” To do that I need to stop fretting and worrying which are a disordered way of me taking back control of all my needs. Instead, I must close the eyes of my soul, surrender to the perfect will of Jesus for me, and embrace a state of rest in him. To have the peace that surpasses all understanding, which is the peace promised by the Lord, I must stop controlling my life and let Jesus be my God and my friend. I need to pray and leave the miracles to Jesus and stop telling him how to solve my problems. He knows best. In acquired contemplation we rest in God and allow him to control our lives. I step aside. Jesus fills the space.

St. John the Baptist understood this surrender very well. He said, “He must increase while I must decrease.” He knew he had to shrink his ego and to recognize he was not worthy to loosen the thong of Jesus’ sandal. He accepted the will of God without question.

So, in this simple way, you approach your God daily and God is joyfully waiting for you to do so. It is an exciting journey and one you will never regret. But remember the power of your other prayers and that they too should be part of your daily routine. The rosary, the chaplet of Divine Mercy, Eucharistic adoration, formal prayers, Novenas, the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours are all vital components of your prayer life. They immerse you in an atmosphere of prayer but as previously stated, they are meditations and not contemplation. They prepare your heart for your two daily sessions of acquired contemplation. And remember, in contemplating you are simply “being” and not “doing” and being is the golden key to the sacrament of the present moment.

Fr. Michael Lapierre, S.J. wrote a poem entitled progress in prayer in which he describes the natural progression from the prayer of a child to the mature prayer of the adult.

PROGRESS IN PRAYER by Michael Lapierre, S.J. “To some extent prayer comes naturally to man. Like anything innate it often tends to follow a natural rhythm identifiable with growth.

During childhood recited prayer predominates words learned by heart or read from a book.

From adolescence to manhood meditative prayer develops. We also find spoken prayer during this period. This species, while focusing upon a subject of one’s own choosing, breaks forth spontaneously. It may be the outburst of an emotion of joy, praise, gratefulness, sorrow.

Therefore, silent prayer is the prayer of the mature man, whose soul remains speechless in the presence of God aware of the inadequacy of whatever the soul may say to him. But is simply content to rest in God’s entrancing company.”

This state of rest is the most advanced form of prayer to which we can aspire and as mentioned before is available to all who would commit themselves to it.

It is important to understand that we should not completely abandon one type of prayer in favor of another albeit more advanced. All forms of prayer are essential to a truly healthy prayer life. Therefore, we should continue to recite our favorite prayers and if it helps us, to pray from a book. We should never give up meditation on the mysteries of God and on the scriptures. But we can still inculcate contemplative prayer into our daily schedule. The distinction between meditation and contemplation is best illustrated by the long-hallowed practice of Lectio Divina.

This prayer form consists of 4 actions. The first is lectio which is to read a passage with the heart and not the mind, secondly, meditation which is to ponder on that passage to gain hitherto unrealized insights, then oratio which is to pray a prayer arising out of our meditation and finally contemplation by which we enter into the prayer of silence and enter the presence of God. Note that lectio divina clearly distinguishes between meditation and contemplation, recognizing that these are two distinct activities. They complement each other, but they are definitely not the same thing. In fact, contemplation is the logical progression from lectio (reading) through to the silence and stillness. It is the end point of our prayer.

In chapter 4 entitled The Method the art of acquiring contemplation will be explained. You will be surprised at how simple it is.

CHAPTER TWO

THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION

Acquired contemplation has a 2000-year history in the Catholic Church and in Orthodox tradition. Origen of Alexandria was an early Christian scholar, ascetic and theologian born in 184 AD. He was deeply influenced, just as St. Augustine was, by the philosophy of Plato. He reminded us that, “We do not pray to get benefits from God, but to become like God. Just praying itself is good. It calms the mind, reduces sin and promotes good deeds.” These are precisely the benefits of centering prayer viz calming the mind of all thought and so entering into a state of rest (the alpha state), reducing the attraction of mortal sin and promoting love of neighbor by which we are motivated to perform good deeds.

Some of the early references to the prayer of quiet were made by John Cassian who was also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman. He was a monk theologian in both the Western and Eastern churches. He was born in 360AD and he developed and outlined the foundations of Christian monasticism which St. Benedict later adopted. So, in a sense he was the Father of Western monastic practice. It was he who emphasized the unceasing use of the prayer word. He spent time with the Desert Fathers in Egypt and they taught him the roots of centering prayer and informed him that this style of prayer went back to the very beginnings of Apostolic times. Therefore, acquired contemplation was practiced throughout all of Christian history and was a hallowed part of the Tradition of the Church. It became an essential practice in monasticism throughout Christendom and was erroneously thought to be for monks and nuns only. It is only in modern times that centering prayer has broken out of the monastic life and become available to all Christians everywhere.

Cassian emphasized that we must learn to be, rather than do, in prayer. We must become alive to the wonder of our creation and the life of Jesus in our heart. He talks about experiencing the “grand poverty” and in order to realize it he says, “The mind should unceasingly cling to the prayer word”. He also stated, “He, the Lord himself, has struck the small spark of good will out of the hard flint of our hearts”. In other words, it is Jesus who calls us to prayer and inspires our prayer and without him we can do nothing. We acknowledge our helplessness before the Lord and recognize that it is he who invites us to contemplation. He instructs us by saying that attentive stillness of mind, body and spirit “lies close at hand for all if only they will by constant repetition of this phrase (the prayer word), keep the mind and the heart attentive to God.” Note he says it is close at hand for ALL. So, he certainly supported the idea that centering prayer is for all persons. Historically however, it became the prerogative for the monasteries for centuries yet acquired contemplation requires no special talent or gift except the quality of perseverance.

Evagrius, known as Evagrius the Solitary, in the late 4th century stated, “Prayer is the laying aside of thoughts”.

St. Gregory of Nyssa also from the late 4th century wrote, “In the act of mystic contemplation, man immediately apprehends the perfectly pure in the reflection of his own image and so he does not need the discursive reasoning of ordinary knowledge.” That is to say, he strives for the emptying of self and the annihilation of his ego.

Dionysuis the Areopagite was a theologian and philosopher of the late 5th and early 6th centuries. He said, “When I say darkness, I mean a lacking of knowing and for this reason it is not called a cloud of the air but a cloud of unknowing that is between thee and thy god.” Clearly the expression “cloud of unknowing” was adopted by the later 14th century monk who wrote the treatise which he called The Cloud of Unknowing.

In that treatise, he wrote, “Fix this word (prayer word) fast to your heart so that it is always there, come what may. With this word you will suppress all thoughts.” He goes on to say, “I tell you the truth when I say that this work (of contemplation) demands great serenity, an integrated and pure disposition in soul and body.” Again, “Look that nothing live in thy working mind but a naked intent stretching into God.” So, contemplation according to the writer of The Cloud is a kind of stretching of the self, straining and reaching out towards the God who is to be found in the nothingness of a Christian soul devoid of all thoughts and who desires simply to rest in the loving presence of God, asking for nothing and expecting nothing.

The cloud also states, as written previously, that the author has no time for ecstasies, visions, voices or smells. Such things, he considers to be hallucinations and wishful thinking. They should be regarded as mere accidents to be discarded and not as the substance of the contemplative life.

A Penguin book entitled “The Scale of Perfection” reports that Walter Hilton in the 14th century wrote, “You yourself do nothing. You simply allow Him to work in your soul”. St. Theresa of Avila in the 16th century averred that in contemplation, we would enter into the “prayer of quiet” or the prayer of silence. As stated before this did not in any way support a useless quietism. She was very much a saint of action as well as contemplation. In fact, it was her deep contemplative life which propelled her into holy action. Ultimately, she was given the awesome gift of infused contemplation which was matched only by her tireless work of action on behalf of her Order.

St. Alonso Rodriquez, a 16 - 17th century porter of the Jesuit House in Majorca wrote in his “Memorial”, “Now, when the soul is contemplating God in prayer, in what conscious disposition does it draw near to Him? The answer is that its disposition is consciousness of infinite ignorance of God, a boundless ignorance which rejects whatever the imagination can present, for nothing that can be held by the intellect or the imagination can be God. Thus, the mind is entirely stripped of creatures and clothed in an infinite ignorance of God, which ignorance deprives it of all comprehension both of creatures and of the Creator. Contemplatives call this ignorance a mist. Hidden in this mist the soul ascends, raised and attracted by the very ray of faith which they call divine ignorance, (or The Cloud of Unknowing.)

The most prolific writer on contemplation was St. John of the Cross who was the spiritual director for St. Theresa of Avila. It was he who used the word “Nada” or nothingness to describe the acquired contemplative experience. This does not mean that God is nothing. No this is the nothingness we need to enter into in order to reach into God’s somethingness. It then prevents us from being distracted from God by the encumbrance of all thought. By entering into a personal nothingness we encounter the God who is everything. How beautiful that is. St. John in the sayings of light and love, says, “The humble are those who hide in their own nothingness and know how to abandon themselves to God”. In his letter to Madre Maria de Jesus, a discalced Carmelite he wrote, “Oh happy nothingness and happy hiding place of the heart.”

In his book 1, Chapter 10, we read, “All that is required of them here is freedom of soul that they liberate themselves from the impediment and fatigue of ideas and thoughts and care not about thinking and meditating. They must be content simply with a loving and peaceful attentiveness to God and live without the concern, without the effort and without the desire to taste or feel him. All these desires disquiet the soul and distract it from the peaceful, quiet and sweet idleness of the contemplation that is being communicated to it”. He goes on to say, “The attitude necessary in the night of sense is to pay no attention to discursive meditation since this is not the time for it. They should allow the soul to remain in rest and quietude even though it may seem obvious to them that they are doing nothing and wasting time and even though they think this disinclination to think about anything is due to their laxity. Through patience and perseverance in prayer they will be doing a great deal without activity on their part.”

Someone in contemplation is in that very nothingness, waiting on God and surely God is worth waiting for no matter how long it may take. In this regard St. John said, “Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning him.” and again, “The soul that desires God to surrender himself to it entirely, must surrender itself entirely to him without keeping anything for itself.” That is to say acquired contemplation is the abandonment of the self and the ego to the love of God, not expecting anything in return since God has no obligation to give the soul anything for its act of selfless giving. In fact, God deserves it as his rightful due.

The Catechism of the catholic Church describes contemplative prayer as “the prayer of a child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus and it is silence…. or silent love.”

Pere de Caussade who wrote the Abandonment to Divine Providence talks about the sacrament of the present moment and this is exactly where we stand with acquired contemplation. We abandon all thoughts of the past or the future but merely rest in the sacrament of the present moment, simply being. As the Cloud of Unknowing put it, “I tell you truth when I say that this work demands great serenity, an integrated and pure disposition in soul and body.” In fact, not only does it require great serenity, but it also promotes great serenity in the one doing it.

Before the great oratory of St. Joseph was built on the mountain of Montreal, Quebec, in the early 20th century, St. Brother Andre often spent time on the mountain on his knees, praying his prayer word over and over again in contemplative prayer and remaining in that posture for the entire night.

We need not be so ascetic in our prayer time. All it takes, as we have said before, is to sit in an upright chair, close the eyes gently, repeat the prayer word unceasingly, abandon all thought, do it for 20 minutes and do this twice a day.

In 1973 Our Lady instituted the Marian Movement of Priests by means of locutions to Fr. Stefano Gobbi. On August 15th, 1986 she gave us this beautiful instruction, “Today I want to sprinkle you all with the exquisite fragrance of purity, of humility, of simplicity, of silence, of prayer, of docility, of obedience, of contemplation. On April 8, 1977 she said the following: “Here I want to teach you to be silent…...Give no answer to the sneers and offenses of him who persecutes you. Judge no one. In the moments that await you, you will be called upon more and more to keep silent.”

In other words, silence is blessed by Our Mother and by Jesus and is particularly blessed in acquired contemplation which promotes this interior silence. Mother Mary asks us to judge no one but rather to pray for those who persecute the Church of Jesus. A deep inner silence is the energy which gives us the serenity to refuse to judge.

So, there is a long history of centering prayer throughout the 2000-year history of the Catholic Church. It began with the apostles and continued mainly in the monastic tradition which kept it alive throughout the dark ages and medieval times and was kept alive thereafter in Western monasteries. Later it was introduced in our day as a prayer for all Christians without exception if they are willing to invest their time and love in the practice. So, I urge you all to join the band of little contemplatives who long to rest in God. We live in blessed times in which the Church encourages Catholics to take up the practice of acquired contemplation.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has the following to say about contemplative prayer: - St. Teresa of Avila says, “Contemplative prayer is nothing else than a close sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” One makes time for the Lord with the firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. The heart is the place of this quest and encounter in poverty and in faith. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves over to him as an offering to be purified and transformed. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved son. It is a gift of grace. It is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts. It is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God “to his likeness.” It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus and is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart, illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. It is hearing the word of God. It is silence. It is a union with the prayer of Christ.

The rewards are great, yet we should not greedily look for them. Simply enjoy the act of being with God and leave the rest up to him. We incorporate ourselves into the 2000-year tradition of centering prayer in the Church and in doing this ourselves, we become united in the communion of the saints who have gone before us. So, pray to them and ask for their help in fostering within us a productive and rewarding contemplative prayer life. We are the church on earth and so, we are in a profound communion with the saints in heaven and with the holy souls in Purgatory. The saints pray for us without ceasing. They do not pray for themselves for they do not need it. The souls in Purgatory pray for us without ceasing but they are not able to pray for themselves. So, it is left to us here on earth to join with the saints in heaven and to intercede for the souls in Purgatory that their time there may be shortened. What a beautiful church we belong to which transcends time and space into heaven itself. A wonderful way for us to strain towards heaven in hope, is to commit ourselves to our daily contemplation sessions.

CHAPTER THREE

THE SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATION

There is a beautiful and profound scriptural basis for contemplative prayer. It is clear from 1 Kings 19. that Elijah did not hear God in the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire but only found him in the still small voice. So, Elijah had to enter into inner stillness for him to encounter God. It is in inner stillness that we too can encounter the God who loves us and who desires to speak to us.

In the book of Sirach 35:16-17 we read, “He whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted and his prayer will reach to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds and he will not be consoled until it reaches the Lord.” This tells us of the importance of humility in our prayer life and the reference to the clouds is uncannily reminiscent of the later words of the 14th century monk who wrote the Cloud of Unknowing and who claimed that the power of contemplation can propel us into this cloud and how it takes perseverance for us to come to rest in God.

Psalm 5:1-3, “To my words give ear O Lord, give heed to my groaning. Attend to the sound of my cries, my King and my God. It is you whom I invoke O Lord. In the morning I offer you my prayer, watching and waiting.”

It is through watching and waiting on the Lord in silence that we enjoy the benefits of centering prayer by which we offer God our prayer in the morning and evening.

Psalm 23:5-6, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Indeed, God is delighted to set before us a sumptuous feast as we persevere with our contemplative prayer. He will do so to confound our enemies who are our personal sins. And so, he will anoint our heads with the oil of gladness and our cup will overflow with God’s good things. Not only that but we are being prepared through acquired contemplation for that great awakening when we shall dwell completely in the house of the Lord forever and not anymore through “a glass darkly” which is all we can hope for in our centering prayer unless the Lord were to condescend to grant us the high privilege of infused contemplation.

The opening line of this psalm say it all: “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want” that is to say, once we possess God, we have everything worthwhile in the universe and so it follows that there is indeed nothing we shall want for we shall have it all.

Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go. I will give you counsel with my eye upon you.” So, let God decide if and when he will condescend to enlighten you.

Psalm 33:13-14, “The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the sons of men. From the place where he dwells, he gazes on all the dwellers on the earth.” So, God gazes down on us all. In acquired contemplation, we make so bold as to gaze upon God and it is in that silent gaze that we find him. As the parishioner of the Cure d’Ars stated, “I gaze upon him and he gazes upon me.” Psalm 63:2, “I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.” So, it is in the act of silence and stillness that I can have the awesome privilege of gazing into the divine nothingness, the NADA, and by means of it to ultimately gaze upon God.

Psalm 37:7, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently.” How essential is for us to wait patiently for God. Again, the virtue of perseverance in contemplation is necessary and surely it is a powerful and beautiful thing to wait on the Lord, expecting nothing and receptive to everything. Eventually God will answer and you will discover a whole new love for him in the very silence.

Psalm 42:1-2, “Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God. My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life. When can I enter and see the face of God?” This speaks so beautifully of the longing and the deep desire of a soul for God. It asks the question, “when can I enter and see the face of god?” This is a prayer of confidence, that sometime in the future, God will in fact make his face known to a mere creature. It will ultimately happen that our vision will become open to the glorious attributes of our God of love. The fact that it may take a long time to realize this merely speaks to God’s desire to have us love him for himself and so he waits patiently for us to give up the desire to see him for the wrong reasons which are fear of Hell and love of consolations. No. God wants us so much to love him for himself and his multitudes of perfect attributes. He is love, so let us love him.

Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” Again, it is in that inner stillness that we can come to know our God.

Psalm 84:1-2, “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of Hosts. My soul is longing and yearning for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my soul ring out their joy to God, the living God.” Note the quality of joy which accompanies this lovely yearning for the Lord.

Psalm 116:7, “Return O my soul to your rest for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” so even while you have not yet experienced anything in your contemplation, you know deep within that the Lord has dealt bountifully with you and as a result we can confidently say as in Psalm, 131:1-2, “I have not gone after things too great nor marvels beyond me. Truly I have set my soul in silence and peace, as a child has rest in its mother’s arms, even so my soul.” So, I need not seek after signs and wonders or indulge in the sin of spiritual avarice, for these things are all dangerous illusions for my soul. Better by far to sit in patient silence and wait humbly for my God.

Zephaniah 1:7, “Be silent before the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand. Zechariah 2:13, “Be silent all flesh before the Lord for he has raised himself from his holy dwelling.” Again, it is silence which opens up the royal pathway to God.

2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, rather he shows you generous patience, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” so if God is so patient with us, can we not also be patient with God and wait in stillness for him? It is important to wait, content that we can have the awesome privilege of approaching the Godhead in acquired contemplation. It of course promotes the virtue of patience and in so doing leads us deeper into the virtue of humility. And as St. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5:5-6, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that in due time he may exalt you.” With regular centering prayer, we embrace the humility of expecting nothing and waiting on everything and in that realization we become exalted as Peter promised. The New Testament also speaks to the joy and efficacy of acquired contemplation. Matt. 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart. They shall see God.” It is essential then that we acquire the virtue of purity in order to ultimately see God. Purity of heart is a steadfast spirit constantly gazing upon God and not deviating either to the right or the left but adhering unwaveringly to the whole object of our earthly life which is God himself.

Matt 6:6-7, “but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for, they think they will be heard for their many words.” God himself is asking us to go to a private and quiet place and pray in silence not with babbling in many words. It is in that silence that we reach out to our Father God and he “who sees in secret will reward you”. For some chosen souls this will mean a deep revelation of the presence of God by means of infused contemplation. For most of us, it will result in a deeper and deeper love of God, a deeper inner peace and a new love of neighbor.

Mark 8:34, “If any man would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” In denying myself that means decreasing the size of my ego. It means embracing humility instead. As my ego shrinks, so my Lord increases in his truth within me and I journey closer and closer to God. Mark 10:15, “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter it”. The great virtue of a little child is his total trust in Jesus. His utter innocence opens the heart of God to him and his angel sees God the Father in heaven at all times. It therefore is vital for us to shed the barnacles of our adult sophistication, and become once again, a beautiful child of God, trusting him in all the moments of our lives whether these moments be pleasant or sad. As children, we accept the cross of the Lord and we do that more joyfully if we enter into silence and stillness and rest in the Lord. It is in acquired contemplation that we can become truly childlike expecting nothing and yet everything and can enter into the Cloud of Unknowing.

Luke 10:41-42, “But the Lord answered her ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion which shall not be taken away from her’”. In this lovely story, while Martha is rightfully anxious about preparing a meal for Jesus and concerned it would be well presented, Mary on the other hand was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his every word. Martha did well with her activity but Mary chose the better part. She was with Jesus in silence, in listening and taking in all he had to give her. In acquired contemplation, we do exactly what Mary did and so we develop a proper balance between the contemplative life and the life of action. Jesus did not say that Mary had chosen the ONLY part or that she should spend the rest of her life doing nothing. He did not advocate a useless quietism but to Jesus there was a time to contemplate and a time for action.

John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.” In contemplation we encounter the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth with a deeper recognition than ever before and we become a new creature in Christ.

Romans 5:5, “God’s love has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy spirit he has given us.” Romans 8:25, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.: So, patience is the key to our contemplation.

1 Cor. 2:16, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” So, we in possessing the mind of Jesus, have everything necessary to enter into contemplation of our Father God just as Jesus does without ceasing. We are privileged by our adoption into the family of God. 2 Cor. 4:17, “Meanwhile our eyes are fixed not on the things that are seen but on the things that are unseen for what is seen passes away; what is unseen is eternal”. It is in acquired contemplation that we come closer to the things that are unseen and therefore to reality. The real world is the unseen world, and it will eventually be our reality for ever and ever. 2 Cor. 5:15, “His purpose in dying for all was that men while still in life should cease to live for themselves and should live for him who for their sake died and was raised to life.” This reminds us that we need to abandon the useless activity of living only for ourselves but rather to live for the glory of God. This can only be achieved by emptying ourselves of our ego. Again, the Lord appeals to us for humility. 1 Peter 5:5, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Colossians 3:15, “Let Christ’s peace be arbiter in your hearts: to this peace you were called as members of a single body.” Acquired contemplation as previously averred, is guaranteed to allow Christ’s peace to fill your heart. It is the peace of Jesus and not the transient, unreliable peace that the world pretends to give.

Eph. 2:18, “For through him we both alike have access to the Father in the one Spirit.:” Again this brings us back to the ultimate reward of acquired contemplation which is a deep abiding appreciation of the Blessed Trinity i.e., through Jesus we reach God the Father in the One Spirit. The Trinity is everything and approaching him in the silence, in the stillness, without thoughts or images, fills us with an ever- deepening love of the God who is Three in One. James 5:9, “You, too, must be patient. Steady your hearts because the coming of the Lord is at hand.” So again, the key sentiment to contemplation is patience, not looking for great things to happen but waiting on the Lord.

So make a start. It is simple. Just sit comfortably, close your eyes, repeat your chosen prayer word faithfully from your heart and do this for 20 minutes. Accept each session for what it is. Make no judgments as to good or bad but rather be grateful to your benevolent Lord for his condescension. Then persevere, no matter how long it takes for it is a good and holy thing to wait on the Lord. Christian tradition has taught this prayer method since apostolic times and continues to teach it through a host of modern writers. And the practice is supported by numerous scripture passages. This chapter cannot refer to all such passages, but St. John of the Cross does so in his writings. Hopefully, the Scriptures quoted here will give a strong overview of the word of God regarding inner silence and rest.

Embark on this exciting journey and don’t look back. It is worth it for the Kingdom of God.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE METHOD

First of all, choose a prayer word. This is usually a short and appropriate word which speaks to your heart. Different personalities will choose a different word. It might be God or Jesus or Abba. Don John Main uses the word MARANATHA which is Aramaic for Come Lord Jesus and he has taught this prayer word to thousands of contemplatives. Personally, I am attracted to the word NADA which is the nothingness of St. John of the Cross. It speaks to my conviction that it is only in the vast nothingness that I can enter into the hallowed presence of God. I find God in the NADA and since God is infinite Spirit, any image of him I may entertain is by definition false and stands in the way of true contemplation. Therefore, we can only approach his majesty in the nothingness, in silence and without distracting thought.

Simply resting and repeating the prayer word throughout the entire session and emptying my mind of my pride filled ego, only then can I hope to place myself in God’s presence. I learn to simply be and by abandoning all preconceptions I humbly give God permission, as it were, to make himself known to me in whatever way he decides.

Choose a quiet place in your home in which to contemplate. Matt. 6:6, “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” In doing so we encounter God the Father who is in the secret of our nothingness and in the vast nothingness where God is to be found.

Inform your family that you are going to pray and that you will need quiet time for 20 minutes. The family will respect your request and in doing so you create an appropriate atmosphere in which to maximize your session of contemplation. Having chosen your prayer word, sit down in an upright chair with your spine straight but relaxed and not strained or rigid. Some people prefer to sit on the floor with their back to the wall, others will squat on a prayer stool with the spine held straight. These are all perfectly acceptable but as stated, there is no call for difficult and contorted positions such as the lotus. It sometimes helps beforehand to play a little quiet and soothing music such as Gregorian Chant in order to quiet the mind and prepare for relaxation. This is not essential but again it varies for different personalities. If you do this then switch off the music before you begin. Now, close your eyes gently and begin to say the prayer word inwardly.

Repeat it unceasingly and do not let it go. If for any reason you become aware that you have lost the prayer word, that is not a problem. Simply revert to your word and carry on. Pay absolutely no attention to any distractions. Just let them go and return to your prayer word. Do this peacefully and without irritation. Do not waste time analyzing how you feel or whether you are having thoughts or not. The prayer word will keep you on track. Distractions do occur so simply overlook them. You will then find that the busy thoughts which you have at the beginning of the session gradually decrease until you experience a moment or two or even longer in your alpha state, devoid of all thought. Then you are in the presence of God and you rest there in a deep sense of inner peace. But keep the prayer word going through it all. As you persevere, the time when you experience absence of thought will grow to embrace most of the session.

It is vital to ignore all thought intrusion and especially spiritually uplifting notions or visions or ecstasies. It is very tempting to entertain such happenings because they feel good, but they are illusions and are not coming from God. More often they are arising from your own wishful thinking and from your own disordered ego. They only carry you away from the point of the exercise which is to become free of all thought so as to enter into the void of God’s presence. Renounce them immediately. All of the great contemplatives in Church history, warn against these phenomena and some have even suggested that they can be deception of the devil who will try to distract you from your contemplation and fool you into thinking you are being favored by God.

Therefore: 1. Choose your prayer word. 2. Sit in an upright position. 3. Close the eyes gently. 4. Say and repeat your prayer word without ceasing. 5. Sit in stillness and silence for 20 minutes.

After what you consider to be the 20 minutes, open your eyes and check the time. If you still have some time left, then just close your eyes, go back to your prayer word and continue till you have completed the 20-minute period. If on opening your eyes you find you have exceeded the 20-minute period, simply stop and get on with your day. There is no harm done if you contemplate for more than the suggested 20 minutes. Whatever you do, (which ought to be nothing) do not try to engineer consolations or other manifestations. Ignore these and do not allow them to get in the way of reaching out for nothingness. It is only there that you will come to “know” God in a whole new way. You will be in the atmosphere of the God who created you out of love.

The question arises, do you love God for his consolations, or do you love God for his wondrous attributes of love, power, forgiveness and mercy? God wants your unconditional love, a love which wants him for his own sake. Contemplation extols God for who and what he is, not to satisfy any selfish demand for consolations. As a Christian, you can gain heaven by the fear of hell or you can rise higher and love God for his gifts and blessings, or you can scale the heights which is to love him only for what he is. In the latter case, all is for the glory of God and not for the glory of my ego. Acquired contemplation does exactly that. We must desire nothing and we do that by our silence, our stillness and our love but always with the prayer word. The prayer word becomes our anchor.

It is only natural that in your prayer posture, you may experience minor irritations such as an itch or a mild pain somewhere or there may be external irritations like a noise somewhere near you. Ignore them, give them no attention and they will subside. Just remain faithful to your prayer word. This gives you personal control over your body which must learn to simply “be” in the nothingness and silence. In other words, you aim for silence in your body as well as your mind and spirit. Silence is the key quality of your contemplation.

Some persons keep on changing their prayer word, hoping that the next one will produce better results than the previous one. This is an illusion and a waste of energy. Stick with the original prayer word of your choice. It is equally effective to all other prayer words. Be faithful to your word and it will be faithful to you.

If God forbid, an emergency arises during your session such as a fire, have no fear. You are in an alpha state and you will respond to that emergency much more effectively. Because of that, you will be pleasantly surprised by your presence of mind and your prompt reaction.

St. John made a marvelous observation when he said,

“Faith purifies the intellect Love purifies the will Hope purifies the memory.”

In other words, the great theological virtues are essential to our purification. It is in believing, loving and hoping that we acquire the heart of a child of God and can without dismay approach the throne of God, yes in fear and trembling, but also with all unquestioning trust in his Providential Condescension towards us. These virtues are all a gift from God and not acquired by our own efforts. Once given however, we have the obligation to pray for a deepening of their effectiveness in our souls. For example, we are all given the gift of faith at our baptism. But the gift must be nurtured and prayed for. Failure in this regard can result in the tragedy of loss of faith and so apostasy ensues. This is true of all of the virtues. So, we have a holy obligation to nurture our God given virtues and of course to acquire all those virtues for which we yet stand in need.

Naturally, there will be many times when you just don’t feel like going to your room to pray but do not be fooled by your fickle feelings. Jesus wants us to rise above our feelings and to exercise our will in giving glory to God. So, when you don’t feel like contemplating, that is definitely the time to go and pray. Acquired contemplation is a discipline and the 20-minute schedule should be energetically adhered to. As a famous priest once said, “Just do it.”

Many contemplatives like to regulate their prayer word with their breathing. For example, if we take the word NADA it would go like this: --NA (breathe in) DA (breathe out.) This is not essential but for many it can be very soothing. Just repeat the prayer word in whatever way is easiest for you. There is no hard and fast rule. Yes, centering prayer is a discipline, but it really only demands two simple things. It is essential to repeat the prayer word throughout the entire session and the session should be adhered to for 20 minutes. All other considerations are really personal preferences.

As stated before, never judge a particular session as good or bad. Each session is what it is, and the key is never to give up but rather to continue in faith if you can with your twice daily commitment. God is not reachable without this active commitment. It takes personal effort and perseverance, and each session is its own reward and imperceptibly propels one into the presence of God.

The rewards are ultimately great. The first and universal benefit is the inner peace which follows each session, and this sense of peace persists into your day. The result is noticeable relief to a varying degree of your tendency to anxiety. Many contemplatives report that they have suffered less from tension and anxiety since they committed themselves to this prayer form. This lovely sense of an abiding peace has a spin off into one’s ability to be patient. And so, one soon finds that one can be more patient with the minor day to day irritations offered by the members of one’s family and fellow workers. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god.” (Matt. 5:9).

Some years ago I started acquired contemplation twice daily but after a while I got lazy and discontinued the practice. One morning, my five-year-old daughter climbed up onto my lap and looking into my eyes she said, “You are not contemplating anymore are you daddy?” I was taken aback, and I said, “Why do you say that honey?” She replied, “Because you are cranky”. That little perceptive five-year-old made me realize that my centering prayer had been relieving my background anxiety and that I needed to begin all over again.

In addition to an enduring inner peace, there is the reward described by Don John Main that we experience a new vision which he said was, “STARTLING.” This is the refreshing ability to discern your relationship with God in a totally new way and to come to a refreshing knowledge of God’s great love for you. You will then live your day with a quiet inner excitement, confident that you are loved. It is a completely new state of being which spills over into the rest of your prayer life. Your rosary prayer becomes deeper and more meaningful. You find you can focus more reliably on the mysteries of the life of Jesus. You become more attentive at Mass and more personally and joyfully able to offer Jesus body, blood, soul and divinity to his Father in heaven. Indeed, all of your meditations in prayer are heightened.

A very important consideration is with regard to habitual sin, particularly mortal sin. You will find you are less and less attracted to this sin and in fact it becomes something that you come to abhor. In other words, with acquired contemplation, you grow little by little in holiness and more and more free from mortal sin. Is this not worth the effort to persevere?

With this growth in holiness, there will be an ever-increasing desire for more holiness from within, which the Lord will satisfy, “pressed down and flowing over.” So centering prayer becomes a prescription for growth in a holy way of life transporting one from a life of doing the minimum for salvation, to a higher level of commitment to Jesus so that one finally admits to a desire to become a saint. Indeed, this is the proper end point of our earthly lives and greatly to be desired and it is in fact why we were created.

Another aspect of centering prayer which most persons experience fairly early on is a new sense of joy. There is a joy in the knowledge that you are in God’s presence and it is this joy which leads you to eagerly look forward to the next encounter with God. It is not the joy that the world offers. It is not the joy of earthly pleasures. It is the joy that only God offers to you and this endures and is beyond price. It is the joy which can come from the gift of reaching out to God the Father in trust and humility. This is a profound insight into God and into ourselves leading to an inner excitement about being truly sons and daughters of the Almighty. It takes the form of an abiding background of joy in your heart which from time to time bursts out into moments of sheer delight.

The cloud of unknowing puts it charmingly, “When grace draws people to contemplation, it seems to transfigure them even physically so that though they may be ill-favored by nature, they now appear changed and lovely to behold.” In other words, the benefits of centering prayer apply to our minds (inner joy and freedom from anxiety), and a noticeable change in our affect, (which is to say a more holy aspect). our spirits (ever increasing closeness to God) and our bodies (decreased blood pressure in the alpha state of rest.

As we progress in centering prayer, we become more and more happy just to be. And in merely being, we refuse to manipulate God or engineer the response from him which our ego desires. Instead, we develop a deeper awareness that we are children of God, adopted into his family by the self-sacrifice of Jesus. The end result is a total trust in God and in what he may or may not do for you, accepting his holy will and simply resting in the vastness of his presence both in you and all around you. You become immersed in the God who is everywhere and who rewards you with that new clarity of vision which Don John Main describes.

There is yet a very important effect of your commitment to contemplation and it is that you don’t simply expand your personal holiness, you become in fact a true lover, first of all of God, then a deep abiding holy love of self as God intended for you to do, and thirdly a new capacity for love of your neighbor. Other persons become increasingly objects of your love and this love embraces all both high and low. You now see with clarity of vision the Jesus within them all. Even with troublesome individuals, you can see the broken Jesus in them and have deep sense of compassion for them. This compels you to action in your community, to perform works of kindness and self-sacrifice, to reach out with your time to the less fortunate, no matter how disturbing they may be. In contemplation, you become more fully “Christianized”. You find your thoughts, words and actions becoming more and more imbued by love. You die to self and this holy dying eventually accrues from the great prayer of silence and self-forgetting.

So, it is still a very simple exercise.

1. Choose your prayer word and make friends of it. 2. Sit in an upright position. 3. Close your eyes gently. 4. Say and repeat the prayer word and say it throughout the entire session. 5. sit in the NADA for 20 minutes.

It is a good and holy thing when the session is over, to say a short prayer of thanksgiving to God for his condescension.

It is indeed a most exciting journey.

CHAPTER FIVE

EXPECTATIONS

In the parable of the unjust judge, Jesus tells us of the woman who persistently kept on knocking on the judge’s door over and over again until he had no option but to get up and give her the justice she was entitled to. If he was ever to get any peace, he had to respond to her pleas. So yes, it may take months or even years of contemplation, knocking on God’s door but in the end, it will be answered just as Jesus promised.

The proper disposition for an acquired contemplative, is not to expect anything. Expectation of favors from God is a form of presumption but god cannot be pressured or put to the test or manipulated. It is far better to surrender one’s expectations to the benevolent condescension of God who will at the right day and hour reward you in whatever way he sees fit. So, it is a basic requirement for one to trust in the Lord even in his silence. He knows what is best and we, as mere creatures must accept our total dependence on him who created us out of nothing at all. In that dependence we learn to be patient and to wait joyfully on the Lord, eager to accept his will whether that seems to be nothing or everything. Leave it to yourself to contemplate. Leave it to God to respond to your efforts.

Truly, with certain highly blessed souls, they enter into a “Knowing” of God so profound that they cannot express it in words. It is beyond language. It is a union with God such as was experienced by St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Pio of Pietrelcina and St. Faustina Kowalska. All the contemplative can report is that he now has a deep certainty of who God is and that this informs him in all aspects of his life. Such a blessed soul has been touched by God, knows he has been so touched, can ponder these things in his heart yet has no capacity to express it to others. He has been entrusted with the secrets of the King. All he can do is live out his new aliveness and become a living example of humility and purity before men. In such a state, he joyfully embraces the cross for the sake of the Kingdom. He now holds nothing back.

So, do I love God for who and what he is or only for his consolations? Pure love of God loves him unselfishly. God is the holy one, the holy mighty one, the holy immortal one. He is therefore unsurpassable. He is love, power, majesty, beauty, forgiveness and mercy. Only he can fulfill the deepest yearnings of the human heart but sadly the majority of humanity does not know that, and likely does not wish to know that.

In promoting acquired contemplation, it is nevertheless important not to abandon meditative prayer forms such as the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, etc. One such beautiful way of meditative prayer is to offer God latria which is the adoration due to God and God alone.

No one else is entitled to latria. We can do this by means of a perfect holy hour, which I created for this intention. This is a time of meditation and not contemplation and it is appropriate to discern that latria has six letters, each representing one aspect of perfect worship. These are as follows: -

L - Love (extol God’s love for himself. The love of Jesus for his mother and the love of the Trinity for us and the love we need to have for God).

A - Adoration (Praise God for his attributes).

T - Thanksgiving (for his countless blessings and for Jesus coming to live with us and die for us).

R - Reparation (to make up for what is lacking. To give glory to Jesus, to unite our sufferings and mortification and penances to the cross of Jesus).

I - Intercession (on behalf of the Church and all other persons. On behalf of sinners and of those who have abandoned the Church. On behalf of priests, bishops and the pope. The holy souls in Purgatory).

A - Ask. (For personal favors, preferably for our needs and not our wants).

If I spend 10 minutes on each of these aspects, I will be performing a beautiful holy hour giving God the latria which is his right and due. Add to that my two daily sessions of centering prayer and I will be heading towards a deeper and more sanctifying prayer life. In other words, I do well to combine contemplation and meditation in my daily prayer life which then becomes complete.

Dr. Herbert Benson describes the state of mind of someone who has entered the alpha state. He claims that immediately following the session, one is in a condition which he calls “maximum mind.” In other words, one is more profoundly alert and intellectually more capable than in our normal daily condition. If that is so, then it would make sense for someone after contemplation, to embark on the latria holy hour for he can then be able to concentrate more effectively on this lovely prayer, doing so with his “maximum mind.”

Having said all of that, nevertheless there are many beneficial and rewarding developments which can arise from one’s centering prayer. As previously stated, one can reasonably expect a new sense of inner peace. This is not the transient, fleeting peace which slips away in a trice and which the pleasures of the world pretend to give. It is a deeper and lasting peace as only Jesus can give. He described it as the peace “which surpasses all understanding.” If this were the only benefit of contemplation, it would certainly make the practice well worthwhile.

With that desirable peace comes a relief of the tendency to useless anxiety and a noticeable decrease in worry. Worry is a failure to trust in the benign providence of god and it increases anxiety and irritability and promotes nervous fatigue. Acquired contemplation, on the other hand, gradually diminishes useless worry thereby decreasing anxiety so that one becomes inwardly serene. In decreasing anxiety, one also finds one has a greater control of anger. It is surely a great gift from God to discover a new freedom from the mortal sin of anger and rage.

In addition, one can expect to grow in humility which is the clear knowledge of what we are in comparison to the infinite, divine personhood of God. But be careful here. A humble person has no idea that he is humble but on the contrary is convinced otherwise. So, I quote here a 4 liner I wrote some years ago: -

If you think you have humility, you don’t. If you think you don’t have humility, you might. If you think you have pride, you do If you think you don’t have pride, you definitely do.

Humility therefore becomes a wonderful, and to be expected, consequence of acquired contemplation. It embraces the following injunctions: -

1. I never speak a word in praise of myself. 2. I take no pleasure in being praised or spoken well of but humble myself seeing that I am so far removed from what I am thought to be or should be. 3. I rejoice on hearing others spoken well of. 4. I do nothing to attract the esteem of men, but do all for the glory of God alone. 5. I never excuse my faults. 6. I drive away all thoughts of pride or conceit. 7. I prefer everyone above myself and treat everyone as though they are my superiors. 8. I welcome all opportunities of humbling myself and I do this in 3 steps: a) I accept my crosses promptly and readily. b) I bear my crosses with patience. c) I embrace my crosses in love and with joy. 9. I perform interior and exterior acts of humility daily, the better to resemble my Lord Jesus. If we conform ourselves to these precepts, we will surely grow in holiness and is it not for holiness that God created us? Ps. 93:5, “Holiness is fitting for thy house”. Luke 14:11, “He that humbles himself shall be exalted”.

Another gradual but beautiful benefit of centering prayer is that one begins to notice a decrease in habitual sin so much so that it can become eliminated. It is due to our inevitable growth towards God with the result that a previously powerful temptation to sin, becomes less and less of a preoccupation in our minds and so less and less demanding of our attention. In loving God more, it becomes easier to command Satan to “get behind me” and to go back to Hell where he belongs. Therefore, acquired contemplation promotes true freedom, the freedom to choose God and the freedom to refuse to betray him with deliberate serious sin.

So, if you fall again and find yourself tainted once more, do not give in to despair, or wallow in useless guilt. The time for that is over. Instead, get to the sacrament of Reconciliation and begin again.

Fr. Tom Zoeller a priest of Madonna House, Combermere, Ontario reports on his experience with years of centering prayer. For his prayer word, he uses “Abba, Jesu, Ruah” which is clearly an acknowledgment of the Holy Trinity. He finds himself increasingly drawn into God. He says he has a new and refreshing awareness of God as Trinity and he tries to draw ever closer to this triune nature of the divine. Jesus and the Holy Spirit draw him to Abba his Father God. He finds his prayer life is greatly enriched by his centering prayer.

In My Daily Bread by Fr. Anthony Paone, S.J. from the confraternity of the Precious Blood we read, “Silence is truly a virtue when practiced for God. In developing a love for silence, I will learn a deeper wisdom, a broader outlook on everyday life, and a brighter vision of God’s nearness and love.”

Here again we are reminded of Don John Main and this new vision of the God who is always near to us in all of our daily activities no matter how trivial they may seem to us. No matter how small an action may be, the truth is that God deeply desires to be included in it. So, invite God into every detail of your day and sanctify it hand in hand with God.

St. Augustine wrote, “Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.” As a result, we can come to know that we share in the very nature of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and that we are called deeper and deeper into the inner life of God’s personal family which is the Trinity. While this is the ultimate purpose of our silence, nevertheless our initial experience is of the nothingness wherein God resides outside of time and space and so we find our ego contracting instead of growing. That is to say our decreasing ego is the energy of humility. God the father becomes more and more of a father to us.

The gospel of Jesus proclaims him as a person, not a symbol and he calls us in turn to full personhood and to a mature standing with him as the Second Person of the Trinity. Not only that but we, as Christians must allow ourselves to receive God’s great love, even though we are mere creatures and undeserving of such a love. Hence, the Holy Spirit was dispatched by Jesus from heaven to enter our little human hearts to teach us and to console us and to advocate for us. And so, we learn the true meaning of love and to carry it with us into the great nothingness of God. How beautiful it is to enter into the silence and in the stillness to allow the Holy Spirit to transport us into the Cloud of Unknowing. The Spirit in our heart never ceases to cry out for us, “Abba, Father” and to pray in a language we cannot understand. This he does without ceasing. So, it pays tremendous dividends to love the silence and allow the Spirit of the Living God to work in our souls.

St. Paul says in Romans 5:4-5, “This proof is the ground of hope. Such a hope is no mockery because God’s love has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy Spirit he has given us.” This is God’s promise to all mankind if only we choose to follow the gospel of the Lord.

Centering prayer then is the ultimate source of inner peace, freedom from anxiety and worry, love of God, love of self and love of our neighbor. It fosters a renewed vision of self and God and a burgeoning awareness of ourselves as children of God.

Therefore, the potential benefits are many.

1. Inner peace. 2. Inner joy. 3. New vision of who God is. 4. Decrease in sin. 5. Learn to love God for himself alone. 6. Increased love of self and neighbor. 7. Deeper appreciation of the Trinity. 8. Growth in humility. Such precious benefits are awaiting those who embark on the journey of acquired contemplation and who persevere without fear into the holy presence of our God.

CHAPTER SIX

THE LAST WORD

Acquired Contemplation is the last word. It is the crown of our prayer life. It is the surrender of our intellect, out feelings and our hyperactive mind to the silence of God. It strips us of every useless distraction and gives the lie to our human wisdom which is so far removed from the wisdom of God. It is offered to everyone and all it requires is our humility and the investment of two twenty-minute sessions per day.

In renouncing our own ideas, thoughts and images we thereby choose to embrace the nothingness where to our amazement we discover infinity. In coming to a love of solitude and silence this forms the spirit of recollection in our soul which is necessary for a fulfilling interior life.

God does not pressure us into it, nor does he insist on us following a formula or developing a technique. He is simply eternally present and willing to wait on us reaching out to him in the silence which is alive and the very way which denies the old prejudices and erroneous images upon which we have relied all of our lives up to now. In discarding these redundant notions, we move quietly and without fanfare, approaching our Creator God. It is humbling to know that the Creator of the universe is simply there, waiting.

During the session of contemplation, we become enveloped into the darkness of God, that darkness which is filled with light. God is light, the light of love and we could never withstand its brightness. So, we humbly enter the darkness in order to enjoy as much of God’s light as we can endure. It is pure joy.

Ps. 35:10, “In thy light we shall see light.”

Ps. 138:11, “Perhaps darkness will cover me and the light about me be night. Even the darkness is not dark to Thee, the night is as bright as day for darkness is as light with Thee.”

God is not going away. He will never abandon us. He simply invites us into him. Acquired contemplation is a holy response on our part to God’s invitation. As Catherine Doherty once said, “Fold the wings of your intellect” and let God do the rest and we will enjoy his rest, the rest of God.

As St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

God waits on us and in acquired contemplation, we wait on God. This mutual waiting is the key to life- giving prayer.

Acquired contemplation is best described as a quest. It is a quest for holiness. That is to say it is an effective way to become a saint. It achieves this because we approach divine love without prejudice or preconceived notions. We simply surrender to his benevolent will.

Romans 8:28, “All things work towards good for those who love God.” So, I relinquish my self centered will to you, my God. I forsake my maverick ego and enter into the holy nothingness (and everythingness) of my God. I was surely created to become a saint.

Therefore, heavenly Father, hodie accepto – today, I accept. I surrender myself now to your holy will for me from this day forward.

In the stillness I seek you In the silence I find you In the quiet I listen For the music of God.